Cape Town – Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has reportedly said that his department possesses the capacity to enhance performance and address challenges effectively.
Gordhan’s remarks came after the ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula expressed the party’s expectation for efficient governance from its members deployed in the government.
Mbalula threatened to move Gordhan from his position if he did not improve Transnet’s performance and urgently shift the transportation of freight from road to rail.
“Now I will say to Pravin Gordhan; I was with him there. I was also a minister of transport: ‘Comrade Pravin, move faster, or otherwise, we will move you.’
“We need all the trucks off the road because people are dying because of these trucks. Trucks must get off the road, and goods be transported by rail. Let’s not act like we are not in government. We are in charge,” Mbalula said
during the ANC Women’s League conference over the weekend.
NowInSA News: Listen As Fikile Mbalula Threatens to remove Pravin Gordhan if the Railway Logistical policy is not sped up
• We will remove you#ANCWL13 #ANCWLNationalConference #ANCWL https://t.co/BLWw4ddH5W pic.twitter.com/0pr4oKnVZw
— NOWinSA (@NowInSA) July 22, 2023
In response, Gordhan defended his efforts to address Transnet’s operational issues and improve its performance.
He said that the process of repairing a broken organisation, where money was misused, takes time, effort, and courage to remove the wrong people and implement positive changes. Gordhan also expressed confidence in the new Transnet board, led by Andile Sangqu, a former top executive at Anglo American SA, and others, to address the company’s challenges.
“When you are trying to patch together a broken organisation where most of the money was spend illicitly… it takes time, it takes effort, and it takes a lot of courage to move out the wrong people from Transnet, but its now on the right footing… We have the political will to resolve challenges.
“With the new board, we will instil a new sense of emergency and those who want to stand in the way of change and increase transparency about the problems that we have will have to be dealt with in a very emphatic kind of way,” Gordhan said while speaking on 702.
Meanwhile, the ANC clarified Mbalula’s comments, saying that they were not meant as a call for Gordhan’s removal but rather a call for swift policy interventions to address the country’s rail and freight logistics challenges.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said that the government had an obligation to address these challenges and improve the lives of South Africans through collaborative efforts.
“The minister of public enterprises will undoubtedly not provide answers [alone] facing our rail transport system. The fact that a clarion call is sounded on the minister to fast-track policy interventions to address our rail and freight logistics does not amount to a call for his removal,” the ANC said in a statement issued by spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri.
“We have an obligation to provide adequate responses to all of these challenges. Government, working together with all South Africans, must find amicable programmes to extend our people’s frontiers of a better life.”
STATEMENT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF MINISTER PRAVIN GORDHAN pic.twitter.com/qd1m25kc4v
— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Cde Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) July 22, 2023
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
