Z Mkhize: Public Sector Human Resources Convention

19 September 2007

Programme Director
Human Resource practitioners
Representatives from businesses
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

On behalf of the Premier, let me first express my appreciation to all of you
for travelling to KwaZulu-Natal from your provinces to share your views on this
important matter. The theme for this convention is appropriately entitled,
"Transforming Human Resources Management in the Public Sector: From
transactional management to boardroom strategic partnerships" The theme for
this convention speaks to the critical need for senior executives to ensure
that Human Resource function shift from an operational function to a strategic
one if government is to succeed to develop and retain skilled personnel.

This year's convention provides a snapshot of your successes as Human
Resources practitioners but more importantly the opportunity to identify gaps
and bottlenecks, and to propose improvements. Strengthened human resources
management is needed to ensure that this country make substantial progress
toward reducing poverty, fighting diseases and growing the economy.

Progress has been made in improving service delivery but there is much still
to be done. There is an urgent need to close the gap between all policies that
we have put in place and the reality of people's experiences in the
workplace.

The release of the White Paper on Human Resources Management in 1997 ushered
in an era of co-operation between government as an employer and its workforce.
Government broadly announced that "the management of workers should be regarded
as a significant task for those who have been charged with the responsibility
and should be conducted in a professional manner." In drafting the White Paper,
government and stakeholders had recognised that Human Resource practitioners
are in a unique position to understand and assist in a national effort to
better the lives of our people.

Government Human Resources framework which came into being in 1999 provides
for the establishment of a flexible management that takes into account both the
operational needs of the organisation and the needs of employees. In short, the
framework seeks to ensure that Human Resource practitioners understand their
workforce's experiences and then act on their experiences to improve working
conditions.

Your task is to provide leadership to improve morale in your departments.
Key to this will be your ability to communicate the government's programme of
action to million of civil servants who are tasked with the responsibility to
make this democracy meaningful to the ordinary citizens.

Skills shortage

Since 1997, staff turnover and shortage of skilled personnel still remains
the most serious threats to effective service delivery. I have no doubt that
all of us here agree about the negative consequences of skills shortage on the
lives of ordinary people.

Quite interestingly, during my interaction with academics, business leaders
and government officials from India recently, I have learned that the country
has put in place a plan to secure the supply of skilled personnel for the
country's labour market and plans are underway to position India as a "Skills
Capital" of the world. The Confederation of Indian Industries says by 2020
there will be a 50 percent shortage of priority skills in the English speaking
world and when that happens, India wants to be a global skills supplier.

What are we doing as the country?

The South African government is pursuing the objectives of New Partnership
for Africa's Development (Nepad). One of the desired outcomes of Nepad is to
ensure that the continent accelerates the pace of achieving a set of African
development goals, particularly human development.

There is shared commitment:

* to place African countries, both individually and collectively, on a path
of sustainable growth and development
* to halt the marginalisation of Africa in the globalisation process and
enhance its full and beneficial integration into the global economy.

In view of challenges posed by globalisation, it becomes extremely important
to ensure that our human resources development strategy focuses on developing
and supporting the government's workforce. Globalisation is redefining the
skills and knowledge that workers need. Companies are following talent wherever
that talent is. As economies become ever more sophisticated and ever more
integrated, countries are competing for skilled and talented people. On the
continent, South Africa is the most affected by the poaching of staff.

And the key to the future of skills development in this country is the
national strategic leadership which should be provided by Human Resources
practitioners. They play a critical role in linking the country's needs with
employer and employee needs, therefore, they should be at the forefront of
government's drive aimed at creating an environment where skilled personnel
will enjoy long prosperous careers.

There is a distinct relationship between good governance by the state and
economic growth and stability. Our effective participation in the global
economy as the continent is dependent on how well do we look after our valuable
assets, the workforce. The way in which we develop our workforce must undergo a
fundamental transition. We must move away from a content-focused model to a
capacity building model that produces adaptable and creative thinking
workforce. The ongoing training of the workforce is important not only for our
overall economic wellbeing; it actually makes the critical difference in life
outcomes for individuals too.

It is increasingly becoming clear that information technology has become
central to globalisation and to economic development. We should be able to
prepare workers to take advantage of the convergence of communication
technology. ICT has come a long way in the past two decades. Future advances
are now focusing on technology, and more on what it does to improve service
delivery.

Government has developed the e-government policy with the intention to
advance the interests of ordinary citizens. This is in line with the Batho
Pele, People First principles. In this way the e-government policy seeks to
encourage accountability and to transform the public sector. E-government
enables access to information, empowering citizens to know where to access
services.

In July, government announced the implementation of the Information Society
Development Plan, which seeks to increase the usage of Information and
Communications Technologies (ICTs) across the three spheres of government as a
means of improving public service delivery. The phenomenon of using ICT to
raise productivity has helped several nations to achieve higher levels of real
growth and increasing standards of living.

Part of provincial government's strategy has been to examine the ICT sector
as part and parcel of the broader economy. Initiatives such as the ICT and
Electronics cluster impart skills and contribute to building a network of
highly skilled workforce. Our vision is to make KwaZulu-Natal a vibrant,
innovative, fully inclusive knowledge society with a strong ICT and electronics
brand. We want to make KwaZulu-Natal an example of an environment where ICT and
Electronic-based innovation flourishes for the benefit of all communities even
in remote rural communities.

For few years, the provincial government has been introducing a number of
reforms to improve public service. These changes have been made to also keep up
with the rising demand of our communities who have become more conscious of
their rights which are enshrined in the constitution.

But the single most crucial reform was the launch of the Public Service
Training Academy this year. At the launch, KwaZulu-Natal Premier said "the
public service should be staffed by personnel who have the knowledge, skills,
values and attitudes needed in a developmental state that is working towards
creating a better life for all." He further pointed out: "The focus of concern
in this instance is always the quality of service to the public, measured by
its accessibility and openness, its speed of delivery and its fairness, to
mention a few."

We need to convert the bureaucratic administrators into managers who lead by
inspiration, example and are driven by the targets set to achieve agreed
objectives within the expected timeframes and within the budgeted resources;
ever improving on quality of service rendered more efficiently i.e. realising
savings of available resources.

We need practitioners with a problem solving mindset, not those who are
problem seekers in the face of many opportunities to advance.

Of importance in the mind of today's managers, should not be how things have
always been done, but innovation, and creativity through the utilisation of
modern proven systems and appropriate technology, all of which enables the
manager to plan ahead whilst being in a position to monitor and evaluate
progress and performance together with capacity to match the unavailable skills
with the requirements of the job at hand and create a combination which yields
the intended results.

Today's management world has no place for indecision and decision making by
procrastination; the usual "time will tell" approach.

A manager today has global experience to tap from through the use of
internet and current information technology. A manager must know his and her
limitations and shortfalls and procure services to supplement any weakness in
the system of management.

The manager in a public service which constitutes a developmental state has
to be vastly different to the conventional civil servant as inherited from the
apartheid state.

The underlying ethos of service to a democratic state as a vehicle for
fulfilment of popular needs and aspirations of masses of people who have just
been liberated from centuries of oppression calls for a new and transformed
civil service. Such a civil service should be driven by the passion to rapidly
offer redress for backlogs to ensure that people can testify to the spirit of
freedom ushered in 1994.

There is no place for indolence, shifting of papers and rocking on chairs
waiting for tea breaks, taking extended lunchtime and early departure from
duty.

There is no place for rudeness to ordinary people and attitude of
superiority to people who are responsible for your employment and retirement
package. There is no space for party loyalties to determine which community
will or will not receive services.

A developmental state require civil servants who are deeply committed to the
principles of fairness, honesty, integrity, humble service to the people and
justice for all. Their moral standing has to be in keeping with the trust that
the voting populace has bestowed on the government of the day. Concerns of
voters and the public in general have to be addressed with speed and a sense of
responsibility.

There is no place for fraudsters and corrupt individuals in the service of
new South Africa. The member of the civil service who admitted under the
amnesty of the Department of Social Welfare and Population Development that
they were corrupt and deliberately abused the pension grants destined for
orphans, the destitute and vulnerable, the aged and the sick, was an
embarrassing shock. Maybe we need a voluntary peer review mechanism to control
all untoward and wayward conduct in public service.

There are many whose conduct has caused communities to lose faith in the
ability and integrity of our government through their conduct.

I am mentioning all these issues because the record of internal disciplinary
processes and the forensic audit as well as record of prosecution of civil
servants has demonstrated that revolutionary morality and integrity has eluded
some despite their commendable academic achievements.

We need a new cadre of civil servants; a loyal, trusted and committed
servant of our people whose daily dream is to escape from the quagmire of
poverty they inherited both as individuals and as communities.

We need to remember that in a globalised world we need an efficient
machinery to steer our new democracy to become a model of good governance and
the epic centre of efficiency in management which will give the dignity that
the governments in the African continent deserve.

Maybe the human resource management should be seen as encompassing the
development and nurturing of the humane aspect of our workface emphasising on
empathy, respect, honesty, loyalty, integrity and humility above all else, in
order for our government's objective creating a caring and human society to be
realised.

The culture of human rights must not be a slogan on the posters preached by
all but it must be felt by our people on daily basis as they approach
government offices for services.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I trust the convention will have time to look at the softer
side of the skills that human resources management requires. I look forward to
your views on ways to ensure that this government responds effectively to the
needs of the majority of our people. For us, government is about people, since
it is about people, your discussions should revolve around making sure that
government's workforce is properly empowered to serve the community

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Finance and Economic Development, KwaZulu-Natal
Provincial Government
19 September 2007