SOC mandates, outcomes and the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper:

1. Reviews the socio-economic mandates of the major state-owned companies (SOCs) as reflected in official documents, sometimes only implicitly;
2. Provides case studies of four leading SOCs in terms of their socio-economic and financial mandates over the past decade or so; and
3. The actual and potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the four case studies.

The study reviews the SOC and development finance institute landscape in terms of the functions and size of the various entities. It then looks in more detail at Eskom, SANRAL, Transnet and Denel.

It concludes with a discussion of some common shortcomings identified in the analysis of the four SOCs.