Programme Director,
Traditional and Religious Leadership,
MEC for Community Safety and Transport, Mr Molapisi,
Acting District Mayor and all Councillors,
National Commissioner of Police, General Riah Phiyega,
Provincial Commissioner of Police, Lt General Mbombo,
All SAPS Top Management,
CPF Representatives,
Labour Union Representatives,
Members of the Community,
Youth and Children,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
When the ANC became a ruling party in 1994, it unequivocally decided that the public service will be judged on only one criteria: a public service that needs to be effective in its deliverance of service, and to be able to meet the basic needs of all the inhabitants of South Africa.
This meant that, programmes of Government should always contribute towards an enhanced better life for all. The desirable outcomes of the Public Service had to be immediately aimed at service delivery and the promotion of human dignity.
It is undeniable that the primary sphere or site of this desired service delivery has always been at the local government level; the municipalities to be precise. And, this is also where our police stations are located.
Despite major achievements made over the 20 years at this local government level, more enormous work has to be done still.
The Department of COGTA has warned all Government Departments operating at Local Government level, that only 7% of municipalities could be regarded as municipalities doing very well.
COGTA has thus called all people mandated to deliver service to the public, to join the effort to build a responsive and accountable Local Government.
The Minister of COGTA has also issued all Departments with a monitoring and intervention tool/instrument to “go back to basics” in order to serve our communities better.
This means, improving service delivery at front-line service Departments such as SAPS, we need public servants that are committed to delivering quality service to the citizens. During the National Launch of Public Service Month on 2nd September 2014, the Deputy President Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa endorsed this fact.
He said: “To function effectively, the public service needs to institutionalize a sustainable and holistic approach to innovation in public governance and administration. Public servants need to become change agents, enablers and facilitators. They need to collaborate with citizens to resolve complex service delivery challenges”.
The performance of the public servants who deal directly with the public must therefore be continuously monitored as well. This Government can no longer afford or tolerate a performance that falls below specific standards.
In the same vein, the then Minister in the Presidency, Mr. Collins Chabane, launched The Framework for Strengthening Citizen-Government Partnerships for Frontline Service Delivery Monitoring last year August.
This Framework went beyond the monitoring of the public servant and his/her institution, and began to involve the citizens as well.
Thus, the Department of Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) decided that government departments involved in service delivery to the public must adjust their monitoring and evaluation frameworks to include mechanisms for incorporating the views and experiences of the citizens on service delivery.
I am pleased General Phiyega, to see that you have obliged the Department of Police to do just that. I noticed in your concept paper entitled “Promoting Professionalism: Implementation of Front-Line Service Delivery Project in the SAPS”, that you have already piloted 9 Police Stations at different Provinces, and have come up with several tangible recommendations.
But, I can’t yet help noticing that, most of the recommendations provided in that document, are not far-fetched from the ones that we got from the SAPS Top 1500 Conference and Ministerial Engagement, held earlier this year.
This means then, that we must not neglect to address the needs of the internal customer/client (employee of the Frontline Service Department).
We must take cognizant that a well-managed organization commits both time and resources to issues of monitoring and evaluation of the organization’s performance, both internally and externally.
I conclude by saying, both the employee and the public are key protagonists in ensuring effective and thus successful implementation of the progressive framework from the DPME, as customized to each Department’s specific mandate.
I have no doubt that we have the majority of men and women in blue who always go beyond the call of duty to provide services to the citizens’ expectations and at times surpassing the member of the public’s expectation.
Without you, police officers, Batho Pele, will only remain an abstract mysterious and hallow word. Let us then continue to enrich this word by putting people first and giving them quality service at police stations.
I thank you all.
Media Enquiries:
Ms Nomsa Hani
Tel: 012 3934469 / 21 4677023
Cell: 0) 82 772 2053
E-mail: HaniNomsa@saps.gov.za or nomsa.hani@gmail.com
