So much for the iron lady. The FM had high hopes for Portia Derby when she was named Transnet CEO in February 2020.
But her tenure has been shambolic, arrogant and unnecessarily confrontational, compounded by a truly woeful managerial appointment in Transnet Freight Rail head Siza Mzimela.
How is it that Mzimela, who once led those paragons of excellence, SAA and SA Express, was chosen for Transnet’s most critical department, apart from ports? Incredibly, being “relatively new and not familiar with the rail sector”, as per public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan in a radio interview this week, wasn’t enough to disqualify her from the position.
Yet it is Gordhan, who has consistently blurred the boardroom lines, who deserves most of the censure for the managerial chaos that has unfolded at our most critical state-owned enterprises, Eskom and Transnet.
Neither now has a permanent CEO, and neither has a board full of toughened experts in their respective sectors. Gordhan needs to take a long, hard look at the portfolio of destruction under his watch.
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