Department of Labour Director-General Nkosinathi Nhleko embarked on an unprecedented excursion which marked the first leg of his tight schedule which will see him criss-crossing the country as he seeks to tackle problems experienced in the department’s provincial offices where delivery resides.
The Director-General said while his visits will escalate expectations, he cautioned that ‘’I am not a messiah” who has descended to eliminate all the problems. “My visit to provinces is intended to help create necessary structures of interaction between local management and employees,’’ said Nhleko.
Nhleko began his taxing schedule with a visit to the Northern Cape and this was followed by the Free State province where he interacted with local management and staff to get a first-hand account of challenges faced. His visit to provinces, he said was two-pronged: to present and introduce himself to staff at all levels of operations, and also share their daily challenges and come with solutions.
Although challenges faced will differ in nature - in the provinces he has visited so far inadequate staffing, asset management, risk management, remuneration, tools of trade and security were some of common themes that seem to emerge.
Nhleko’s visits to provinces will continue until August. It will also include stops at the Department of Labour entities such as the Unemployment Insurance Fund and the Compensation Fund.
Having started his duties on 10 May, he is under no illusion of the monumental task that lies ahead. He joined the department at the time when the global economic landscape is undergoing a metamorphosis. South Africa has not been spared from these changes and is still reeling from the effects of the recent global recession with the economy facing a ‘twin-prong’ problem of trying to create jobs and the ‘army of unemployed’ is growing.
These dynamics places the Department of Labour at the centre of spotlight because of the nature of services it provides to the public.
To reflect the scale of the challenges that lie ahead, for example; Free State with a population of more than 2, 8 million the province has an unemployment rate of 27, 1 percent. The provincial economy has in recent years been shedding jobs especially in the mining and as a result of restructuring by the financial services sector.
Since joining the department a central theme of Nhleko’s message as he straddles forward in executing his delivery mandate is the inspection and enforcement of labour legislation. He said while delivery was taking place at provincial level it was the responsibility of the head office to provide support.
“While we acknowledge the existence of challenges, there exist pockets of excellence in the provincial delivery chain. We should, however, not be complacent. We need to increase our activity provision. We also need to raise our efforts in job creation endeavours and ensure placement of people with capacity to deliver in our operations,” said Nhleko.
He committed to look at addressing the issues of human resource constraints by ensuring that vacancies that exist are filled and also look at resource backlogs.
‘’Ours as managers is to listen and gauge the extent of problems and find solutions. When negative sentiment exists we need to engage in order to eliminate it. As managers we should nurture and take pride in seeing staff growing,” he said.
Nhleko said while problems could be big, complex and diversified: “failure could not be tolerated. It is better to fail trying than be a spectator doing nothing’’.
He said on the administrative front, a number of issues still needed to be tackled. He cited these as improving the asset management efficiency in the department’s operations at all levels, ‘smart’ management of leave, the posting of clean audit reports, and tackle instances of irregular expenditure where they exist.
The Director-General also appealed for local management in the provinces to work closely with unions and advised that local bargaining forums be established where they do not exist and be regularly utilised to resolve issues of difference.
The Department of Labour delivers its services to the public/clients via its labour centres, satellite offices, mobile labour centres spread across the country. These offices and centres offer services such as: unemployment insurance processing, public employment service, inspection and enforcement, career guidance, and labour market information among others.
Some of the successes achieved at these provincial centres have been the improvement in processing time, enforcement of compliance by employers of labour legislation and increased registration and placement of job seekers.
Source: Department of Labour
