READER LETTER | Political meddling, load shedding crippiling SOEs

We used to take pride in the major shipping lanes passing along the coastline, which connected stakeholders conveying the country’s exports by sea through commercial ports.

Now it’s in shambles. Load shedding is one thing and political meddling is another to the current logistics crisis. Likewise, Transnet railway infrastructure is dilapidated. A heavy traffic of goods in transit on a pell-mell rush to the ports wrecked the road network by direct consequence.

Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan blames it all on state capture. Met hinks Gordhan pulls the wool over our eyes. The crisis was staged to benefit bankrollers of the CR17 campaign.

Transnet, like Eskom, is primed for privatisation. It’s a fate that has befallen the SA Airways, whose strategic partner’s bill of health was kept under wraps. No wonder Gordhan has been disobliging to divulge the preferred partner’s value proposition and the general complexion of its finances.

Instead, Gordhan threw a new-found book on confidentiality at us to suggest that we cannot know anything vitally important about the whole deal. Yet, it was concluded away from scrutiny – it has virtually no paper trail, no transparency and no accountability. It’s even concealed to public representatives entrusted with an oversight responsibility.

Morgan Phaahla, Ekurhuleni