GARETH VAN ONSELEN: SOE bonuses: Money for jam
Generous bonuses have been lavished on many managers in recent years, often when huge losses were reported by the state-owned enterprises they worked for
SA is a land of Orwellian opposites. And, as the economic and political crisis that has the country in its grip intensifies, so the absurdities become more profound. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been badly run for years. And those bonuses historically awarded to the relevant managers and directors have likewise always been contentious. But this last year the contradiction, surely, has been manifested at its most profound. It is not just the depth of the mismanagement — the staggering losses suffered by the likes of PetroSA and the SABC — but the breadth of the accompanying corruption — at Eskom in particular — that have come together against a backdrop of fundamental economic decay. The growth rate bottoms out and credit rating agencies wield their credibility axes, service delivery collapses and the rand depreciates. But we are told that despite all this there exists a bubble of ostensible excellence at these SOEs. Inside it, the best and brightest, hard at work, keep delive...
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