Transnet: Chairman Mkwanazi keeps his job

[Steve Appleton]

From Business Day, 23 June 2011. http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/C ... ?id=146657

Transnet chairman keeps his job
Cabinet has decided not to replace Transnet chairman Mafika Mkwanazi as previously speculated
LINDA ENSOR
Published: 2011/06/23 11:49:46 AM

Cabinet has decided not to replace Transnet chairman Mafika Mkwanazi as speculated, this was confirmed by government spokesman Jimmy Manyi during a post cabinet media briefing today.

Mkwanazi will continue in his post as well as being a member of the Eskom board... an appointment that took place earlier this month in what was seen as a prelude to his removal from his post of Transnet chairman. The sudden changes to the leadership of state owned enterprises by Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba earlier this month caused concern in business and trade unions because it created instability and lacked consultation.

Cabinet also appointed Yasmin Forbes and Nisi Choubey to the board of Transnet for a three-year term.

Earlier this month Business Day reported that the chairmen of three of SA's most powerful state-owned companies — Transnet, Eskom and Denel — are to be removed soon in a dramatic show of force by Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba, as the government tries to tighten its grip on the "commanding heights" of the economy.

While Mr Gigaba, still relatively new in his position, is not seeking actively to control the state-owned enterprises, he wants much tighter shareholder oversight as the government tries to develop an economic model that fulfils its political promises to create millions of new jobs.

The boardroom changes follow hard on the heels of an effort by Mr Gigaba to put meat on the bones of a new approach to the way in which the state-owned enterprises in his charge behave.

With I-NET BRIDGE