Eastern Cape Premier Noxolo Kiviet says: “I will defend the investment we have made in developing appropriate leadership in the provincial administration to the highest court in the land”. The Premier was addressing a special meeting of the Portfolio Committee for her office held in council chambers of the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality which was also attended by stakeholders.
Premier Kiviet said her office has invested R5 million to run a nine months leadership development programme for 130 strategic managers of the provincial government as an intervention to address leadership gaps that manifested in poor service delivery in the province.
She said the provincial government has chosen an internationally acclaimed leadership development agency called Ican-Maxwell that is led by two outstanding leadership development gurus and coaches Dr David Molapo and Dr John Maxwell.
She said over the last 18 years little progress was made in building a unified institutional culture of the Eastern Cape provincial administration that would ensure effective and efficient use of the annual provincial budgetary allocation of over R56 billion.
The Premier expressed confidence that various leadership development programmes rollout by government will sharpen the understanding of leadership responsibilities and appreciation that the rise and fall of the provincial administration lies in the hands of its leadership.
The department’s focus on building administrative leadership capacity through among others the John Maxwell programme is aimed at:
- inculcating a value system that rejects indolence and corruption in striving for excellence and moral integrity in delivering services to the people;
- ensuring the creation of an enabling environment for employees capacity to implement programmes of government; and
- ensuring professionalism and translation of the principles of Batho Pele to service delivery models that impact on people positively.
The Premier commended the turn around that has begun to take root in the departments of Education and Health, citing the stabilisation of scholar transport, nutrition that centralises local communities and parents, expenditure of infrastructure budget that reached 86% in the 2011/12 financial year.
Premier Kiviet was accompanied by the Director-General Mr Mbulelo Songoni, four Deputy Directors-General and General Managers of the Office of the Premier. Also invited by the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee Mr Phumzile Mnguni, was the Eastern Cape Public Service Commissioner Mr Singatha Mafanya. Stakeholders took turns raising challenges including unemployment, collapsing businesses in townships, crime and poor support for agricultural development.
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