As the IFP called for an urgent parliamentary debate on the state-owned enterprises crisis, a swathe of departmental annual and Auditor-General reports detailing losses, failed targets and governance lapses came up for scrutiny at Parliament on Wednesday.

The Transnet calamity was public even before the recent departure of CEO Portia Derby, CFO Nonkululeko Dlamini and Transnet Freight Rail boss Siza Mzimela. But it was again underscored in Wednesday's Auditor-General's report to MPs on the public enterprises committee.

"Overall, the entity has not achieved the planned service delivery objectives and this had a direct impact on the entity's mandate of lowering the cost of doing business in South Africa through providing cost-effective and efficient logistical solutions," the AG's presentation for the 2022/23 financial year said.

A "not achieved" status was marked alongside targets, from the export of coal and manganese, to ships' turnaround times and the movement of containers. Also not achieved were public-private partnerships at the Ngqura and Durban ports and elsewhere.

In the freight rail sector, a similar picture emerged: of the planned 240 available locomotives, only 91 were available, and while more money was spent to increase the security of infrastructure, not all breaches were recorded, as required.

A red flag was raised over Transnet's upcoming R8.5-billion debt repayment tranches -- R7-billion in November 2023, R580-million in February 2024 and R940-million in March that year, according to the AG document for Parliament's Budget oversight process,...