BL Premium reports that the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), which oversees seven key state-owned enterprises (SOEs), will cease to exist after next year’s elections, deputy public enterprises minister Obed Bapela told MPs on Wednesday.

He said this was in line with an announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa, which the department was honouring. Replying to questions in parliament in March, Ramaphosa said the position of public enterprises minister and the department would cease to exist once a new holding company for strategic SOEs had been created. Bapela advised that engagements were being held with officials on the issue and on what would happen to them. They could be transferred to other departments or to the envisaged holding company. He said: “It is a process that is still ongoing. When the president announces a cabinet after the elections, there will not be any ministry [of this department]. The political decision has been taken, and the political decision will be fulfilled and implemented.” Acting director-general Nadia Valley said the department would await the formal promulgation of the dissolution of the department and then formally kick-start the process. The SOEs overseen by the department include Eskom, Denel and Transnet.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)

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