The lack of urgency by trade, industry & competition minister Ebrahim Patel to appoint a permanent director-general (DG) in the department is hindering service delivery and is bordering on poor corporate governance, says Black Business Council (BBC) CEO Kganki Matabane.
The government is often accused of moving slowly and poorly implementing trade policy. The BBC says not having permanent leadership in the department, particularly a DG, is part of the problem.
The department of trade, industry & competition (DTIC) has not had a permanent DG for more than two years after Lionel October stood down in April 2021. October, who joined the department in 2001, left to take up a position as head of the new Special Economic Zones (SEZs) unit at the Industrial Development Corporation.
The department is crucial for implementing the country’s economic recovery plans and helps assist companies recovering from the effect of Covid-19 and deals with other programmes such as localisation, industrialisation and broad-based BEE which are supposed to assist in job creation.
“These will never happen if the department is run by acting people, including state-owned companies reporting to the DTIC,” Matabane said.
“This unfortunate situation has rendered this important department that drives trade matters dysfunctional, unstable, in disarray and in a state of limbo,” he said, adding that it was “an indictment on minister Patel” and that the trend is rife across the department.
Malebo Mabitje-Thompson has since been working as acting DG of the department whose agencies are grappling with reviving the country’s manufacturing output and a barrage of competition and import and export issues, including anti-dumping tariffs.
Speaking to Business Day on Monday, Matabane said the challenge with an acting person was that they have limited powers and little confidence to take serious and unpopular decisions. This, he said, results in the department being "paralysed”.
According to the department’s latest organogram, Mabitje-Thompson is one of five acting executives out of the 14 top officials running the ministry.
Others are the acting deputy director-general responsible for sectors, Anneline Chetty; Susan Mangole, who acts as deputy DG responsible for incentives; Yunus Hoosen, who acts as the deputy DG of investment and spatial industrial development; and Tanya van Meelis, the acting deputy deputy DG of transformation and competition.
Matabane highlighted that in addition to an acting DG, most of the posts reporting to the DG were also occupied by people acting in those positions. This meant that important policy decisions and implementation “won’t happen”.
“To give a practical example, business people get frustrated because this month they meet a new acting person and raise an issue with him/her and three months later when they follow up, it is a new person acting and they have to start the process from scratch,” Matabane told Business Day.
On Monday, the industry body which lobbies the government on policy-related matters, welcomed the recent appointment of Mashudu Tendani as CFO.
However, the BBC also said it would meet Patel and President Cyril Ramaphosa to raise the issue and to highlight that there are enough skilled people in SA to fill these positions.
“We don’t think there is a lack of skills for the positions in the department,” Matabane said. “Perhaps there is a lack of appreciation of the importance of the department in the economic landscape by the political head.”
Questions sent to the DTIC by Business Day were not answered by the time of publication.
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