Mouton's R7.2bn panacea could

Curro's shift from for-profit to public benefit could be the model the country didn't know it needed, hitting the sweet spot where private sector nous meets public sector need and everyone wins. By Lindsey Schutters

- By Lindsey Schutters

When Jan Mouton, son of Jannie Mouton and spokesperson for the family foundation, explained to Daily Maverick why they were offering R7.2-billion for Curro Holdings, he kept insisting on one word: donation. Not “buyout”, not “takeover”, not “acquisition”.

"This is the biggest donation in the history of South Africa," Mouton said, his voice catching somewhere between corporate announcement and missionary evangelism.

"The shares purchased by the foundation will be a donation to the public of South Africa." It’s a curious turn of phrase for what, on paper, looks like a classic scheme arrangement: a R13-per-share offer, representing a 60% premium on Curro's stock, to buy out minority shareholders and delist the company from the JSE.

But Mouton's choice of words matters. If the transaction passes shareholder and court muster, Curro will cease to be a profit-making company any and instead become a nonprofit company (NPC) and public benefit organisation (PBO).

That's the point he is making with his phrasing: it looks like a buyout, is priced like a buyout, but is, in fact, a structural shift in how education might be funded, run and expanded in South Africa.

"You can even build schools in areas where a for-profit business would never build a school because it won't ever make financial sense,” he explained.

"And in essence you run it for the benefit of the South African public."

That sentence is worth lingering on. South Africa's public education system is buckling under demand, is under-resourced, and is haemorrhaging credibility.