It is good that public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan is on the prowl for accountants to work at the highest levels of Transnet, but it’s worrying that it takes an investor the size of Futuregrowth Asset Management to complain about it first.
Futuregrowth recently bemoaned the dearth of accountants not only on the board of Transnet, but also on its audit committee, which is staffed with a mix of engineers and finance experts. “As investors, we would prefer more representation of suitably qualified accountants on the board, given the complexity and size of Transnet,” the asset manager said.
It is right. There is a strong sense that state capture is not dead. This was expressed neatly by Business Leadership SA CEO Busi Mavuso recently. She alleged that decision-making power at state-owned enterprises (SOEs) does not lie with the boards, because decisions are “probably made somewhere between Luthuli house [ANC headquarters] and [government] departments”. This perception is likely to be the reason it is so hard to find professionals to serve on SOE boards.
If Mavuso is right, properly constituted boards with the relevant accounting skills, which in turn appoint properly skilled audit committees, are a foil for the madness.
At Transnet, the board has appointed an experienced CA, Zolisa Zwakala, to assist it in its work. However, Futuregrowth is right that this is not good enough. Investors will be asked to come up with the vast capital that is required to fix SA’s ailing logistics infrastructure. They have a duty to their clients and the country to be sure that their investments are safe. We wish the minister happy hunting.
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