Tag: centralisation

South Africa's financial system holds an estimated R88 billion belonging to people who don't know they're owed money. Forgotten retirement fund payouts, dormant bank accounts, unpaid insurance proceeds, and unclaimed investment returns make up much of this money. In many cases, people have become untraceable after changing jobs, moving house, changing surnames, or passing away. Their beneficiaries were never told what they were owed.

The first notable initiative in government by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) – South Africa’s second oldest existing federalist institution – has been to centralise spaza shop regulations under the central government. The xenophobic dimension is less surprising.

Eskom cannot be trusted with load-limiting, as the same kind of centralisation is what caused the energy crisis in the first place. We will publish a research paper on privatisation later this year, that will set out how best to go about the privatisation of Eskom. This comes as the embattled state-owned enterprise seems to be fumbling from one bad idea to the next as it tries to stabilise power supply.