the Public Service Week
6 October 2006
Programme Director
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
All public servants
Members of the media
Today we commence the programme of activities for Public Service Week, under
the Public Service vision which is to continually improve the lives of the
people of South Africa through a transformed public service, which is
representative, coherent, transparent, efficient, effective, accountable and
responsive to the needs of all.
To be a people-centred, people driven, dynamic, efficient and disciplined
catalyst providing professional and high quality service for sustainable growth
and development in the Northern Cape and the country at large. As we celebrate
Public Service Week, it gives me a sense of pride to see all of us joining
hands to build this nation, which is our home. We need a public service that is
responsive to the needs of the people and committed to the implementation of
the Public Service Standards and Batho Pele principles. We also need to
demonstrate a caring about the welfare of our public servants and, therefore,
recognise and reward service excellence.
This year 2006, we are celebrating Public Service Week under the following
theme: "Shona phansi Msebenzi for a seamless and efficient public service
echoing a new age of hope". What an opportunity for public servants to embrace
the full implications of Batho Pele and answer this call with new commitment
and heightened levels of service delivery.
I am therefore pleased to learn that as part of the week's activities, of
bringing services closer to the people; you will render a multitude, one stop
of services to the people. In the words of the President, Thabo Mbeki, "The
time is now and we must rise to the occasion with the full realisation that, as
public servants, we can alter the course of history and prove to the world that
we are proud, successful and a united nation that will not succumb to the
legacies of the past. Let us stand proud as public servants and commit
ourselves to enrich the quality of services we render and make people centred
and people driven development a reality."
To this end, a number of measures and initiatives have been developed,
geared towards reforming, rebuilding and reshaping the Public Service and
making it more responsive and relevant to the needs of our citizens. It is for
this reason that much has been achieved in healthcare services, welfare,
electricity, provision of clean water, addressing the housing backlog, police
services, education and sanitation.
Ladies and gentlemen, public servants are the backbone of the provincial
administration hence they play a critical role to enhance service delivery and
be responsive, accessible, relevant, efficient and providing quality services
to our people. Therefore, I have no doubt that the majority of you public
servants; often go beyond the call of duty to provide services in a manner that
meets and sometimes surpasses the public's expectations, thus contributing
towards the realisation of the practice and spirit of Batho Pele.
When our government was elected into power, it had a special mandate to
provide appropriate services to all the people of the country. This was, still
is and will continue to be a massive responsibility of government and one that
requires total commitment by people at all levels of government, if it is to be
fulfilled.
The struggle to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment in our country is
fundamental to the achievement of our own national goal to build a caring and
people centred society, a public service that is prepared to lead from the
front, while being sensitive to the needs of the people.
Programme Director, from the foregoing points, it should dawn on all public
servants that the moment has arrived for them to redefine their individual and
collective responsibilities in the service. They should all submit to
performance measurement systems to determine their continued tenure and
advancement in the service. This submission should entail their preparedness to
train and retrain themselves to keep abreast with the requirements of the
effectiveness and efficiency of the service.
We are living in an ever-changing environment, where more is demanded of us
in terms of higher quality service. We are faced with a challenge to improve
the quality of life of all people and move with speed to ensure the full
realisation of their rights as enshrined in the constitution in the shortest
period of time. All citizens have the right to high quality, caring and
integrated government services. This critically includes removing obstacles to
effective service delivery, making sure services are sustainable and increasing
the responsiveness of the public sector to complaints and problems from
citizens.
Within the public service, there are indications that some public servants
may have heard of the terms Batho Pele or Public Service Standards, but are not
necessarily aware of what exactly they entail or what is required of them.
Other issues such as poor labour relations and a lack of skills and capacity
also impacts on poor service delivery.
My message to all of you is that:
* Public servants have rights and responsibilities.
* Every public servant, regardless of rank, has a role to play in building an
effective and caring public service.
* Public servants have a right to know what is expected of them and a
responsibility to deliver effective public service.
* We must be civil servants and continue to treat our people with dignity,
respect and integrity.
* Batho Pele principles must become a living reality, and be integrated into
all government programmes, instead of being revisited in times of crisis.
* We must strive to promote service excellence in honour of constitutionally
entrenched rights.
Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of government, we commit ourselves to
adhering to the high service standards we have set for ourselves so that the
public should know what level of service they can expect; we also commit to
speedily and effectively address requests for assistance or complaints from
citizens as well as allegations of ill-treatment by public servants of members
of the public.
Furthermore, we commit ourselves to the development and implementation of
programmes whose aim is to significantly improve the quality of public
services. Such programmes must also become increasingly accessible to all the
citizens of our country.
In conclusion, to the hard-working public servants spread throughout the
province and country, I want to thank you for your laudable efforts you put
into your jobs.
I thank you.
Issued by: Northern Cape Provincial Government
6 October 2006
Source: Northern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.northern-cape.gov.za)
