Minister of trade, industry & competition Parks Tau is to overhaul the boards of 11 of 18 entities in the department’s portfolio, saying the move is a bid to provide stability, eliminate silos, duplication and inefficiencies.
The overhaul is despite Tau telling MK MP Des van Rooyen in a written parliamentary response in August that the entities under the department had no board positions that remained vacant for extended periods and that only the National Gambling Board (NGB) was under administration.
The department said it would also review its organisational structure, which includes appointing a permanent director-general.
The department has not had a permanent director-general 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.
Malebo Mabitje-Thompson is the department’s acting director-general.
Others senior managers working in an acting capacity are Anneline Chetty, who is acting as deputy director-general responsible for sectors; Susan Mangole, who acts as deputy director-general responsible for incentives; Yunus Hoosen, acting as the deputy director-general of investment and spatial industrial development; and Tanya van Meelis, acting deputy director-general of transformation and competition.
The department is at the heart of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government of national unity plan to drive industrial policy that focuses on the competitiveness of the economy and that incentivises businesses to expand our exports.
The entities under consideration for overhaul include the Competition Commission, Export Credit Insurance Corporation, Industrial Development Corporation National Empowerment Fund, National Gambling Board, National Lotteries Commission, National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications, SA National Accreditation System, SA Bureau of Standards, SA Council for Space Affairs and the Special Economic Zones Advisory Board.
The board positions are likely to be filled by December, according to deputy minister Zuko Godlimpi.
“For the department of trade, industry & competition to fully and effectively discharge its mandate, it is essential to stabilise governance within our department and its listed entities. This will help the department function optimally in executing the mandate of transformation, industrialisation underpinned by localisation, and an export-led growth strategy,” the department said in a statement.
With Michelle Gumede
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