Our facilitator
Head of Department, Prof Nesamvuni
Our Motivational Speaker, Mr Charlie Masala
Management of the department
Friends and colleagues
It is a pleasure to welcome you to this, our first Broad Senior Management workshop this year. We would have loved to extend it to more people from the districts, but we thought it may just be too much to handle and we may miss the point.
Let me steal some wise words from the Apostle Paul in the Bible from the book of Romans 12: 1-3, when he says; “Betransformed by the renewing of your mind.”
The Apostle Paul sets a precedent for us in the modern world, that unless the mind is transformed there is nothing good or better you can achieve in life. Demotivated people will never encourage the next person to do better than what they can achieve. These are the people who when a new person joins an organisation, say to him or her, otla di kgona?, ke kgale rena rele mo,” And indeed, the get old and die without achieving or winning any award, because for them everything is bitter, the whole world is against them.
Head of Department (HOD), the last time I checked, there were eight Batho-Pele Principles and I don’t want to lead people into temptation and ask what those are, lest we be embarrassed in front of Comrade Charlie. It is interesting that two or three of the Batho Pele principles insists on:
1. You should be consulted about the level and quality of the public services you receive and, wherever possible, should be given a choice about the services that are offered.2. You and all citizens should have equal access to the services to which you are entitled.
3. You should be treated with courtesy and consideration.
HOD and colleagues, it is no secret that every other day I receive sms’s that talks contrary to what I have just outlined. Farmers complain of rude officials at our service centers and District offices. Farmers will be informed from Head office that they can access grants, fertilisers and other services from district offices, only to be told from those offices that they should go back to the Head Office, maybe they will get assistance.
When I hear these type of comments, I often ask myself why we should keep this type of a civil servant in our payroll? I ask myself why you as Senior management have done nothing and often do nothing to correct this poisonous minds? I believe that this will not be another talkshop, but a meeting where we could transform the mind into something else. If there is a need to drink energy drinks that would be able to drive us at top speed, maybe we should just do that. Friends and colleagues I do believe that next time when we meet like these, communication will also make a presentation because of its importance in the midst of things.
Any government in the world that would ignore communication does that at its own peril. Organisations and governments budget billions of rands in marketing communication which we sometime call branding and marketing. The reason why communication is permanent in the national and provincial cabinet agenda, is because if you ignore it, it can complicate you lives. We may be able to solve and discuss all our problems here, but will find that it is the way we communicate that makes it difficult to effect those changes. Communication is an art.
In conclusion let me quote one of the greatest prophets of his time, Kahlil Gibran who once wrote, “Advance, and never halt,for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear thethorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood”.
This workshop is officially dedicated, let’s work.
Thank you.
