Programme Director
CEOs and Leaders of business present
GITOC CHAIR -Julius Segole
CEO of the CPSI, Sis Thuli Radebe
Representatives from other sectors present
Esteemed delegates from Namibia and the USA
Our partners and sponsors
People of KwaZulu-Natal
All protocol
Ladies and gentlemen
I would like to thank the government and the people of KwaZulu-Natal for hosting us at this picturesque setting along one of our country's more scenic coastlines. I could not be with you when the conference commenced yesterday due to other pressing Cabinet matters, but I have been informed that the proceedings went well and that following yesterday's session, there are many more in our midst who are embracing the notion of innovation as the vehicle to sustain our future.
I am truly honoured to be with you today and would like to urge you to stay on until the end of the conference as the presentations and discussions, which will follow are indeed stimulating, thought provoking and exciting.
This conference is taking place hardly a month after the all-important Cabinet Bosberaad-Xivijo-Assembly-Umhlangano held from 26 to 28 July 2011 was convened by the President of the republic. The Lekgotla was tasked with the responsibility of assessing progress our government has made in two critical areas, namely, job creation and service delivery.
The choice of these two issues out of all other priority areas of government was informed by the understanding that the President used the occasion of his State of the Nation Address earlier in the year, to declare 2011 as the year of job creation, while the focus on service delivery is informed by the issues raised by the people of South Africa in the months leading up to 18 May, Local Government elections
While Cabinet was pleased to note that our government has indeed done much to implement the commitments we made to the people in 2009, it acknowledged that we still have unfinished business on a range of outstanding issues in the period that lies ahead. We need to do more to create decent and sustainable jobs, to accelerate the delivery of services to the people including building houses, providing electricity and potable water, combating crime and corruption, improving our healthcare and our education systems.
Doing all the work that we have set ourselves to do as government will not be easy, given, in part, the complex nature of the challenges facing our people. But there is also the challenge of the current macro-economic outlook that is characterised by high levels of debt across the globe particularly in America and Europe.
As recently as last week, the Minister of Finance stated that on its current growth trajectory, South Africa might only succeed in creating four million jobs by 2025 - well short of our New Growth Path target of five million jobs by 2020. Importantly, he said and I quote "if we keep doing what we're doing, we will not make any significant inroads into unemployment." Close quote
This sentiment echoes those famous words of a German-born theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein, and emphasises what we have been saying to our public servants all along that we cannot continue with the "business as usual" mentality. The same holds true for all our priority areas. The hard facts we have to face are that if we keep on with "this tendency", we will not make any inroads into improving our education and health outcomes; we will not reduce crime; we will not overcome our housing challenges and we will not develop our rural areas. It is as simple as that!
But we all know this already. This is not new insight; yet there is still a need to remind ourselves of it every day. The very same message was reiterated in the recently launched E-Barometer Report, which highlighted the low ICTs adoption and use to deliver services in government, specifically the availability of transactional services online so that we can achieve connected governance or connected citizens.
Ladies and gentlemen
The question each one of us should pose to ourselves, and seek to answer is: "what extra-ordinary measures, what innovations can we introduce, to meet our citizens' needs, to change our citizens' lives in fundamental, but tangible ways?"What is the exit strategy route from the Business as usual "mentality"?
The fact is that we have not begun to leverage on the available infrastructure and innovations in the information communication technology (ICT) sector to deliver government services, and thus improve the lives of our citizens.
The message is clear. We know what we should be doing; we have invested in the best policies and in galvanising the required resources, but we have been conceptualising and debating issues of implementation for far too long. What is holding us back from being creative and innovative, from replicating our best practices? What are we waiting for?
In its January 2011 discussion document on policy implementation,the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) remarked and I quote:"The tendency of managers to concentrate on the pursuit of day-to-day bureaucratic routines to the exclusion of being proactive or attentive to performance is well recognised.
The USAID further said policy implementers and would-be implementers should build capacity to extend their focus beyond the boundaries of the immediate and cast their sight into the horizon. It said it was important for implementers to always find new ways of thinking if their actions are to yield desired results. I say, "let's get on with it."
When I engage with public servants, one of the questions that often arises is: "Minister, how much is the increase in our salaries going to be this year?" On the face of it, this is not an unreasonable question, as it is one of my responsibilities to ensure that public servants are appropriately remunerated.
Interestingly though, very few public servants can answer either one of two equally important questions - "In the context of important service delivery questions that our citizens are posing, how do you justify your salary at the end of the month?" and "on a cost-benefit scale, what form of reciprocity can our citizens expect following a salary increase paid to public servants?" maybe this question is relevant, maybe not, hence the focused debate''My Public Servant, My Future"
Programme Director
Allow me at this juncture to acknowledge the resolve and commitment shown by all the parties to this year's salary negotiations in the bargaining council in following a mutual gains approach the product of which has been the conclusion of a salary agreement to on compromises of that innocent Citizens that did not have to pay heavy prices like last year. Reflect for a moment, on these two questions and then see if we are able to join all the dots. Are our responses linked to just more conceptualising and strategising, or to practically addressing challenges; are we predisposed to exploring solutions in more "think tanks" or are we rather inclined to more "do machines".
We have come together for two days to engage and listen to how others innovatively "just got on with it!" It would be a waste of resources if we returned to our departments without a single practical lesson to take back with the view to implementing or replicating. We have seen others doing it - walking out of conferences and replicating what they have learnt. What would prevent us from following suit?
I am therefore not asking each of us here "what will you be planning, tomorrow?" I am asking you "what are the immediate steps that you will take tomorrow, 26 August 2011, to address our education and health outcomes, to reduce crime, to overcome our housing challenges, and to reach the indigent and vulnerable within our society, especially in our rural areas, with potable water and electricity, with IDs and with social grants?"
Let me be clear, I am not saying we should do things without proper planning and budgeting. What I am saying is that we have a tendency to plan for too long, and to conceptualise for too long. It is time to "just get on with it!"
In the previous Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) Public Sector Innovation Conference, we received a presentation on the Auxiliary Nurses Training Project from the Limpopo Province. Through this project, the Department of Health and Social Development in Limpopo has managed to train candidates and fill vacant Auxiliary nurses posts quickly, creating sustainable jobs whilst decreasing the dependency on the social grant system as the candidates are recruited from targeted poor families in rural villages.
The project reduced the vacancy rate from 47% to less than 14%. This is what is required within the Public Service - an innovative, pragmatic and integrated approach to solving problems. This model holds promise for other provinces and for other sectors. The question remains - "what are we waiting for?" - we have heard it, now we must get on with it.
As a country we need to look to the kind of future we want to build. We have an agenda to make a better life for all in South Africa, a better Africa and better safe world. It therefore cannot be "business as usual" in the public sector. We demand creativity and innovativeness amongst public officials, which must result in quick turnarounds for service delivery.
Programme Director
As I conclude I am reminded of the late Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana who stated, and I quote: "Steadily and firmly we are building up a better and richer life for our people and our continent."Close quote.
Let me caution, however, that "steadily and firmly" should not be interpreted as "bureaucratic inertia". There is no place for inactivity, apathy, disinterest or sluggishness in our public service.
It is through conferences like this that we are able to reaffirm our commitment to service and share experiences and ideas so that the lives of our citizens can be better tomorrow. It is also through insights and ideas shared by our international guests that we can learn to be more creative and more innovative as we strive to make a better life for all a reality. But we should not spend too much time planning, lest we be overwhelmed by planning fatigue.
As Leonardo da Vinci once said and I quote: "I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do."Close quote
Allow me to thank people who have not only planned but who have applied what they know and who are intent on doing things differently to bring about tangible change that will be felt by people on the ground. These are some of the role players that breathed life into this fifth Public Sector Innovation Conference.
Let me start by acknowledging the efforts of the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) for continuing to bring us together on public sector innovation, so we can discuss and action innovative ways to conduct government business and improve service delivery in our country. As we are gathered here we are affirming our confidence in the CPSI to continue playing the role of facilitator and enabler, nurturer and nourisher of innovation within the public sector.
Let me also acknowledge GEMS, ESKOM and Deloitte who co-sponsored the Conference and specifically Deloitte for also gracing this event with international presenters and thought leaders.
I want to thank our colleagues from the Government of Namibia for taking the time to come and support this Conference and for the partnership we have with Mr Isaack's office on the United Nations Public Administration Network Portal (UNPAN) for which Southern African Development Community (SADC) has received several United Nations (UN) accolades.
I also appreciate the availability of the presenters, speakers, facilitators, moderators and most importantly, I thank all of you, the participants in this conference.
I urge you to move beyond the boundaries of conceptualisation and deliberation, to getting things done and taking actionable and practical steps in response to the service delivery challenges facing our nation. Together, all of us meeting here can and must do more, to shift from thinking to doing, and to acting for the greater good of our society.
I thank you
Ngiyabonga
For more information contact:
Dumisani Nkwamba
Cell: 082 885 9448
Tel: 012 336 1704
E-mail: dumisanin@dpsa.gov.za
Lebohang Mafokosi
Cell: 082 312 4641
Tel: 012 336 1017
E-mail: lebohangm@dpsa.gov.za
