Excellencies
Colleagues
All guests
All protocol observed
It is indeed an honour and a privilege to participate in this momentous occasion aimed at celebrating and honouring those dedicated and committed public servants in Africa and indeed globally for the sterling work they have done and continue to do in the reconstruction and development of the continent and the world.
Africa Public Service Day is celebrated a few days after World Refugee Day, a day that reminds all of us of the hardships brought about by political and economic turmoil in some countries on the continent. That is why we also need to pay homage to those public servants who, working with civil society organisations, went and still go a long way in easing the plight of refugees wherever they may find themselves.
We must, as we celebrate this day, acknowledge the critical role that an effective and efficient public service and dedicated and committed public servants play in the advancement and entrenchment of democratic processes in our respective countries.
Today Africa Public Service Day is an entrenched event on the calendars of a number of countries across the continent, indeed throughout the globe.
This day emanates from the declaration of the first Pan African Conference of Ministers of Public/Civil Service held in Tangier, Morocco in 1994, where leaders with foresight agreed that 23 June every year be celebrated as Africa Public Service Day to recognise the value and virtue of service to the community.
The road leading up to the adoption of this day has been a very long and arduous one. But today we proudly enjoy the fruits of our years of struggle and intense working.
The Extended Ministerial Bureau Meeting of the 5th Pan African Conference of the Ministers of Public/Civil Service in Africa Public Service Day celebrations in Windhoek, Namibia on 24 October 2007 resolved that the continental Africa Public Service Day be held on a biennial basis.
Amongst others this day enables public servants to reflect on the function of the public service, its mission, objectives, programmes and projects, successes and challenges.
Also to give recognition to and make known the importance of the civil service, its positive contribution and benefits to public servants, population, civil society, private sector and government.
Motivate and encourage public servants to contribute the good work done and to come up with new initiatives and innovations and prepare the public service and administration for a better future by proposing change for the social well being of the population.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have worked very hard and continue to work tirelessly towards the attainment of the noble vision and goals those who came before us had. That is why today is above all a day of celebration. We are here to celebrate our achievements since that noble proclamation in Morocco.
Perhaps the single most achievement was that we lived to the dictum that there is always something new out of Africa, isn’t it true that in response to an African initiative the United Nations General Assembly, on 20 December 2002, designated 23 June of each year as United Nations Public Service Day?
Isn’t that amazing?
Public Service Day recognises that democracy and successful governance are built on the foundation of a competent civil service. The day aims to celebrate the value and virtue of service to the community. That is why Public Service Day is not a public holiday and can never be a day on which public life is disrupted.
Ladies and gentlemen today we can stand before you to proclaim proudly that all of us as people united in a single purpose and vision have travelled a long way on the arduous journey of eradicating the widely held notion that the public service in Africa is a corrupt, bloated, underachieving entity made up of people who display a care-less attitude.
Today we can unashamedly say that we have gone some way in building a public service comprising of people who always strive to deliver speedy, courteous and empowering services to all regardless of race, colour or creed.
Its lodestar would always be an insatiable desire for professionalism; financial management; greater transparency and accountability and ensuring that as we forge greater continental and regional co-operation we create a developmental public administration.
In South Africa we realised quite early in our democracy that in order to, amongst others, continuously improve in the way we do things, we had to learn from and exchange best practices with our counterparts on the continent and in the world.
That is why we never hesitated in forging partnerships by joining organisations and bodies aimed at promoting co-operation in Africa and internationally.
We were aware that we needed to team up with academia, labour, business and civil-society organisations at home, regionally, on the continent and abroad if we had to truly realise our dream of being a shining example of a country at work to improve the lives of its citizens.
In the same way we realised that in promoting a continental public service that strives for professionalism, transparency and accountability, we need to stand side-by-side with like-minded organisations.
Yes we aligned ourselves with the vision of the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) programme and the aims of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, to mention but a few.
Through our participation in the activities of the African Peer Review Mechanisms and the Association of African Public Service Commissions we believe that we were able to assist one another to facilitate legislation and policies that would take care of the problems that bedevil the public service in Africa. We were able to act as one, because we are, after all, one continent. Through our participation we were able to share experience across historical colonial identities and regionalism, breaking down the barriers of Franco-phone, Luso-phone, Anglo-phone and other forms of segregatory and colonial identities.
But the question is have we moved with the requisite speed and urgency in forging good governance practices on the continent of Africa and indeed in our respective countries?
Have we moved far enough and quickly enough in building a public service which upholds the highest moral values, integrity and ethics and swears utmost transparency and efficiency?
Speaking at the summit of African Ministers of Public Service in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, some times ago, Honourable Madam Commissioner for Africa Affairs of the African Union, Mrs Julia Dolly Joiner, made the following observation on the relationship between political mandates and the role of the public service in societal transformation:
“Whereas political commitment is absolutely necessary for service delivery, this should not detract us from recognising that such commitment becomes meaningless without effective, efficient, innovative and responsive public service.”
What Honourable Madam Joiner admonishes us to take caution against is that though there is growing political commitment by Pan African Ministers to the ideals behind the 23 June Africa Public Service Day proclamation in Morocco in 1994, there are still pressing challenges, most of which have a direct relationship with the state of the public service across the continent.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen
The state of the public service on the continent at the time of Morocco declaration of Africa Public Service Day was on the throes of post-colonial mal-administration and post conflict lethargy. In the speech that I have already quoted from, Honourable Joiner reflects that the continental state of the public service was such “that at that time and on many occasions, the very idea of celebrating the Africa Public Service may seem to have been absurd to many,” adding “that for much too long, African Public Service Organisations were considered centres of consumption and corruption, rather than centres of innovation, partnerships and quality sustainable service delivery.”
While reflecting on the challenges we still face, our commemoration of Africa Public Service Day today should equally be about appreciating our commitment and passion to serve as public servants, we should celebrate our achievements in the vortex of global changes within which we operate. The Public Service Day (APSD) is about priding us towards ensuring and committing to the provision and delivery of value and quality service to all the citizens.
This day also afford us the opportunity to give due recognition of the working conditions and the calibre of officials who devote their lives to diligently and selflessly serving the public by putting people first. It is equally important to recognise that, the APSD celebration serve as a platform for the Public/civil service to showcase and reward good initiatives and achievements in the public sector.
Today is the day of celebration and recognition of our achievements in the public service both in the in the country and the continent wide. The 2009 theme for the APSD, namely, “delivery of quality service for sustainable development,” affords us an opportunity to take a deep breath in reflecting, acknowledging and appreciating on our achievements towards the implementation and sustenance of our policies and programmes towards a better life for all both in our country as well as in the continent.
What is worth celebrating?
Continental perspective:
The Pan African Conference of Ministers for Public/Civil Service Chaired by South Africa from 2004 to 2008 agreed in 2004 to observe a day by-annually in September to observe the Africa Public Service Day. The key objectives of the Africa Public Service Day is to rededicate public servants in Africa’s to the notion of humility in service to citizens, promotion of professionalism, establishment of working conditions that make it easy for the men and women of Africa who have dedicated themselves to public service, to acknowledge innovative public sector initiatives and to promote a shared approach to common public service challenges and home grown solutions on the continent.
During our tenure as Chair of the Africa Public/Civil Service Programme, South Africa led a process that revised the Africa Public Service Charter which was endorsed by the Conference of Public Service Ministers in South Africa in October 2008. This Charter will be discussed and hopefully adopted by the African United (AU) at the next sitting of the heads states. South Africa was also successful in facilitating a process that finalised the Continental Public/Service Long-Term Strategy. This strategy was adopted in October 2008 as the basic document driving the work of the programme of Ministers. I addition South Africa facilitated the establishment of the Continental Public Sector Innovations Awards which mean to acknowledge and encourage innovative public service delivery.
There is a general consensus among AU members state members that corrupt practices continued over the years to deny African societies their desperately needed resources that should be channelled towards development and poverty eradication. It is in this regard that, the question of fighting corruption is firmly on the agenda of the AU. There is a general realisation that integrated and effective combating of corruption requires that African states get involved in harmonisation and co-ordination of legislation and policy processes, and to establish joint anti-corruption instruments at regional and continental levels.
As a result, today during the 2009 APSD, it is worth celebrating the AU initiative of an African Union (AU) Convention on Combating Corruption and Related Offence. This initiative encourages member states to:
* enact and enforce criminal laws, which deal with corruption; adopt legislative mechanisms and procedures for the public to be able to raise complaints and concerns about corruption, including the protection of witnesses and whistle-blowers.
It is also important to note that on Saturday 19 June 2009, South Africa and all AU Member States commemorated the Day of the African Child. Even though much still needs to be done, South Africa has gone a long way in ensuring the human rights of children through service delivery.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen
As I speak, several other countries on the continent are similarly gathered to mark and celebrate this year’s Africa Public Service Day under the same theme, with Tanzania as the hub for 2009. The broader regional/continental celebrations continue to strengthen integration and co-ordination, promote learning and sharing and this is a positive step towards getting the desired sustainable developmental impact in the public service.
Country perspective
The government of the day continues to put in place, developmental and sustainable machinery of government that are geared towards facilitating access to quality services and enhancing robust participation through our intergovernmental development policies, frameworks and programmes across the three spheres.
The driving force is to ensure high level compliance with the implementation of Batho Pele by taking the services to the people and thus putting them first for real. For an example, the improved integrated service delivery through the Thusong Centres, Batho Pele gateway portal, the introduction of about 3 000 new cadre of public servants of a special kind called the Community Development Workers (CDWs) has gone an extra mile towards getting services closer to the people-linking people with government, the government intervention to strengthen the municipalities to improve on service delivery through project consolidates, the list is endless.
Another innovation worth celebrating as our achievement is the government’s endeavour towards bringing people closer by declaring The War on Poverty for real. This campaign was borne out of the reality that, government has over the years developed and implemented appropriate policies and programmes; however, there is still a major challenge in matching the deserving citizens with the appropriate service, hence the declaration on the war on poverty. Access to government services is further intensified through the “Know your service rights campaign” which seeks to empower and inform the citizens about their rights to service delivery as well as their responsibility to be part of the collective to sustain the government services put in place.
The success of the campaign is based on the notion that, in order to fight poverty for real, services should be delivered in an integrated manner whereby each department is given tasks related to its mandates and programmes, for an example:
Social Development addresses applications for grants, food parcels, etc.; Home Affairs addresses applications and issuing of the correct IDs; Education takes care of schooling, provision of school uniforms and school nutrition; Agriculture takes care of food production at household level by providing seeds for planting, as well as fruit trees; Public Works addresses possible employment of the household leaders either through the Expanded Publis Works Programme (EPWP), learnerships and internships, Public Enterprises looks at opportunities for internship of prospective artisans, etc.). All the departments then monitor the situation over three months for progress and identify areas of possible intervention for continuous improvement
The continuous efforts and achievements by government towards building the public sector, which is credible and corruption-free and that promotes good governance should be commended. In addition to legislative framework and its attendant institution, South Africa continues to use the effective instruments of multi-stakeholder anti-corruption summits which began in 2001 in order to drive the an-corruption message across all sector of society. In the same vain, of the 283 municipalities, 227 of them have successfully instituted local government anti-corruption strategies to handle the scourge.
The government has notice earlier that later the need and the significance of putting in place mechanisms that support and promote public participation and citizen focus through robust dialogue and platforms, for an example, the Izimbizo.
One of the major achievements for the country and the continent at large is the current huge infrastructure development programme that is taking place across the three spheres of government to make the build stadiums and other related developments including boosting of hospitality tourism to ensure the success of FIFA Confederation Cup and 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The successful hosting of the 2009 Confederation Cup is a major milestone towards the attainment of the government programme of action. The success thereof, also showcase to the world that South Africa and Africa at large are ready to host a successful World Class World Soccer tournament in 2010, “Africa Ke Nako.”
Ladies and gentlemen, we all know that the June months is a special month in South Africa dedicated to our youth. The launching of the National Youth Development Agency is viewed as a victory for youth development in our country.
Over and above celebrating the centrality of public service in bringing about a better life for all citizens of South Africa, the region and the continent, the other equally essential purpose of Africa Public Service Day is to create a platform for showcasing public sector best practices as well as opening up spaces for civil participation and inputs.
It is for this reason that in South Africa, the 2009 celebration of Public Service Day will be followed by a dedicated Public Service Week which is an outreach programme, taking place throughout the country in which public service frontline departments and municipalities further demonstrate their contractual obligations to the general populace. We are privileged to collaborate with the City of Tshwane as our national hub for the 2009 celebrations. This strategic partnership showcases the reality of the Single Public Service as highlighted by our President in his State of the Nation Address on 3 June 2009.
I am excited to announce that the public servants sports day which is co-ordinated at the national and the provincial spheres, will take place country-wide on the 27 June 2009 and it coincide with our major African soccer event, namely the Confederation Cup 2009. I am well briefed that, the Department of Public Service and Administration has co-ordinated a dedicated multi-departmental task teams made up of public servants passionate about sports have being having regular plenary meetings which were chaired by the Department of Sports.
As a result, sporting codes ranging from tennis, cricket, soccer (male and female), netball, volleyball and indigenous games will form part of the celebrations on the day. As a result of good participation, the knock-out games for soccer and netball took place on 20 June 2009; therefore, the 27th will be commemorated through the loser’s final and the final on the side of netball and soccer. May be best department win, but most of all celebrate your ability as a public servant for making the public service as the employer of choice.
The Public Service Week, which begins on the 29 June, is similar in spirit to government Izimbizo outreach programmes, but differs in the sense that its emphasis is on facilitating positive service delivery outcomes on the coalface rather than consultation and interaction with political heads.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen
In conclusion, as we get down to the business of the day, I would like us to ensure that as we are gathered here today to reflect, celebrate, interrogate and plot future action in the context of this year’s Africa Public Service Day theme, we have to continuously ask ourselves reflective questions of how are we going to go about strengthening and ensuring the provision of quality service in a sustainable manner to all the citizens of South Africa and the Continent at large?”.
As we engage in this regard, it is important to come up with mechanisms and resolutions geared towards the provision of sustainable quality service delivery that take into account:
* the need to have a citizen’s focus approach towards sustainable quality service delivery
* the importance to strengthen and forge strong and effective partnerships through the involvement of non-state actors
* the need for innovation in service delivery to ensure continuous improvement
* the enhancement of service delivery through information and communication technology (ICT).
As we celebrate the Africa Public Service Day today, I am assured of the assistance of an expert array of panel members as our guide in assisting us to come up with a collective response and solution towards the above real issues.
I encourage the public servants at their different provincial, departmental, municipal hubs, the different sectors, and citizens at home to be actively involved in the discussions, through questions and comments which can be made through sms’ and phone calls as the appropriate numbers have been provided. Through these, we can have a more inclusive and robust discussions which will enable us to do more, achieve more, and celebrate more together.
Wishing you a constructive and fruitful Africa Public Service Day
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Social Development
23 June 2009
