Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan says the boards of Eskom and other state-owned enterprises have to be strengthened technically and financially. In what a Business Day report describes as a dramatic day for the Minister, he told Parliament in his budget vote address that state capture had crippled state-owned enterprises. His address, however, was disrupted by EFF MPs, who labelled him a ‘constitutional delinquent’. He was able to continue with his speech after the rowdy MPs were forced to leave Parliament. In separate comments Gordhan told the media that the board of Eskom and other entities needed to be strengthened, ‘both at a technical role in relation to the particular business they are involved in, but from a corporate finance and audit point of view as well’. He said there were three vacancies on the Eskom board. He also announced that SAA board chair JB Magwaza had resigned, just two months after the state-owned airline’s CEO Vuyani Jarana quit. Gordhan said the utilities’ boards would be asked to review their business models and develop models appropriate to the conditions they faced. The boards would also have to develop financial sustainability plans to ensure that SOE’s becomes self-reliant. ‘In giving effect to its renewed efforts to turn around the SOEs, (the Public Enterprises Department) will over the next six to eight months work with the boards of the SOEs to develop new operating models for their businesses, and develop a financial sustainability plan,’ Gordhan said.