Chairperson,
Deputy Minister Dlodlo,
Senior Leaders of our Public Service,
Representatives of Organised business,
Representatives of Broader Civil Society,
Representatives of Organised labour,
Invited guests,
Ladies and gentleman
As you are aware, we are holding this meeting at difficult times when the Premier of our host province, Nomvula Mokonyane, lost her beloved son, and South Africa is mourning one of the veterans of the liberation struggle, Mam Bertha Gxowa. I therefore call on this gathering to rise and observe a moment of silence.
We are marching forward to realise outcome 12 of the outcomes-based performance profile of our Government, with the theme: “Building an effective, efficient and development-oriented public service, as well as an empowered citizenship”.
Doing so is actually strengthening the delivery arm of the government, in that what we stand to do represent the priorities of all government departments.
In terms of this, we signed Performance Agreements and the Delivery
Agreements, committing ourselves to the following outputs:
- Service delivery quality and access
- Human resource management and development
- Business processes, system, decision rights and accountability
- Tackling corruption in the public service
- Nation building and national identity
- Citizen participation
- Social cohesion
Guided by the words of the president when he said that we need a public service that knows where the people are, that knowstheir challenges and expectations, we are responding to all these stated issues today, at this consultative forum, as we address ourselves to the following issues:
- Repositioning the public Service to deliver in terms of the expectations in a developmental state of South Africa.
- Providing a mechanism to respond to behavioural questions in terms of a Framework on Ethics and Integrity.
- Establishing an Anti-Corruption Unit to respond to the questions as to whether we have an effective enforcement mechanism in our fight against corruption.
Chairperson,
The work we are doing today is what we envisaged earlier, that we would like to do things differently.
We announced during the budget vote debate earlier this year that we wanted to celebrate Africa Public Service Day and the South African. Public Service Week in style, and that we would launch a unit to fight corruption.
We also communicated that due to other pressing commitments such as the World Cup and the public service strike, it could not have been possible to address these matters during the Public Service Day on 23 June this year, or at any other point in time earlier than today.
We are therefore presenting here today that on the repositioning of the public service:
The questions that are frequently raised about our public service are, among others, the following:
Whether there are agreed upon component mechanisms underlying an ideal environment for delivery in a developmental Public Service of a political dispensation characteristic of who we are as a Democratic State of South Africa.
One of the responses to this question is that we consider that a responsive public service is the one based on the understanding that there will be policies that are development focused and that guide the operations of the public service functionary.
To this end, we want to confirm that although there’s room for improvement, from case to case, we do have policies such as the policy on transformation of the public services to ensure the realisation of the culture of a responsive, transparent accountable and professional public service.
We have a policy on Batho Pele, which prescribes that we operate on principles to ensure that:
- The citizens are consulted about the level and quality of the public services they receive, and where possible, they should be given a choice about the services that are offered.
- All citizens should be made aware of what services they should expect.
- All citizens should have equal access to the services to which they are entitled.
- Citizens shall be treated with courtesy and consideration.
- Citizens shall be given full and accurate information about the public services they are entitled to receive.
- Citizens should be told how national and provincial governments are run as well as our municipalities, how much they cost and who is in charge.
- Citizens should be offered an apology, a full explanation and a speedy and effective remedy if the promised standard of services is not delivered, and that, when complaints are made, citizens should receive a sympathetic, positive response.
- Public services should be provided economically and efficiently.
These Batho Pele principles are so responsive to the expectations of the people that if 50% of our public servants were to internalise them, nothing would beat us in proclaiming that we are a Nation hard at work to soil our hands to ensure the attainment of better life for all the people of South Africa through the delivery of public services.
We have a policy on the training for our public service to ensure a professionally capacitated public service to deliver according to our mandate. We are known to have developed some of the generally acceptable sound labour relations policies and legislations the world over.
The other part of the same question in this regard is as to what causes some of the challenges that we are confronted with from time-to-time when we have such good policies and good legislation.
Why do we have a generally dissatisfied public on the delivery of services by our public service institutions to the extent that some even take to the streets in demand of services? Why does it appear like we have generally dissatisfied public servants below the Senior Management Service level?
Why do we experience such confrontation between Government as an employer and organised labour, which sometimes tend to be so vulgarised and vulturised to the surprise of peace-loving South Africans, like what happened recently?
Our commitment as government is to find a lasting solution to these challenges. On this score, we announce that the following interventions are in place to accomplish a paradigm shift to refocus our attention on the things that will ensure quick delivery of services:
We unveil today, a mechanism to manage behavioural questions of our public servants to ensure responsiveness and accountability, embodied in a document called Public Sector Ethics and Integrity Framework. In terms of this, among other things, we mobilise ethics officers in each
department, coordinated at the Department of Public Service and Administration, that will compile a register of Senior Public Servants’ interests and publish this for public consumption, and to be openly communicated by the Minister of Public Service and Administration during the Africa Public Service Day on the 23 June of each year.
On this day, the Conference of Ministers for Public and/or civic services in the continent took a decision that the 23rd of June will be observed as Africa Public Service Day for recognition of outstanding work and celebrated in different ways. We need to find new ways of celebrating this day. Our future celebrations will include the presentation of the register.
This register will record at least the following information:
- Disclosure of Business Interests and participation in directorships of private companies.
- Performance of remunerative work outside the public service
- Any sanction as a result of misconduct on work-related transgressions.
- Peer assessment rating on adherence to public service standards and the upkeep of the attributes of an ideal public servant. In this regard, the Senior Management Service (SMS) members responsible for each outcome shall peer assess each other in a prescribed mechanism, and furnish a report to be consolidated for this purpose.
- The Register shall also record Citizens’ opinion rating on the performance of senior public servants, particularly those in frontline offices having direct contacts with the citizens in the delivery of services.
- The key guiding factor for this assessment is client care in terms of the Batho Pele principles.
Of course, this mechanism is not an entirely punitive tool. It will also be used to give rewards where deserved, also to be announced on Africa Public Service Day on 23 of June each year.
We want to mention at this point that the generalisation that we sometimes do referring to public servants performance is problematic, where we paint all with the same brush as we accuse them of being unethical and sometimes corrupt.
In this current intervention, we will communicate good conduct, recognise, respect and reward. I am therefore making a call for all business people to volunteer awards as in the form of platinum, gold and silver sponsors to encourage performance as we communicate the winners on Africa Public Service Day on the 23 June each year.
Chairperson,
Our labour relations cannot be allowed to degenerate to the level as it is without some drastic interventions taking place. We are therefore announcing Project Khuvanani, which means working together to find solutions to the challenges that confront us at the labour environment. It cannot be business as usual when the country is plunged into crisis. We want solutions not later than now.
In this project, we once more commit ourselves as Government to work together with organised labour to find solutions to the things that keep us apart and at times throw us at each other’s throat.
But, Chairperson,
Society should know that it takes participation beyond government and labour as traditional actors on matters of promoting sound labour relations at the public service level. Civil society has a role to play and civil society should play a role.
Through project Khuvanani, which means assembling and working? Together when confronted with challenges, we call on broader civil society, which include the Business, to identify with and enlist to work together with us so that we find a lasting solution to the challenges of labour-related unrest and disturbances. Talk to us, and let us find lasting solutions to these issues.
I had an opportunity to consult the Traditional leaders on another subject at the National General Council of CONTRALESA, in Kimberly recently, and my heart was filled with joy to hear the President of the Congress proclaiming that Traditional leaders under CONTRALESA avail themselves to be involved in finding lasting solutions in dealing with such activities as public sector strikes that frustrate society. My message is, come one, come all, and let us find a solution, for South Africa deserves more than our confrontation.
We are working together with organised labour to review the remuneration policy and attend to other issues that have a bearing on managing public service career incidents. We call on your support so that we reach out to a solution where, even as in a Democracy people have a right to withdraw their labour, such should not turn as ugly as we have witnessed recently.
And Chairperson,
The debate on the repositioning of the public service also calls on us to evaluate the impact that our public service training interventions contribute in positioning our public servants to deliver in terms of the developmental agenda in a democracy. The Public Service training academy, PALAMA, is in a strengthening process and seeks to include a programme of a preparatory intervention for entry into the public service.
On the fight against corruption in the public service, we have already committed ourselves to a project to only stop the war at the breaking of a bone.
Today we are unveiling our anti-corruption Unit, details of which will be unveiled later in our deliberations.
What I can say in this regard now is to tell a story of a poisonous insect called a wasp.
A wasp has a lifetime stinging capability unlike a bee with one. A wasp has the capacity of transforming itself and evolving to survive. Once bitten by a wasp, you become very scary of it. A wasp only attacks when confronted or its nest is threatened. It has the competency of targeting and never misses. Wasps come in different shapes and sizes, and hit their targets accordingly. We know of wasp-elephants that bite strongly, no matter how big the target is. We know of wasp-donkeys that will put on the run even a stubborn target. We know of wasp-the-juvelines that attack at the fastest speed no-one can dive.
We come a long way as government in the fight against corruption in the public service through policies and legislation. We are now giving priority to action. We feel that, like a wasp, our nest is threatened.
We should free all the resources available to fight poverty and we therefore cannot tolerate any embezzlement of funds. We cannot tolerate a situation where the community feel that they have to either bribe their way through or contend without a service they otherwise deserve for free. Our nest is threatened, and like a wasp, we shall sting.
In our fight against corruption, we are mindful of the triangular-structured life of corruption, on the one leg being the corruptor, the second the corruptee and the third the environment.
In dealing with the environment that gives rise to corruption, we start with the area of ethics and integrity, reward well-mannered public servants and expose the rotten apples and ensure that performance assessments include behavioural aspects of public servants.
We also deal with discipline management in the public service as a way of removing an environment that give rise to corruption. It is a fact that, for as long as it will take forever for disciplinary cases to be finalised, with suspects on full pay, our fight against corruption will be futile.
For as long as managers will fail to take actions where they are supposed to do so, resulting in the Government losing money due to such inaction, and nothing is done about it, our fight against corruption in the public service will remain a dream.
Yes, our nest is threatened, and like wasps, we are bound to strike.
The strategic objectives of the anti-corruption Unit include the following:
- Effective and integrated management of investigation of corruption cases in the public service.
- Effective and integrated disciplinary proceedings in the public service.
- Effective and integrated legal and advisory support.
- Effective and integrated strategic management of information as well as the preservation of sources of information.
The indicators to measure the impact of the intervention include the following:
- Reduction of incidents of corruption in the public service.
- Reduction in turn-around time in finalising disciplinary cases.
- Reduction in the level of negative public perception with regard to corruption in the public service.
- Uniformity in the application of standards.
- Recovery of public administration-related losses.
- Increased success of prosecution of corruption cases in the public service.
- Increased reporting of corruption.
The desired outcomes of this intervention include the following:
- improved ethical conduct in the public service
- central management of anti-corruption cases
- restore trust and confidence in the public service
- improve delivery of government services.
Yes, Chairperson,
Our success in this fight against corruption is a collective effort. Let us all adopt a corruption-free stance and give South Africa what she deserves, just exactly that, South Africa free of corruption.
Of course, the journey to the realisation of all these objectives may require some amendments to the Public Service legislation and regulations. This is the move we are ready to take. It is for that reason that we are saying that as of now up to the Africa Public Service Day in June next year, the Unit will operate at a coordination level, whilst we follow the necessary processes for the review of legislation and policies. This period will provide an opportunity to pilot the intervention to fight corruption in the public service.
It is also true that for us to realise the objectives fully, there may be a need to deal with some issues at the employer/labour collective bargaining level, and we are ready to do that. Again, this pilot period will give us space to make sure that we do the right things whilst vigilantly protecting our nest like wasps do, for the threat is real.
We already have partners in this journey and we need many more. We will work closely with the Public Service Commission, Treasury, Chapter Nine institutions, Special Investigation Unit, South African Police Services, civil society, business formations and all volunteers.
The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) will play a critical role to ensure that we use technology to enhance the effectiveness of this intervention in the fight against corruption.
Chairperson,
As I indicated earlier, we will give more details at the end of this meeting.
Allow me therefore, to close this address confirming that it is true that we may not continue to do things the same and expect different results.
The public service environment is no island. We have to do things differently and we are doing them differently. And we invite all South
Africans to join in these efforts as it is our collective responsibility.
Thank you very much.
For more information contact:
Dumisani Nkwamba
Tel: 012 336 1704
Cell: 082 885 9448
E-mail: dumisanin@dpsa.gov.za
Lebohang Mafokosi
Tel: 012 336 1017
Cell: 082 312 4641
E-mail: lebohangm@dpsa.gov.za
