State entities face board failure crisis

SOUTH Africa’s public institutions are haemorrhaging credibility as ministers wield the dissolution axe with alarming frequency.

- I PIKOLOMZI QABA

From Transport Minister Barbara Creecy’s dissolution of the Road Accident Fund board amid “governance and operational issues” to Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande’s dramatic dismantling of the NSFAS board over chronic payment failures, the pattern is unmistakable: our state-owned entities are failing spectacularly.

The sheer volume of board dissolutions reads like a governance disaster checklist. Basketball SA faced dissolution calls after nearly bungling the U18 African Championships, with R5 million in liabilities against just R36 000 in the bank.

Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie dissolved the boxing board, creating what observers called “a vacuum’ in the sport. The list extends to SA Tourism, multiple Gauteng provincial boards, and the perpetually troubled PRASA.

This is not accountability; it is crisis management masquerading as decisive action. When dissolution becomes the default response to institutional failure, it signals a fundamental breakdown in governance oversight. Nzimande’s dissolution of the NSFAS board epitomises the deeper malaise.

The minister cited the board's inability to implement basic recommendations, failure to submit correct annual reports, and, most damningly, consistent inability to pay student allowances on time.