Welcome and opening address by Premier TSP Makwetla at the Mpumalanga SMS Conference
16 March 2006
The Executive Mayor of Emalahleni, Clr Linah Malatji,
Members of the Executive Council,
The Director-General of Mpumalanga, Mr Khaya Ngema,
Distinguished senior managers of the Public Service,
municipalities and parastatals,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. We gather here today a few weeks after the people of this province once again reaffirmed their continued support for the ANC as the leading force for meaningful change.
For the past eleven years we have been hard at work in our effort to improve the lives of our people. We have made considerable advances with regard to ensuring that more people have access to shelter, health, education, clean water, electricity and other basic needs. Even more people have opportunities to improve their lives, to become educated and acquire skills, and to help build a better South Africa. The economy is growing and is creating more jobs, enabling us to reduce poverty.
We managed to do all these things because quite early in our democracy we took a conscious decision to depart from apartheid bureaucracy and ensure that resources of the country benefit all citizens, without regard to colour, creed, race or gender. We democratised all institutions of government and ensured that we put in place a public service that is responsive to the needs of the people.
Today we look back at a public service that has made significant strides in extending basic services to the disadvantaged; a public service more representative of the people it serves and more accountable to the electorate. But as we continue to build a very strong Public Service, based on merit, competence and non-partisanship, we realise that we are faced with some daunting challenges.
It is ironic that while the expenditure on basic services such as health, welfare and education has grown rapidly since the dawn of the new democratic order, these and other basic needs have been slow in reaching some of our people, particularly those in the rural areas. Does this result from a lack of capacity to deliver, or is it because of lack of planning? This inability to remain true to our promise has had major implications on government's ability to sustain some of the commendable initiatives to deliver quality services.
Last month we promised a number of things to the people of this province. Speaking through the Legislature, we told the people of Mpumalanga that through large project such as the Moloto Development Corridor and the Water Infrastructure project Mpumalanga will become a job-creating and poverty-alleviating hive of activity.
We also undertook to continue to improve access to primary health care, especially to our people in remote areas. We also undertook to rehabilitate many of our hospitals and augment the capacity of some of our clinics through the Hospital Revitalisation Programme and improve health facility management by among other things, appointing CEO's to each hospital by April.
We also promised to ring changes in the school nutrition programme and commence with the Matric Revitalisation Project. To sponsor dialogue on the feasibility of building agro-villages as a sustainable way to provide labour to the farming sector, strengthen the Masibuyele emasimini project and provide pre-and post settlement support to those communities that have received land as part of the restitution process.
We promised to build more houses, clinics and schools. And fast-track the establishment of the National Institute For Higher Learning. We also promised to ensure that all the necessary infrastructure, from the construction of the new stadium and bulk infrastructure, to the provision of health and hospitality facilities are of global standards.
The Mpumalanga Government promised to nurture and cultivate partnerships with other provinces globally, and get better at mobilising capacity of all stakeholders in support of national developmental goals. We also promised to launch an executive development programme by June. We undertook to strengthen recruitment and selection, performance management as well as coaching and mentoring.
And, we promised that we would re-open unused municipal offices as MPCC's to enhance service delivery.
This workshop is held primarily in order to ensure that those whose function it is to co-ordinate the implementation of these and other projects, understand the task at hand.
It is you who must concretise government's vision of a better life for all through effective implementation strategies and policies and the efficient utilisation of resources. I need not remind you that in this demanding environment there can be no place for mediocrity or lack of commitment. Only the finest candidates, imbued with a spirit of selfless service to the community will find a place. As leaders, you can clearly signal your demand for excellence from those around you. There is no other way. Excellence has to be at the core of our role if we are serious about ensuring that we accelerate and improve service delivery.
A key ingredient of success in both public and private undertaking is the steadfast and unrelenting focus on the established vision, which by its nature must be strategic. The vision to create a better life for the people of South Africa is deserving of such resilient focus that brooks no distractions and diversions. The imperative to ensure a higher standard of living for our people is not simply political. It is also to the interests of those currently living a better life that the rest of society should enjoy the fruits of economic prosperity in order to make such socio-economic improvements sustainable for everybody. It is common knowledge that for as long as slums remain, suburbs must be gated and walled-in to the maximum.
For the public service, the vision for socio economic development is embodied in the principles of Batho Pele. All these principles, in addition to the need to know and understand them, must be taken beyond being mere slogans to become operational in our daily work.
A perusal of the national budget over the past couple of years, suggests that financial resources have long ceased to be a constraint to delivery. We have more money than we are able to spend. In fact, it is becoming ever so embarrassing to talk of high levels of poverty and in the same breath confirm huge revenue collections that cannot easily be allocated to public investments such as infrastructure. Unfortunately, the intermittent nature of economic business cycles suggests that this honeymoon of revenue overruns is a window of opportunity that must be exploited fully. When economic downturns occur, they must find us ahead in terms of the delivery of services and the resultant capacity of the population to withstand them.
This conference must amongst others, adopt a constraints analysis approach in order to unlock value by undermining key sources of non-delivery. Some of these sources include the following:
It is becoming increasingly apparent that we need to bolster our project management capacity . Weaknesses in this area need to be addressed from project conception, feasibility studies, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. In this respect, this conference should explore the possibility of setting up a professional project support office.
Flimsy planning leads to flimsy results. On the other hand, rigorous planning that recognizes the multiyear nature of projects and is not myopically focused on one budget cycle will show in the long-term sustainability of the outputs. An appropriate balance must be struck between leadership and managemen t. Whereas both are important, those in higher positions are expected to display a greater leadership capability than those at lower levels. The paradigm of efficiency and effectiveness fits squarely in this context. Whereas good management must enable us to achieve more results at low cost and effort, leadership should enable us to craft the appropriate vision for our specific programs and departments, in order to achieve the right things.
Lastly, delivery must be a culture . Some of you have studied culture and how it must be instilled. When delivery becomes a culture, we would have reached a point where the principles of Batho-Pele are an integral part of our daily operations.
Modern politics and public administration seeks a new relationship between the individual and the community, and a redefinition of rights and obligations. It has a concern for social justice, and promotes social inclusion and the fostering of a fair society where community and state act in partnership.
Our government believes we can encourage innovation and economic development while still looking after the basic needs of all constituents and providing opportunities, regardless of personal circumstances. It is a pragmatic response to the issues facing our society.
There is a lot of good work being done around the province. Good work is being achieved through departments working collaboratively - more so now than any other time. This is great.
Programme Director, there are a couple of practical things that we need to share before I sit down. Many of you have very bright and innovative ideas, but you at times you are not confident enough that your idea will work. Bright ideas can happen at any level of an organisation. Do not be afraid to talk to the HOD or the MEC about how you think we can improve things. Getting MECs involved earlier in a policy process just saves everybody time and resources that are scarce in our crowded environment.
As senior public servants u are responsible for providing advice and solutions for the hardest, most difficult problems that this province faces. You are also in a position to help MECs make the most of the opportunities available to people of the province.
Similarly, don't be afraid to learn from mistakes and don't be afraid to get things wrong. But then don't be offended when ideas get knocked back. It's not an insult.
What binds you together, and provides a sense of purpose is your spirit of service - the enduring values and standards that comprise the Mpumalanga public service.
As leaders you must demand greater professionalism. I know you are aware that achieving a real and consistent commitment to excellence is your job as leaders. You should demand it of yourselves and of the people in your teams.
Conclusion
Ladies and gentlemen, Mpumalanga cannot reach any of the goals it has set itself without the talent, the innovation and ideas required for renewal in a knowledge-based Public Service.
I am sure that by the end of your deliberations, you would have identified the best practices for good leadership and management of the Public Service, which will motivate and be a model not for all of South Africa, but for the rest of Africa.
At times it may seem that things don't just seem to work. But we will get it right. A delegate to a study tour in Canada said one of their members told the Privy Council Office that in South Africa we have been working out how to build a modern, representative public service for the last six years, after decades of apartheid. To which a member of the Canadian Government pointed out: “You shouldn't feel too badly, we've been working at it for forty years”.
I thank you.