Q Mahlangu: Community Development Workers’ graduation

21 July 2006

Vice-Chancellor Professor Neo Mathabe,
Gauteng Salga representatives,
Chairperson of SACC: Dr A Battlet,
Speakers and municipal managers,
Head of Department Mr Oupa Seabi,
Chairperson and Vice-chairperson of the LGSETA,
LGSETA CEO,
CDW learners and their families,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I am humbled to address this auspicious occasion where we are welcoming in
our midst, the first batch of Community Development Workers. This graduation
ceremony is special in a sense that here in Gauteng we are committed to
bringing the government closer to the people.

Allow me therefore to start by quoting our Honourable President Thabo Mbeki
in his State of the Nation Address on 14 February 2003 when he called for the
need to have a different kind of civil servant that will serve the communities
in areas they live in.

“The government will create a public service echelon of multi-skilled
community development workers who will maintain direct contact with the people
where these masses live. We are determined to ensure that government goes to
the people so that we sharply improve the quality of the outcomes of public
expenditures, intended to raise the standard of living of our people. It is
wrong that government should oblige the people to come to the government even
in circumstances in which the people do not know what services the government
offers and have no means to pay for the transport to reach government
offices.”

In Sesotho, we say: “Lentswe la morena le ahelwa lesaka” loosely translated
that means the king’s word is final.

Here in Gauteng we took the President’s commitment seriously by launching
the Community Development Workers programme in May last year. Let me hasten to
say that CDWs are a different crop of civil servants - they are foot soldiers –
you work where you live. This crop of civil servants do not sit in
air-conditioned offices but are on the streets every day of their lives, in
their respective wards, to ensure that communities out there accesses
government services and information.

CDWs are the first point of contact with communities as their key role is to
interface with communities on a daily basis, day or night, rain or sunshine.
These civil servants play an important bridging role between communities and
the public service. Their existence and work is further justified by the
inherent constraints in human and financial resources experienced by public
service departments and the corresponding need of impoverished communities to
change their situation for the better.

The President was also spot-on when he said that the creation of
multi-skilled personnel with an interface between the community and public
sector departments will close the gap and will, in so doing, create
community-owned government – not government which is far away from the people.
This is the reason why the CDW programme came into being, to bridge the gap
between communities and government. As CDWs, you are there in order to directly
engage with your communities and to inform them of government’s service
delivery programmes. You must identify needs and blockages for reporting to
government, in order to improve service delivery and access to government
services.

The role and functions of CDWs as a new echelon of public servants are
succinctly outlined as:

* linking communities to resources such as food, medical access and social
grants, etc
* disseminating information about the available service delivery
initiatives
* mobilising people to identify their developmental needs as individuals within
a community
* ensuring that communities are aware of and participate in various advocacy
campaigns around contemporary social issues etc.

Honourable Vice-Chancellor,

Based on the President and Premier’s commitment, last year we deployed 198
CDWs who today are graduating after undergoing intensive training with Unisa.
Sadly, two CDWs passed away, one in January and another in March this year.
Their sudden and untimely death has left a void in their communities as their
work was beginning to have an impact in the communities they were serving.
However, plans are already afoot to replace them.

The department has appointed a further 319 new cadets into a learnership and
they will graduate next year and be deployed as CDWs. It is important to work
with the ward committees and the speaker’s office.

The bedrock upon which the roles and responsibilities of CDWs are built, are
the eleven principles of Batho Pele, whose vision is to improve the lives of
the people of South Africa by a transformed public service which is
representative, coherent, efficient, effective, accountable and responsive to
the needs of all. These foot soldiers are doing sterling work in their
communities and we are now are in the process of documenting their work in the
media.

We are going to ensure that CDWs perform par excellent and those who are
doing good work, we are going to profile them. The deployment of CDWs in
Gauteng last year has yielded positive results. Their work is beginning to have
an impact in most communities where they are deployed.

In a nutshell some of the work done by CDWs is the following:

* assisting community members to access social grants – liaising with the
departments of Social Development and Health
* assisting communities to access identity documents (IDs) – liaising with the
Department of Home Affairs
* assisting communities with problems relating to housing e.g. title deeds,
housing waiting lists, housing subsidies, tenants being treated badly,
etc
* assisting the unemployed to access government and other assistance in
developing job creation projects, etc
* assisting in the development of integrated food security projects with the
Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment and
others
* assist with the mobilisation of youth and women in the months of June and
August, as per government campaigns
* assist in making people aware of voter registration requirements
* assist in mobilisation for different government campaigns e.g. World Aids
Day, etc.

As alluded to earlier, their role is to strengthen co-ordination and
interaction of service delivery at the local level and to improve people’s
access to government’s service delivery and information.

Community Development Workers are not a substitute for current government
programmes, structures and processes such ward committees, community policing
forums and so forth. Their role is to augment the work done by these forums in
order to enhance government’s work. CDWs act as a two-way communicator in
respect of community needs and gaps in government service delivery, and are
guided by the principle of co-operative governance. They are accountable to the
national, provincial and local government and do not establish and manage
programmes and projects in their own right.

With the deployment of CDWs in all the wards in the province, we want to
ensure that we enhance the Gauteng Provincial Government’s ability to deliver
services to the people and to ensure a better life for all. This is also aimed
at deepening democracy and community participation in all three spheres of
government, especially at the local government level where service delivery
touches people the most.

Other objectives are to strengthen democracy and accountability and to
assist communities to realise their developmental potential. With these
programmes we aim to ensure that government:

* further ensures that the poor have access to basic services and government
programmes
* maintains contact with the people where they live
* strengthens the co-ordination and integration of service delivery at local
and community level
* improves communication and networking between government and the local
community
* ensures that such access leads to transformation of society
* ensures that government services reach all people, irrespective of race,
creed, colour or religion

As CDWs, you will face challenges in your areas, but the important thing is
to ensure that you rise above those challenges in order to fulfil your mandate.
You will be required to attend to the needs of communities, to do door-to-door
campaigns where you will encounter first hand social ills created by apartheid
such as poverty, housing problems, people with no IDs, child labour and to some
extent child and women abuse. The important thing is to make sure those issues
are addressed and referred to the relevant departments. You must ensure that
the reports and statistical information that you will generate are of a good
quality and value.

Each and every one of you should work beyond the call of duty. It is your
responsibility to help the downtrodden masses who struggle because they do not
have access to information.

Therefore, you must take pride in the work you do and strive for excellence
at all times. Be presentable at all times and show respect, honesty and
trustworthiness.

We are confident that the CDW programme will continue to have a positive
impact on communities in Gauteng, as well as assisting government to deal with
service delivery. As government, we rely on your work and efforts in bringing
government closer to the people.

We believe that the training provided by Unisa and the experience gained by
CDWs will create the type of public servant that the President spoke about in
his call in February 2003 to create this new “multi-skilled” public
servant.

I would like to thank the educators for the quality of teaching and
dedication in this programme. It is important for the CDWs graduating today to
build on what government has provided, and improve yourselves. As CDWs, your
ambitions must be to become directors-general in future.

I wish you all the best in your endeavours in making Gauteng a better place
in which to live.

I thank you

Issued by: Department of Local Government, Gauteng Provincial
Government
21 July 2006