The government may be forced to "bite the bullet" and sell its stakes in profitable entities such as Telkom, to prop up other loss-making but strategic state-owned companies, said former Treasury director-general Lungisa Fuzile. Fuzile, speaking to Business Times before he stepped down last Monday after six years in the post, said: "It always makes sense for a government like ours, running a mixed economy like ours, to be open to the idea that you'd look at your portfolio of assets right across the length and breadth of the economy." The state owns companies in energy, transport, telecommunications and water — responsible for infrastructure the economy relies on. But the financial position of several state-owned companies such as Eskom, SAA, PetroSA and Denel has crumbled, weakened by poor governance and procurement practices.Eskom, Transnet and the South African National Roads Agency account for 42% of the public-sector capital formation, according to the Treasury. State-owned comp...
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