17 March 2009
Good morning
Welcome to the last briefing of the Governance and Administration Cluster in
the current term of government.
Introduction
Government's critical focus since 1994 has been to democratise the State and
improve its ability to better the lives of all our people. Working together
with our people we set ourselves the task of ensuring that we create a state
that is responsive to the needs of all the people of the country â A state that
would, amongst others, ensure that basic services were available to all
regardless of race, colour, gender or creed.
We were under no illusion that this task would need the total overhaul of
the system we inherited and the co-operation of all the citizens of South
Africa. We knew that unless we transformed the fragmented public service and
put in its place new structures, systems and a new way of doing things, all our
efforts would be in vain.
The construction of the democratic state is work in progress. The first
decade saw major advances in this regard. They included the adoption of a
democratic Constitution, unification of the fragmented apartheid state through
the merger of separate entities, and restructuring of the public service. The
policy and legislative framework for reconstruction and development was
formalised. A new system of provincial and local government was established.
Systems to integrate and co-ordinate government within and across the three
spheres were introduced.
The experience of the past five years, has brought to the fore limitations
of, but also the potential to enhance, state capacity to advance the goals of
reconstruction and development.
Today South Africa boosts of a Constitutional democracy. We have strong
representative institutions and an independent judiciary.
Democratic transformation and public participation
Successive policies and laws have helped deepen participatory democracy, while
ensuring that we plant the seeds of a new and developmental public servant.
Through our mechanisms, which include Izimbizo, ward committees, Thusong
Service Centres and community development workers (CDW), we ensured that we
broaden community participation.
Since 2001 we have regularly held Izimbizo, gone on provincial executive
outreach programmes and increased the number of Thusong centres to 135.
We also have well over 3 000 CDWs and have ward committees in 98 percent of our
municipal wards.
Traditional leadership
The Constitution provides for recognition of traditional leadership in the
democratic dispensation. Several pieces of national and provincial legislation
give effect to this provision, establishing a house of traditional leaders,
defining the relationship to local government and specifying powers in the
allocation of communal land.
Following Cabinet's approval of the establishment of the Department of
Traditional Leadership last year, work has been done to ensure that the
department starts functioning from 1 April 2009. The establishment of the
department will ensure that matters of traditional leadership are dealt with at
the highest level of management within government.
Promoting good governance
We have gone a long way in promoting good governance. Today our people have
access to information in the State's possession.
The guiding principle in dealing with the people is that the people come
first. The Batho Pele principles have ensured that the way public servants
interact with the public improves.
Fighting public-sector corruption
Fighting corruption has preoccupied successive democratic governments.
Government has steadily strengthened its hand to deal with corruption through
the special investigating units and Special Tribunals Act, 1996, Public Service
Anti-Corruption Strategy (2002) and the combating of Corrupt Activities Act,
2004.
Three anti-corruption summits between 2001 and 2008 have extended the fight
against corruption to all of society.
As part of the rollout of the Local Government Anti-Corruption Strategy, 227
municipalities now have fraud prevention plans or anti-corruption strategies in
place. The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) has developed
a conflict of interest framework for officials in the public service to deal
with issues of corruption.
Public service and local government capacity
The first 10 years saw remarkable progress in unifying separate civil services
into an integrated public service. The public service is now also more
representative of society. Planning, monitoring and evaluation are being
strengthened and we are continuously strengthening the management capacity of
the public service.
Improving service delivery
The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is improving operational management at
civic services. The processing of enabling documents, including identity
documents, birth, marriage and death certificates, has improved, and the
turnaround times reduced drastically. Management of information statistics from
the identity document (ID) Track and Trace system is being used on an ongoing
basis to monitor provincial and head office performance. The monitoring of
service level agreements and regular meetings with XPS Courier services has
resulted in improved turn-around times in relation to the delivery IDs between
the various DHA centres.
Public participation
The department has launched a communication programme to inform citizens to
collect their IDs. Home affairs is currently producing an average of 120 000
IDs a month. There are currently 344 501 uncollected IDs at offices
countrywide.
People who have lost their IDs are also being encouraged to apply for a
replacement ID.
Once an applicant has applied for a reissue they can request a temporary
identity certificate (TIC) to use while waiting for their ID to be produced.
Registered voters may make use of a valid temporary identity certificate (TIC)
for voting purposes if they do not have their green bar-coded identity
document. However the department requests that people do not apply for a second
ID if they still have their first ID in their possession. Recent research
indicated that 67 percent of applicants did not bother to fetch their IDs
because they still had another in their possession.
Despite the uncollected or unclaimed IDs, the Human Science Research Council
(HSRC) reports that 97 percent of people on the voters roll have IDs to vote
while Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has managed to reach 23 million
voter registration entry on the roll.
Fraudulent deaths
DHA stepped up systems and called on people who found that they were
fraudulently declared dead while they are indeed alive to visit Home Affairs
offices. People can still make use of the call centre (0800 60 11 90 toll free)
to confirm their "Live" status. New programming is being put on the Track and
Trace System, as an additional self-help facility for people to check "live"
status via SMS and internet.
Office refurbishment
The department has refurbished 13 offices and is in the process of refurbishing
31 other offices countrywide.
The 13 refurbished offices to date are the following: Limpopo: Musina,
Praktiseer; North West: Molopo, Temba; Free State: Botshabelo; Eastern Cape:
Mount Frere, Lady Frere; Gauteng: Alexandra, Kempton Park, Soshanguve,
Vanderbijlpark; Mpumalanga: Piet Retief, Nelspruit; KwaZulu-Natal (KZN):
Tongaat, Amajuba.
DHA Client Contact Centre
The contact centre continues to perform exceptionally well, currently 98
percent of calls received at the Client Contact Centre were responded to within
20 seconds against the annual target of 80 percent.
Enhancing security
Online fingerprint verification
As part of the ongoing initiatives to ensure that it provides reliable
support to the private sector and other government departments, the Department
of Home Affairs met with the banking sector to look at the optimisation of the
online fingerprint verification.
The online fingerprint verification system has been instrumental in reducing
fraudulent access to the ID.
New passport system
A new passport machine has been installed and is currently being tested. With
the arrival of the new technology the department will be introducing a new
passport, with added security features, in April 2009.
ID smart card
Preparations to migrate from the green bar-coded ID book to a smart ID card are
well underway. However delays in the awarding, by State Information Technology
Agency (SITA) of the tender to produce the ID smart card, meant that the smart
ID card could not be piloted in December 2008 as planned.
Anti-corruption
As part of home affairs' programme to eradicate corruption within its ranks,
the counter-corruption unit has been working, together with South African
Police Service (SAPS) and National Intelligence Agency (NIA), to identify,
investigate and criminally charge officials involved in fraud and corruption.
Joint investigations are also being undertaken into syndicates using fraudulent
South African documents to smuggle people into the country. In December 2008,
six other officials were arrested in Pretoria and Springs in one incident
involving fraudulent documents. Out of this, three have been discharged from
the public service. Another person linked to a fraudulent document syndicate,
was arrested in Lebowakgomo, Limpopo on Monday, 9 February 2009). This brings
to 67 the number of home affairs officials that have been arrested in the past
12 months.
Integration of planning
There is also more integrated planning across all spheres of government.
Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) were adopted by all municipalities, which
represents a 100 percent adoption rate.
Targeted groups
Apartheid's legacy of disadvantage and inequity weighs most heavily on sectors
of society least well-placed to take advantage of the opportunities of
democracy. For this reason, government has taken measures targeted at
redressing inequities and promoting social justice for women, persons with
disabilities, children and youth.
The recently launched JobACCESS Strategic Framework on the recruitment,
employment and retention of persons with disabilities in the public service is
one example of our determination to serve our people. The framework aims to
strengthen compliance on the employment targets for people with disabilities in
the public service.
Quality of service delivery
We have very briefly sketched our achievements. And in so doing acknowledge
that the quality of service the public receives needs much improvement in many
areas, informed by a stronger ethos of public service.
The macro-structure of the state is well established and fairly functional.
The experience of working with the new co-ordinating mechanisms has brought new
insights into what is needed to achieve the degree of integration that is
necessary to achieve maximum impact.
The skills challenge
Understanding the performance of the state over the 15 years requires insight
into the environment in which it operates. Much has been done to transform and
democratise the state.
The challenges of state capacity are less to do with shortage of financial
and other resources than with skills and institutional arrangements efficiently
and effectively to deploy these resources. Service-delivery improvements are
having some impact, but it is clear that local government faces a twin
challenge of resources, and skills and systems, a challenge that is sometimes
met by filling posts with people who do not have suitable skills.
Capacity Development Programme
In order to improve skills in the public service we have adopted a number of
strategies. The Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy
(PALAMA) (successor to the South African Management Development Institute
SAMDI)) was inaugurated in August 2008, with a programme to bring about a large
boost in public-service training in co-operation with other training
institutions.
PALAMA recently signed partnership agreements with fifteen universities in
three consortia to roll out the Executive Development Programme (EDP). These
agreements will see the institutions train 1 000 senior public servants every
year in the "hard skills" they need to manage and lead the public service at
provincial and national level much more effectively than hitherto.
PALAMA is able to make a major contribution towards ensuring that the public
service has the skills it needs to meet the economic and social challenges
facing us as South Africans during this difficult period globally. Apart from
universities, PALAMA has also developed a close partnership with academies and
training units within provinces and local governments.
PALAMA has developed a four-day credit programme on Gender Mainstreaming
Programme for managers in the public service. It is being rolled out and
attended by managers in the public service at national and provincial levels.
The one-day M&E and performance management courses were piloted with senior
managers in KZN in December 2008 and a total of 291 officials have participated
in various M&E courses.
A total of 16 000 public servants were trained from April 2008 to January
2009 on the Massified Induction Programme (MIP). This represents a 43 percent
achievement against the 2008/09 target of 37 000. Strategies are in place to
help improve the uptake of this programme and this includes a drive by PALAMA
to present on MIP in top management meetings across the public service to
ensure management endorsement and therefore improvement in participation levels
by departments.
Technical deployments
Over 1 283 technical experts had been deployed to 268 municipalities since the
commencement of Project Consolidate in 2005 to the end of December 2008. These
have been in the areas of engineering (civil), finance (billing systems), town
and regional planning (IDPs), project management and human resources
development. Stakeholders include national sector departments like the
Department of Local Government (dplg), Department of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism (DEAT), Department of Water Affairs (DWAF), Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI) and National Treasury. Partnering stakeholders include the
Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) (Siyenza Manje Programme), Department
for International Development (DFID), Ilima Trust, United Nation Development
Programme (UNDP), German Technical Co-operation (GTZ), South African Institute
for Civil Engineers (SAICE), South African Association of Consulting Engineers
(SAACE), Institute of Municipal Finance Officers (IMFO) and United State Agency
for International Development (USAID).
Skills audit
As part of the Local Government (LG) Skills Audit, 785 (54,5 percent) of 1 441
Municipal and Section 57 Managers have completed generic competence assessments
in all 283 municipalities. Further, 8 568 (58,3 percent) of 14 693 employees in
23 municipalities, and the employees in one financial business unit in a metro
below section 57 level completed competence-based skills audit questionnaires.
Information was also gathered from 76 of 91 (83,5 percent) occupations in 53 of
57 (20 percent) municipalities targeted for the organisational development (OD)
work stream. This is to arrive at baseline information on the proposed number
of employees required per occupation, for providing an acceptable level of
service in relation to the number of households a municipality is responsible
to provide services to.
Performance Management System
The implementation of the Performance Management Systems (PMS) in
municipalities has greatly improved with 223 municipalities having developed or
reviewed their PMS frameworks. Of the 223 that have been developed or reviewed,
172 have been adopted by municipal councils. The establishment of Internal
Audit Committees has also increased from 65 percent (184 out of 283) to 78
percent (220 out of 283.
Filling of posts at senior management
Local Government â Municipal Manager Posts as at January 2009
Positions: 283
Filled: 251
Vacant: 32
Women in posts: 20 (nine percent)
Signed Performance Agreements: 176 (70 percent)
Provincial and national Government â Senior Management Service Posts as at
January 2009
Positions: 1 475
Filled: 1 218 (83,3 percent)
Vacancy rate:
Northern Cape â 31 percent
Free State â 19 percent
North West â 16 percent
Western Cape â 13 percent
KwaZulu-Natal â eight percent
Limpopo â 6,6 percent
Eastern Cape â four percent
Mpumalanga - ?
Gauteng â 0 percent
Signed Performance Agreements: 83 percent
Gauteng province maintains 100 percent employment rate.
Major lessons
One of the major lessons of the first 15 years of democratic government was the
need to improve the performance of the state. While this need was acted on in
many ways in the current mandate period, major trends requiring strategic
attention have manifested themselves. They relate to matters critical to the
capacity of the country to harness the commitment, energy and resources of
society in joint action to advance towards the goals of democracy and
development.
Completing the 2004-2009 mandate
Tasks to completed:
* 150 municipalities were identified to be supported in the development of
their fraud prevention plans. 10 percent remain to be supported.
* The second National Anti-corruption Programme will be finalised.
* The Conflict of Interest Framework for the Public Service will be presented
to Cabinet.
* The Impact Appraisal on the National Anti-corruption Framework will be
presented to Cabinet.
* Continuously address the target of employing women in management
positions.
* Implementation of the Local Government Strategic Agenda (2006-2011) is
ongoing.
* Implementation of Human Resource Management Strategic Frameworks for the
Public Service is ongoing.
* Implementation of public service and local government skills audits is
ongoing.
* The rollout of the Accelerated Development Programme will commence in March
2009.
* Work to establish information and communication technology (ICT) connectivity
and general service counters at Thusong Centres is continuing.
That in brief ladies and gentlemen, is our scorecard.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
17 March 2009
