WILLIAM GUMEDE: Malfunctioning SOEs urgently need citizen shareholder activists
It must become mandatory for SOEs to open their AGMs to citizens, consumers and civil society
29 August 2020 - 09:15
Citizens, consumers and civil society must play a more active role as shareholders of state-owned entities (SOEs) than is currently the case, just as activist shareholders in private companies do, to hold these entities to account.
Given that SOEs are taxpayer-funded companies, citizens should be seen as shareholders. When citizens, civil society and consumers hold SOEs accountable as shareholders, they are also exercising active citizenship. Citizen shareholder activism is the missing link in holding runaway SOEs accountable. Yet SA does not have a culture of citizen shareholder activism...
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