P Mlambo-Ngcuka: Shared Services in Public Sector Conference

24 August 2007

Programme director
Gauteng Premier, Mr Mbhazima Shilowa
MECs, Mayors, Directors-General
Chief Executive Officer of the Gauteng Shared Service Centre, Mr Mike
Maile
Chief Executive Officer of the Gauteng Economy Development Agency, Mr Keith
Khoza
Chief Executive Officer of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad)
Secretariat
Business executives
Officials from the three spheres of government
Ladies and gentlemen:

August is Women's Month

This conference takes place during the month of August, which is celebrated
in our country as women's month. It is a time when we pause to remember the
sacrifices women made during the struggle against apartheid. It is also a time
when we consider the wide range of work women do in building our nation. We pay
tribute to the women who are active in all sectors of our society. We also pay
tribute to the mothers whose work, love and care sustains and builds our
families, and our nation.

Women gains

In this month of August, we also reflect on the many gains women have made
in a new democratic South Africa, and we also reflect on the many challenges
women still face in our country. In women's month we recommit ourselves as
government, business and civil society to ensure the further strengthening of
women's equality and empowerment in our society.

Conference is a Public-Private Partnership

I wish to congratulate all of you as I understand that this is the first
conference of its kind, which has been spearheaded by the Gauteng Provincial
Government, in partnership with the International Quality and Productivity
Centre and a number of private sector partners including: Sasuka Channel,
Hewlett Packard, ABSA, INDIGO, Grant Thornton, Microsoft, BMG, CISCO, and the
Southern African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI).

Summarising the three days of conference

I understand that participants at this Gauteng Shared Services Conference
have spent the past three days discussing shared public services.

What the conference discussed

Your fruitful deliberations, I understand, touched on principles, concepts,
latest trends and developments, which would accelerate the pace and efficiency
of service delivery to citizens.

Batho Pele (People First)

I am sure that your discussions during this conference upheld and
re-enforced the Public Service and Administrations' Policy of Batho Pele
(People First).

The July 2007 mid-year Cabinet Lekgotla

Government reviewed the implementation of its Programme of Action at the
mid-year Cabinet Lekgotla in July this year. Whilst the overall assessment was
that government was making progress, there was agreement on:

1) the need to identify interventions, which would further accelerate
service delivery, and
2) the need to increase government's capacity and efforts in partnership with
society, so as to meet our developmental goals.

Eradicating poverty and inequality

Programme director, our government is committed to eradicating poverty and
inequality in our society. In order to do this, we need to accelerate the
delivery of government's services. We need to accelerate a shared economic
growth and we need to continue to educate and train our people. We also need to
ensure that grassroots people share in our growing economy.

Crime and economic opportunities

Crime remains a huge challenge for all of us. Whilst I am not going to
excuse the behaviour of criminals, I do want to make the point that crime has
deep socio-economic roots. As a country, we need to deal with these problems in
an open, constructive and productive manner. We need to work in Community
Policing Forums, and at the same time we need to create economic opportunities
for the marginalised that remain outside of the mainstream economy.

A life without hope

I pose this question to all the participants: Can you image a life where you
have not passed matric, where you have no marketable skills, where you live in
an informal settlement, where you stand on the street hoping someone will stop
and give you a casual job for the day. Can you imagine a day when you come home
and you do not have money to buy your children food? Can you imagine a life
without electricity or water on tap? Can you imagine a life where your home is
a shack and it becomes flooded with water each winter? Can you imagine living a
life without hope? I put it to this conference that too many of our people
still live in abject poverty, under appalling conditions and these scenarios
are not a theory to them!

A ray of hope

Programme director, the Presidency recently published the Development
Indicators Mid-term Review, which said amongst other things, that by September
2006, there had been a decrease in poverty after 2000.

The statistic says that in 2000, 50 percent of the population lived under
three thousand R3000 per annum, and in September 2006, forty three (43) percent
of people lived below three thousand R3000 per annum. So we have made progress
in reducing poverty, but the progress is still too slow.

Public Service needs to be more innovative

I am sure we all agree that we, as a collective, need to do something about
the acute poverty many people still face. Programme director, I want to urge
public servants to do even better, to be more innovative and to achieve more in
terms of service delivery.

Business has an important role to play

I want to urge our partners in the private sector to strengthen
collaboration with government and social stakeholders. A small project funded
and supported by a business can make a big difference to the lives of a
community. The business sector has an important role to play in transferring
skills to small, medium and micro-enterprises. So, programme director, I
actually wanted to say that all these wonderful deliberations of the past few
days only makes sense within the context of building our nation and eradicating
poverty.

Empowering our citizens

Lastly, as government we have a vision to empower people. We do not want our
people to remain forever dependent on social grants. We want our people to
become productive, independent citizens. For that to happen you and I need to
help transform the Public Service, so that we empower our citizens especially
the women to fend for themselves.

I want to wish you all well as you leave this conference. May your ideas,
discussions and debates find a practical expression in the way we all work.

I thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
24 August 2007
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za)