Africa-Press – South-Africa. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana says he will be happy no matter who wins the ANC presidential race because he has worked with both candidates, and both have solid economic policy approaches.
The ANC conference will take nominations for its top six positions today. So far, branches have nominated President Cyril Ramaphosa and former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize for president.
Speaking to businesspeople and diplomats at a breakfast event on the sidelines of the conference, Godongwana said this was the first conference in a long time where he felt completely relaxed. He said:
Godongwana said that a change of leadership would not have a material effect. For an ANC president to be fired was also no longer unusual, as only Nelson Mandela had escaped that fate.
“Those of you who know the President, know his (approach). Those who know Zweli Mkhize know that even during his days as ANC treasurer-general, he was very active in coordinating with businesses and so on. I am not going to discredit any candidate,” he said.
Godongwana, a candidate for the ANC’s national executive committee, told the audience that while the economy faced global headwinds, the ANC had also scored some own goals, particularly regarding Eskom.
“We dropped the ball. We focused on fixing Eskom rather than fixing the grid. We need to focus on both,” he said.
The government was doing three things to restore energy security. First, the Treasury would take on a portion of its debt to enable Eskom to borrow again. Secondly, it focused on improving the plant’s performance, and third, it encouraged new energy generation capacity, not necessarily at Eskom.
The state logistics sector was also in trouble, said Godongwana, and Transnet was on its way to becoming the next Eskom.
“We need to do something about that sector. Some of the problems are not of its own making. An optimal use of rail and port infrastructure would have earned R150bn more for the mining sector, and I would have an additional R27bn in revenue.”The conference continues until Tuesday.
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