Mpumalanga Senior Management Service (SMS) Conference
16 March 2006
The Executive Mayor of Emalahleni, Clr Linah Malatji,
Members of the Executive Council,
The Director-General of Mpumalanga, Mr Khaya Ngema,
Distinguished senior managers of the public service,
Municipalities and parastatals,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. We gather here today a
few weeks after the people of this province once again reaffirmed their
continued support for the African National Congress (ANC) as the leading force
for meaningful change.
For the past 11 years we have been hard at work in our effort to improve the
lives of our people. We have made considerable advances with regard to ensuring
that more people have access to shelter, health, education, clean water,
electricity and other basic needs. Even more people have opportunities to
improve their lives to become educated and acquire skills and to help build a
better South Africa. The economy is growing and is creating more jobs, enabling
us to reduce poverty.
We managed to do all these things because quite early in our democracy we
took a conscious decision to depart from apartheid bureaucracy and ensure that
resources of the country benefit all citizens without regard to colour, creed,
race or gender. We democratised all institutions of government and ensured that
we put in place a public service that is responsive to the needs of the
people.
Today we look back at a public service that has made significant strides in
extending basic services to the disadvantaged; a public service more
representative of the people it serves and more accountable to the electorate.
But as we continue to build a very strong public service based on merit,
competence and non-partisanship, we realise that we are faced with some
daunting challenges.
It is ironic that while the expenditure on basic services such as health,
welfare and education has grown rapidly since the dawn of the new democratic
order, these and other basic needs have been slow in reaching some of our
people particularly those in the rural areas. Does this result from a lack of
capacity to deliver or is it because of lack of planning? This inability to
remain true to our promise has had major implications on government's ability
to sustain some of the commendable initiatives to deliver quality services.
Last month we promised a number of things to the people of this province.
Speaking through the legislature, we told the people of Mpumalanga that through
large project such as the Moloto development corridor and the water
infrastructure project Mpumalanga will become a job creating and poverty
alleviating hive of activity.
We also undertook to continue to improve access to primary health care
especially to our people in remote areas. We also undertook to rehabilitate
many of our hospitals and augment the capacity of some of our clinics through
the Hospital Revitalisation Programme (HRP) and improve health facility
management by among other things appointing Chief Executive Officerâs (CEOs) to
each hospital by April.
We also promised to ring changes in the school nutrition programme and
commence with the matric revitalisation project (MRP). To sponsor dialogue on
the feasibility of building agro-villages as a sustainable way to provide
labour to the farming sector, strengthen the Masibuyele Emasimini project and
provide pre and post settlement support to those communities that have received
land as part of the restitution process.
We promised to build more houses, clinics and schools. And fast track the
establishment of the national institute for higher learning. We also promised
to ensure that all the necessary infrastructure from the construction of the
new stadium and bulk infrastructure to the provision of health and hospitality
facilities are of global standards.
The Mpumalanga Government promised to nurture and cultivate partnerships
with other provinces globally and get better at mobilising capacity of all
stakeholders in support of national developmental goals. We also promised to
launch an executive development programme by June. We undertook to strengthen
recruitment and selection, performance management as well as coaching and
mentoring.
And we promised that we would reopen unused municipal offices as
Multi-purpose Community Centres (MPCCs) to enhance service delivery. This
workshop is held primarily in order to ensure that those whose function it is
to co-ordinate the implementation of these and other projects, understand the
task at hand.
It is you who must concretise government's vision of a better life for all
through effective implementation strategies and policies and the efficient
utilisation of resources. I need not remind you that in this demanding
environment there can be no place for mediocrity or lack of commitment. Only
the finest candidates imbued with a spirit of selfless service to the community
will find a place. As leaders you can clearly signal your demand for excellence
from those around you. There is no other way. Excellence has to be at the core
of our role if we are serious about ensuring that we accelerate and improve
service delivery.
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 the people of South
Africa 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. It is common knowledge that for as long as slums remain, suburbs
must be gated and walled in to the maximum.
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.
A perusal of the national budget over the past couple of years suggests that
financial resources have long ceased to be a constraint to delivery. We have
more money than we are able to spend. In fact it is becoming ever so
embarrassing to talk of high levels of poverty and in the same breath confirm
huge revenue collections that cannot easily be allocated to public investments
such as infrastructure. Unfortunately the intermittent nature of economic
business cycles suggests that this honeymoon of revenue overruns is a window of
opportunity that must be exploited fully. When economic downturns occur they
must find us ahead in terms of the delivery of services and the resultant
capacity of the population to withstand them.
This conference must amongst others adopt a constraints analysis approach in
order to unlock value by undermining key sources of non-delivery. Some of these
sources include the following:
* It is becoming increasingly apparent that we need to bolster our project
management capacity. Weaknesses in this area need to be addressed from project
conception, feasibility studies, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. In
this respect this conference should explore the possibility of setting up a
professional project support office.
* Flimsy planning leads to flimsy results. On the other hand, rigorous
planning that recognises the multiyear nature of projects and is not myopically
focused on one budget cycle will show in the long term sustainability of the
outputs. An appropriate balance must be struck between leadership and
management. Whereas both are important, those in higher positions are expected
to display a greater leadership capability than those at lower levels. The
paradigm of efficiency and effectiveness fits squarely in this context. Whereas
good management must enable us to achieve more results at low cost and effort
leadership should enable us to craft the appropriate vision for our specific
programs and departments in order to achieve the right things.
* Lastly, delivery must be a culture. Some of you have studied culture and
how it must be instilled. When delivery becomes a culture we would have reached
a point where the principles of Batho-Pele are an integral part of our daily
operations.
Modern politics and public administration seeks a new relationship between
the individual and the community and a redefinition of rights and obligations.
It has a concern for social justice and promotes social inclusion and the
fostering of a fair society where community and state act in partnership.
Our government believes we can encourage innovation and economic development
while still looking after the basic needs of all constituents and providing
opportunities, regardless of personal circumstances. It is a pragmatic response
to the issues facing our society.
There is a lot of good work being done around the province. Good work is
being achieved through departments working collaboratively, more so now than
any other time. This is great.
Programme Director, there are a couple of practical things that we need to
share before I sit down. Many of you have very bright and innovative ideas but
you at times you are not confident enough that your idea will work. Bright
ideas can happen at any level of an organisation. Do not be afraid to talk to
the Head of the heads of departments (HODs) or the MEC about how you think we
can improve things. Getting MECs involved earlier in a policy process just
saves everybody time and resources that are scarce in our crowded
environment.
As senior public servants unity are responsible for providing advice and
solutions for the hardest most difficult problems that this province faces. You
are also in a position to help MECs make the most of the opportunities
available to people of the province.
Similarly, don't be afraid to learn from mistakes and don't be afraid to get
things wrong. But then don't be offended when ideas get knocked back. It's not
an insult.
What binds you together and provides a sense of purpose is your spirit of
service the enduring values and standards that comprise the Mpumalanga public
service.
As leaders you must demand greater professionalism. I know you are aware
that achieving a real and consistent commitment to excellence is your job as
leaders. You should demand it of yourselves and of the people in your
teams.
Conclusion
Ladies and gentlemen, Mpumalanga cannot reach any of the goals it has set
itself without the talent, the innovation and ideas required for renewal in
knowledge based public service.
I am sure that by the end of your deliberations, you would have identified
the best practices for good leadership and management of the public service
which will motivate and be a model not for all of South Africa but for the rest
of Africa.
At times it may seem that things don't just seem to work. But we will get it
right. A delegate to a study tour in Canada said one of their members told the
Privy Council Office (PCO) that in South Africa we have been working out how to
build a modern, representative public service for the last six years after
decades of apartheid. To which a member of the Canadian government pointed out:
âYou shouldn't feel too badly, we've been working at it for forty yearsâ.
I thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Mpumalanga Provincial Government
16 March 2006
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government (http://www.mpumalanga.gov.za)
