Senior Management Service (SMS) conference
30 August 2007
Programme Director
Members of the Executive Council
Distinguished members of the various panels
Senior managers
Ladies and gentlemen
The third Senior Management conference is taking place under the theme:
"Implementing government strategies and programmes: the key to improve service
delivery to the people". It is an instructional road map and a call to action
to all of us as the implementing organs of our democratic government.
During our last SMS conference, we went a step further by establishing the
Free State Society for Administration and Governance as a mechanism to sustain
the discussions and debates in between the conferences.
We may want to do a critical assessment of the value-add of this conference
because whereas we are all convinced that the conference provide a platform to
share good practices and discus challenges of service delivery within the
framework of the intergovernmental relations and mandates, the key challenge
remains the implementation of the recommendations and resolutions of this
conference.
We must avoid falling into a trap of creating very important platforms like
this one merely for discussions without follow-up and implementation.
Programme Director, my specific interest will be to find out how the
deliberations of this conference will bring us closer towards the attainment of
government priorities as outlined by our Extended Executive Council (Exco)
Lekgotla of 2 and 3 August 2007. At that Lekgotla, we agreed that the 2014
vision remains the strategic mobilising programme for South Africa and that the
2004 to 2009 electoral mandate as embodied in our Free State Growth and
Development Strategy, remain the core of our programme of reducing unemployment
and poverty.
In taking forward this strategic vision, we need to pursue programmes which
ensure:
* economic growth and inclusion
* reduction in social welfare and dependence
* strengthening of state capacity for effective delivery and fighting
crime
* consolidating international work to pursue the imperatives of economic growth
and inclusion.
Obviously, as we engage ourselves with the execution of our mandate we must
never loose sight of our character as a developmental state.
Our first attribute as a developmental state must be our ability to lead in
the definition of a common agenda and mobilise the rest of society to take part
in its implementation. This means that our people cantered and people driven
approach must allow us to utilise our popular legitimacy to drive the
transformation agenda.
Secondly, we must demonstrate organisational capacity. We must ensure that
our structures and systems facilitate the realisation of our agenda. Macro
organisational issues must continue to receive our attention and we must ensure
permutations among policy and implementations organs and various spheres of
government within the inter-governmental framework.
Thirdly we must have the technical capacity to translate broad objectives
into programmes and projects and ensure their implementation. Obviously for
this to happen we must have proper training, orientation, skills acquisition
and retention among our public servants.
The transformation drive of our public service means that we must identify
our own weaknesses and correct them. It also includes engendering new
doctrines, cultures and practices and ensuring that all the state institutions
are reflective of our demographics, including appropriate representation of
women and people with disability.
This conference must therefore help us to asses ourselves within this
framework and must further provide a peer review platform of determining to
what extend have we as senior managers internalised the core values of our
constitution and Batho Pele in our day to day work.
It is a fair expectation by ourselves as the political leadership of
government, acting in the interests of our people to insist that your overall
conduct as senior managers of our government must reflect the values of:
* promoting and maintaining high standards of professional ethics
* providing service impartially, fairly, equitably and without bias
* utilising resources effiently and effectively
* encouraging citizens to participate in policy making and implementation
* responding to people's needs and relating to all stakeholders with humility
and courtesy
* rendering an accountable, transparent and development oriented public service
and
* promoting sound human resource management and representative service.
We emphasise these values because they are not negotiable. They are your
contract with the people and are inherently linked with the success or failure
of our government.
Programme Director, our own provincial evaluation of the mid-term reflected
positive progress as well as some challenges. A number of interventions we
embarked upon are already yielding laudable results. The provincial economy has
risen to an impressive 4,2% in 2006 from a negative growth rate of -2% in
2001/02.
Perhaps more commendable is employment creation opportunities. This is a
positive sign of the capacity of the province to mobilise human capital and
resources for the idea of shared growth. Data from the Statistics South Africa
Labour Force Survey of September 2006 shows that unemployment fell from 30,2%
in September 2005 to 26,5% in September 2006.
The development of the provincial infrastructure base is well on course. By
the end of February 2007, the Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport
was milling, patching, repairing and rehabilitating roads with a completion
ratio rates between 35% and 81%
Despite this positive picture, information provided by Statistics South
Africa indicates that the majority of our people still exist in an environment
characterised by poverty, with the Thabo Mofutsanyana District the most
affected and Motheo District the least affected.
To raise the range of growth to a higher level, Accelerated and Shared
Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA) was initiated to propel our economy
o a higher level .In its nature all interventions identified, must reinforce
the first and the second economy.
In the province, the impending Harrismith logistical hub and the Bio fuel
project are the main two AsgiSA initiatives. In their pursuit, we have created
capacity in the Premier's Office to co-ordinate with all national and
provincial departments as well as municipalities and other strategic partners.
We are confident that with the capacity at our disposal, we will see through
the successful implementation of these initiatives.
Linked to these are a number of anchor projects, which are mainly of an
infrastructure nature, for which resources have already been allocated. These
include the upgrade of strategic and connecting roads, the construction of a
new hospital in Trompsburg, the development of the N8 corridor and the upgrade
of the Bloemfontein airport.
Our reflections on the context of the New Medium Term Strategic Framework
are that the main programmes of government are still relevant and that the
emphasis must therefore be on intensification and implementation. The emphasis
for us in the province in particular must be on:
* accelerated infrastructure delivery
* human resources development programmes with immediate interventions to meet
current demands
* targeted interventions in the second economy to ensure socio-economic
inclusion beyond job creation
* comprehensive social security in terms of expanded coverage, cover for
working people and linkages to job creation
* comprehensive anti-poverty strategy based on targeted household
initiatives
* combination of initiatives to build social cohesion
* improve state capacity especially in arrears providing economic services and
move towards a single public service
* continually enhance state legitimacy including measures to deal with
campaigns against the state as well as anarchy and violence in
demonstrations
* comprehensive anti crime campaigns including building of popular
partnerships.
This conference is therefore challenged to come up with workable solutions
of speeding up implementation and delivery of our programmes and integrate the
24 high impact projects identified by the President, in the work of our
clusters and departments.
Secondly, the conference must engage in the discussions about the
strengthening of our planning capacity in accordance with the framework
developed by the Presidency. As senior managers of the Free State Provincial
Government, it is absolutely vital, that you participate in and shape the
conceptualisations of the various scenarios towards vision 2025 and inform that
process with critical and strategic thought processes.
The conference must also engage with the unfolding discussions towards the
establishment of a single public service. This is particularly important in
testing whether all of us are agreed that the single public service initiative
is introduced primarily to provide for administration in all spheres of
government, that is better organised and which operates in ways that ensures
efficient, qualitative, collaborative and accountable service delivery to
promote social and economic development.
It is my view Programme Director, that once we have deepened our
understanding on our mandates, responsibilities and priorities, and once we
have appreciated our individual and collective contribution and made our solemn
declaration to bring our part, we shall have truly distinguished ourselves from
those who only perform the basic minimum, to those who go beyond the call of
duty, true democrats on whose shoulders lie the success of our national
democratic society.
I wish this conference success and may it produces the best plans to take
our province forward.
Thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Free State Provincial Government
30 August 2007
