second Provincial Senior Managers (SMS) conference, Thaba Nchu
29 August 2006
Programme Director
Our distinguished international guests
Members of the Executive council
Senior Managers of government
Ladies and gentlemen
It is my honour to officially welcome all delegates to the second Free State
Provincial Government Senior Management Conference. This is indeed so, because
this conference presents an ideal and very important platform for the Free
State Provincial Government's public sector managers to be afforded an
opportunity to collectively locate and define their role within the broader
strategic vision led by the political and administrative centres supported by
both the Executive Council and the Forum of Head of Departments.
I wish to extend a very sincere and warm welcome to all delegates from
across the borders of the Free State and more especially to our guests from
abroad. Your presence here and that of all delegates is highly valued and
appreciated.
In the first decade of democratic governance, we democratised all
institutions of government. We made major departures from apartheid bureaucracy
and ensured that resources of the country would benefit all citizens, without
regard to colour, creed, race or gender.
Indeed, we have made significant and tangible strides as government to
ensure that we redress the past imbalances in order to change the lives of our
people for the better. The past decade has seen the introduction of programmes
and policies aimed at amongst others growing our economy, providing much-needed
social services and creating an environment conducive for growth and
development.
While we recognise and welcome the achievements made over the past ten
years, we have to acknowledge that much more still has to be done to alter the
socio-economic profile of our society especially with regards to service
delivery
When President Mbeki delivered his State of the Nation Address earlier this
year, he gave evidence of a growing optimism in our country among business
owners, consumers and among South Africans from all walks of life.
He said that our people are convinced that South Africa has entered its 'Age
of Hope'.
I believe that this 'Age of Hope' entails that our people remain optimistic
and look up to government to provide effective and efficient leadership that
will enable us to overcome the challenges facing our country.
If we are to live up to the expectations of our people and bring hope to our
nation, we need appropriate policies, strategies and programmes but above all,
competent individuals to lead this process. It is within this context that I
consider this conference as both significant and necessary.
The theme for this year's conference is 'Unity of purpose, the Free State
Growth and development Strategy, a key to delivery in our age of hope'. The
next two days will be spent deliberating on whether we really have the capacity
to implement our developmental programmes. For the next two days we will be
focusing our attention on and reviewing what has and what has not worked with
regard the FSGDS and how it is managed.
This conference should enable senior managers in the province to improve on
service delivery. It should be an opportunity for networking, communication and
co-ordination. It should serve the purpose of an executive dialogue within and
amongst senior managers and thus promote a better understanding of operations.
It should help to identify interdependencies and foster strong collaborations.
More importantly the SMS conference should help guide managers towards
accelerating the implementation and integration of the Free State Growth and
Development Strategy (FSGDS) and Joint Initiative for Priority Skills
Acquisition (JIPSA) within the three spheres of government and the private
sector.
In an effort to build appropriate skills and competencies in the Free State
Provincial Government (FSPG), we have been involved with the American Society
for Public Administration (ASPA) for the past three to four years. ASPA invited
senior officials from the Free State Provincial Government to attend two of its
national conferences in Oregon and Milwaukee states as a statement of support
for this partnership. It was during the first SMS conference held in
Bloemfontein last year that processes of establishing an ASPA affiliate in the
Free State was conceived.
The role of ASPA is to bring officials at all levels of government, the
academic community and citizens together to focus on governance issues. The
Free State Provincial Government intends to emulate the model by establishing
an ASPA affiliate in the province.
I am pleased to announce that the interaction with ASPA has resulted in the
establishment of the Free State Society for enhancing Public Administration and
Governance (FRESPAG), which will be launched as part of this conference.
Amongst others FRESPAG will assist provincial government in:
* building the necessary human resource capacity to accelerate service
delivery
* providing networking opportunities for professional development provincially,
nationally and internationally
* promoting the objectives of New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)
in order to deal with the challenges facing the continent
* developing and retaining the pool of professional mentors who will advance
the enhancement of public service cadreship.
As a provincial government, we are confident that this partnership and other
interventions in collaboration with the Department of Public Service and
Administration will help improve and redefine our approach to public service
management and therefore ensure efficient service delivery.
We are aware that a key ingredient of success in both public and private
undertaking is the steadfast and unrelenting focus on the established vision,
which by its nature must be strategic. The vision to create a better life for
our people is deserving of such resilient focus that brooks no distractions and
diversions.
The imperative to ensure a higher standard of living for our people is not
simply political. It is also to the interests of those currently living a
better life that the rest of society should enjoy the fruits of economic
prosperity in order to make such socio economic improvements sustainable for
everybody.
For the public service, the vision for socio-economic development is
embodied in the principles of Batho Pele. All these principles in addition to
the need to know and understand them must be taken beyond being mere slogans to
become operational in our daily work.
If we want to gain the support and sympathy of citizens with regard to our
conditions of service, we must convince them through our actions that we
deserve and have earned their support.
The need for an effective system to manage and monitor the performance of
managers within the context of a public service in transformation is
self-evident. Managers have the most crucial role to play with regard to the
achievement of institutional objectives.
The effective monitoring of their performance and competency levels should
therefore be accorded a very high priority. It is also by the very nature of
their responsibilities that it is imperative to hold managers accountable for
the achievement of predetermined objectives and goals.
We are confident that this conference will, through imminent deliberations,
enable us to mobilise and rally senior managers to passionately drive and
implement the growth and development strategy in their various areas of
responsibilities. That it will refresh the administrative mandate of the senior
managers around the strategic objectives of the FSGDS.
We say this quite confidently having witnessed the levels of commitment and
energy demonstrated by senior managers of government during the recent Exco
Lekgotla held from 31 July to 2 August 2006.At this Extended Exco Lekgotla, we
acknowledged the reaffirmation of the broad development trajectory by our
people, represented through high levels of optimism, low levels of crime,
relative political stability as well as the willingness of our communities to
partner government in all programmes. We are indebted to this confidence our
people have in us. We have to repay it with unflinching dedication to our work
and by going beyond the call of duty in making real the ideals of the Freedom
Charter for our people.
The recent Macro Social Report and the report of the African Peer Review
Mechanism (APRM) processes provides us a basis for acknowledgement of progress
and challenges, as well as further providing us with tools for consolidating
issues of social cohesion and improving the basic conditions of our people.
Arising out of these two reports, we have a duty to:
* rekindle positive community values
* mould our youth through youth development programmes and initiatives
* build social capital and solidarity
* develop high ethics within the public sector
This conference is therefore critical and inextricably linked to the full
implementation and achievement of the strategic goals and objectives of the
Provincial Growth Department Strategy (PGDS).
I am confident that through this conference we will be able to strengthen
and promote a common vision between the political and administrative arms of
government in the province regarding implementation of the growth and
development strategy.
We have identified strategic priorities as our key deliverables towards 2009
and beyond and we take this opportunity to urge you as senior managers to
develop action plans in the context of the FSGDS. These are:
1. economic development
2. infrastructure delivery
3. Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA)
4. 2010 Soccer World Cup
5. intergovernmental relations
6. human resource development strategy
In conclusion let me reiterate our appreciation, as the FSPG, for your
presence at this important conference. I hope that the deliberation emanating
from this SMS conference will help us in building a new cadre of public
servants in order accelerate and improve service delivery in the Free
State.
I thank you.
Issued by: Free State Provincial Government
29 August 2006
