Loskop Dam Aventura
Thursday 22 July 2004
Programme Director MEC Pogisho Pasha
Members of the Mpumalanga Provincial Executive Council
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Representatives and members of Local Government
Their Majesties Amakhosi
Representatives of Local Government,
Leaders and representatives of the trade union movement
Members and leaders of the business community
Heads of Departments and senior officials from government
CEO of our parastatals
Representatives from the Department of Public Service and Administration
Representatives from the Public Service Commission and the Office of the
Auditor- General
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Allow me to begin by thanking everyone and express our gratitude for your continued contribution to building a better life for people of our province. It is indeed important that we were able to find time to reflect on how we can together respond to the powerful message of the Batho Pele clarion call. A message that calls all of us to action because "We belong, we care, we serve".
The working masses of our country, in particular their organised sections to which you belong, have been central to both the struggle to bring about change in this country and the shaping of the content of our transformation.
In struggle, progressive labour bequeathed our transformation with values and morality, which promoted humanness, solidarity and community spirit through slogans such as "an injury to one, is an injury to all." Organised labour supported many community struggles in pursuit of a better life for all.
We have converged here today as a government for national democracy and public sector workers to address the very imperatives of our own historical mission, a better South Africa for all. It is indeed hoped that over the next two days we will find new ways and practices that will promote professionalism in the way we serve the people. Bearing in mind that in our public service professionalism does not directly relate to qualifications or position in the hierarchy, instead, professionalism is about how work is done, how citizens and colleagues are treated and the adoption of an ethical, constructive and problem-solving approach to working life.
In this globalised world it is important to note that service delivery techniques and practices are changing and improving at an astonishing pace. This means that the skills and knowledge base in the public service must be continuously developed and preserved so that we are able to make use of new possibilities that constantly present themselves.
It is important that as government, as members of the public service unions and their leadership we work out ways of how to beat the drum and properly respond to the beat of "I belong, I care, I serve".
After all our goal remains the reconstruction and development of our society, so as to eradicate the legacy of joblessness and poverty. In waging this struggle to defeat poverty and underdevelopment, we must take stock of what we have achieved over the past decade. We do this because we realise that in addition to what we are already doing to create jobs and tackle poverty, it was necessary to continuously elaborate and implement the most effective ways to achieve these goals.
Most, if not all of us are aware that the services delivered by government employees, to a large extent form the only means of survival for the majority of our people. To them the services we provide soften the punches of crunching poverty, debilitating hunger and disease. In many instances these services provide the real escape from poverty and underdevelopment offering a stepping stone to real opportunities for growth and development.
That is why it is important that we ensure that grants are paid out on time;
medical facilities are adequately stocked and that our nutrition programmes are
sustainable and on time. It may be necessary that we look at ensuring that the
poorest amongst us, have the necessary cushion against the twin evils of
unemployment and poverty.
If the delivery of services in these poorer areas is hampered by lack of
resources, it may be necessary, for instance, to transfer these resources into
the relatively poor and underdeveloped areas.
When we leave this hall tomorrow afternoon, it should be with the full knowledge that it will no longer be business as usual. We must leave this hall with a dogged resolve to deliver services more effectively and make them more accessible to our people and be proud to serve our people because we belong and are members of these communities.
After all our people look up to us to continue doing everything possible to
extricate them from a soul-destroying condition of poverty and underdevelopment.
During our election we committed ourselves to a People's Contract to create work
and fight poverty. This commitment places a profound responsibility on each one
of us to provide quality
services to the citizens in a better, easier and faster way. In order to do
so, we need to establish a complex network of relationships to ensure that
government is not seen as doing things for People but doing things with the
People. It is because of this realisation that we meet at this first
government-public sector union summit in the province.
Whilst we acknowledge that over the past ten years we have gone a long way in improving the public service, our mission now is to do certain things differently and better in the immediate period ahead of us and in the next ten years.
In the last ten years, the world has experienced a disintegration of large systems into smaller administrative systems. Post-Apartheid South Africa, on the contrary, has been confronted with a different agenda of bringing together racially and ethnically divided administrations into single non-racial administrations.
What type of public service did we inherit?
The bureaucracy we inherited was unrepresentative and racist in character and
as a result was both unwilling and incapable of providing all South Africans the
service excellence they all deserve. It was a bureaucracy put in place to ensure
the continued survival of apartheid racist tendencies. Linked to this historical
reality was the issue of style and management philosophy in the public service.
The fragmented public service we inherited was in the main characterized by a
low skills base, poor quality of service, inefficiencies, corruption, lack of
commitment and little or no respect to the citizens it was supposed to serve.
Public servants in most administrations felt, and to a large extend still feel, unappreciated and less valued. As a result, low levels of trust and confidence in public institutions overshadowed this public service environment.
The challenge was therefore not limited to bringing people under the same
roof, but to create a new organisational ethos, create a shared vision,
establish new work ethics and bring the services closer to the people.
The urgent and immediate task was to impress on the new public service that
they exist for the sole purpose of delivering quality service to all citizens.
Transforming the state
When we undertook the task to transform the State into a developmental one we
knew that this was not going to be an easy task. Public services involved in
transformation can all attest to the fact that institutional change requires
massive investment in transforming systems, culture and operational environment
coupled with systemic changes in values and behaviour of public servants. The
sheer scale of the public service and traditions embedded over centuries make
the change process a more complex and involved one. Questions were asked as to
how the country and the province can engage effectively with a process as
complex as "development"? Someone likened the task we were about to undertake as
"teaching an elephant how to dance" The first thing we had to do was to teach
the elephant to learn.
How did we go about doing it?
One of the key skills that are required by those leading the change process,
is the wisdom to distinguish what needs to be changed, and what should be left
intact, and what needs to be changed at what time. That is why we ensured that
we equip the public service change managers with the correct understanding of
what it is we want to achieve and how this change should be managed.
We implemented a number of programmes. We knew we had to establish
administrative practice in line with the notion of the developmental state,
specifically getting the basic good administrative practices. We also advanced a
set of principles that were aimed at putting our people first.
Coupled to that we had to ensure that we improve governance and develop our human resource - developing, training and retraining our leadership corps and the people who serve the communities. We sought to improve co-ordination and integration, creating a single public service and ensure that Public Entities are optimally integrated in government activities. We also set about formulating policy that was aimed at strengthening our capacity to provide support and intervene where threats to service delivery occurred.
All these and more are things that ensured that we change our public service. The issues I raised are not to be seen as events. They are all part of a process aimed at creating a public service that all the people of the province and the country can be proud of.
Batho Pele
And I am convinced that we can attain this goal as long as we all adhere to
the Batho Pele principles. The Batho Pele policy remains our single most
important campaign to achieve the necessary transformation of the hearts and
minds of our public servants. At its core, it asks for a democratic and
developmental approach.
Batho Pele is about putting the citizen at the centre of our planning and
operations. For this to happen we must ensure that citizens are empowered with
information on what services to expect, and knowledge about opportunities for
recourse, should they not receive what has been promised.
Batho Pele is not about additional resources: courtesy; respect, adequate information, an apology if things go wrong, cost nothing. Batho Pele is about adopting different standards of behaviour, it is about ensuring that the resources are geared towards service delivery. It is about eliminating wasteful and expensive internal procedures and using the money we save to provide better services to more people. Indeed Batho Pele is about making sure that our priorities for where money should be spent are in line with what the public regards as priorities.
Ladies and gentlemen, Batho Pele is about Public servants working closely in
partnership with their customers and other private and community sector
organisations, who may be more aware where certain faults and constraints lie
and who have access to resources to assist with identifying and correcting
problems.
Improving service delivery is not something you do 'on top of your usual job'.
It is about re-aligning everything that we do to 'customer service' principles.
That is why it makes good sense to adopt a delivery-centered approach that is
quick, efficient and effective.
The modern public servant must, through his/her work, display they are a new
public service committed to serving all the citizens of this country in the most
effective and efficient manner.
Too often in the past ten years, government plans and policies have failed to take into account the fact that they must be implemented by public servants and that the process of winning understanding of and enthusiastic support for government goals from its officials is itself an important task. Where plans fail to take into account whether officials are willing and able to implement them - and how to persuade them if they are unwilling - then they are unlikely to achieve the desired outcome.
Let me hasten to point out that there are already many dynamic experiences and innovations by functionaries within the state, and partners who work with it, that the public service must absorb and acknowledge. The system continues to work effectively, and even excels at times, because many public servants are making things happen everyday. This is not simply compliance with regulations and policies, but active problem solving and innovation, backed by outstanding commitment and passion.
Their colleagues who loaf and steal may be the ones who grab all the headlines, but these jewels of public service exist in significant numbers. We must identify them, retain and develop them, acknowledge and reward them, learn from them and be inspired by their excellence.
But while we believe that an increasing number of the public servants are operating in a manner that should make the nation proud of them, we still have some that are operating according to the methods of the "old school" and needs re-enforcement and encouragement so that they can change their ways.
A small group of our public servants have been overcome with a desire to stuff their own pockets by stealing from and defrauding the people. In order to ensure that all our public servants can be entrusted with the interests of the people they are supposed to serve, it is thus critical that we focus on capacity building and change of attitude as strategic challenges for the public service.
Difficulties in retaining skilled people in the public service itself seems
to be a consequence of a limited ability to "see" and "hear" what is motivating
public servants. While resignations from jobs are usually assumed to be a result
of pay levels, the public service is unlikely to be able to compete with
business in the pay it offers and so it seems likely that people do not choose
public service because they hope to grow rich. They may, therefore, be leaving
because they feel that they are not getting what they expected from public
service. As in the non-profit sector, retention strategies must be based on an
accurate information.
Challenges
Much has been achieved during the last decade, but fresh challenges have
emerged that need to be confronted in order to consolidate the developmental
orientation of the state.
These challenges include:
· Strengthening participatory people-centred governance.
· Improving service delivery through integrated governance.
· Consolidating an accountable and transparent state.
· Developing human resources.
·Strengthening performance through monitoring and evaluation.
But if we are to make continued progress towards the fundamental objective of our country and of state policy, then we need to ensure that the State performs better.
We know that there has been considerable progress in building a new constitutional order, three spheres of government and more integrated administration - but many areas of service delivery require much improved performance by the public service.
There has been great extension and deracialisation of social services, with striking impact on women's rights. But many entitled to grants are still unregistered or poorly serviced.
Good progress in economic areas under government control - fiscal and monetary policy, trade and industrial policy - has not been matched where new agencies or partnerships are involved - small business, Human Resource Development, restructuring of State Owned Enterprises, equity and empowerment. Government has had even less success in areas depending significantly on private sector and civil society - investment, employment creation.
National security has been enhanced, the rule of law established and institutions transformed. But due to aspects of the social transition, insufficient civil society involvement, and new forms of organized crime, the gains in crime prevention could have been better.
South Africa is characterised by an economic system that has elements of a developed economy surrounded by a marginalised informal economy characterised by poverty and unemployment. A key challenge of the developmental state is to integrate the two economies while meeting both their needs
A developmental state is a strong one that excels in good governance and the
basics of public administration as well as intervening strategically in the
economy to promote social development. The developmental state requires that the
public service address issues of poverty in everything that it does. The public
service must concern itself with the second economy by providing essential
social and other services that facilitate development and economic growth.
The public service must ensure that services are accessible to even the
poorest and most marginalised so that they are given greater choices and better
options.
Our approach to government must be one of a democratic and developmental state. At the heart of it, is the empowered citizen that understands its own responsibility - to itself and to the country - to take action to make change happen, each according to his/her own situation. Without this initiative on the side of our people, we will not be able to make progress in the battle against poverty and deprivation, nor will we succeed to change the public service from a self-serving, self-indulging, unreformed creature, to a powerful machinery committed to remove the injustices of the past in a manner that befits the culture that we want to create in our young democracy.
In many departments service delivery performance and outcomes are not measured in any significant way. Then there is the tendency for departments or spheres of governments to compete for "delivery", the so-called "ribbon-cutting syndrome". Complying with Batho Pele requires that departments set and measure standards for each of the services they deliver. Visits, spot checks and inspections may have to be used to assess general compliance with Batho Pele requirements.
Public management involves mastering the art of governance, including giving
meaning to principles such as efficiency and effectiveness, transparency and
accountability.
Administration is about the day-to-day systems and procedures that make
governance work so that institutions and resources are effectively utilised.
The challenge we face is to translate the skills and commitment of the people we have - both inside and outside of the public service - into operational capacity for service delivery. Our challenge is that we inherited a system in which public sector institutions do not necessarily have the strategic profile to match the requirements of a developmental state. People working in these institutions are not automatically endowed with a spirit or orientation that are favourable to public service and the follow through on a developmental democracy.
One of our biggest challenges this year is to get in motion the movement for change as anticipated by the President and to extend this to our public servants. If we can achieve a situation where public servants feel passionately proud about what they are doing, and feel deeply ashamed if they fail in their tasks, if we can achieve a situation where public servants feel that they are a part, and an appreciated part at that, of a body of people that wins the battle against poverty, crime, disease and illiteracy, if we can achieve a situation where the community's sense of self does not allow any service that is second best, and speak out about such treatment, if we can achieve a situation where negative feedback is seen as an opportunity to learn and improve, and not as something to become defensive about, then we will get somewhere.
What we need to do
We must always ensure that we strive for innovation in improving service
delivery in the public service and this requires us to review every battle and
fight them again if so required.
That is why it is necessary for us to become a learning organisation, and manage our knowledge as the valuable resource it is. If we cannot learn from our own experiences, how can we learn from anyone else? If we do not know what we already know, how do we identify new areas of learning, and adapt the knowledge of others to our realities? The elephant is already dancing in parts, but it lacks the rhythm that comes from the coherence of the whole body moving!
Given the complexities and long-term nature of public service transformation,
to ensure that the change process is responsive to the demands of people-centred
development and that energy for it is sustained for the long haul, it is
imperative that the change process itself is not limited to bureaucrats. It
should be informed by the people, and the people should provide the energy and
the encouragement to the public servants to truly change.
One of the ways that we can start taking advantage of our rich combination
of skills and understanding is to document and share our experiences. We are
working hard at it to transform the public service into a learning organisation.
But as you know, the boundaries of learning organisations are very porous,
and we would keenly encourage the other sectors to share with us in our
knowledge networks.
One of the issues to which we will have to give increased, and very urgent attention is the issue of capacity building. Capacity or ability to perform a job is a central factor in getting results and achieving job satisfaction. Since last year, the question "Can the public service deliver against government's programme?" has occupied our collective mind.
One measure we can use to understand whether an institution has adequate capacity to execute its tasks is the extent to which such an institution is dependent on external consultants to undertake tasks that are core to its mission. Models that attempt to establish institutional capacity or ability of governments to succeed quite often look at the degree to which consultants are engaged - either to perform specialist jobs, or more often than not, perform the jobs of regular jobs of public servants who are just not capable of doing this themselves.
The other area of focus this year should be continuing integrated and
co-ordinated governance. In order to do this we must strengthen the centre of
government and support to service delivery institutions. This includes projects
directed at enhancing the capability of service delivery institutions at all
levels of government and for the further implementation and realisation of the
Batho Pele principles.
Also information to support decision-making and policy development must be
reliable. Central to this are efforts to integrate existing projects that
provided decision-making information and to ensure the effective role out of
appropriate document management systems and strategies for managing knowledge in
government.
We must also strengthen inter-governmental systems, conduct an audit of the
functioning of the inter-governmental system and develop strategies that could
streamline and enhance the appropriate exercise of powers and functions across
different spheres of government.
In addition to these we must strengthen and co-ordinate our projects,
including anti-corruption and e-government projects. These are an integral part
of our efforts to ensure integration across government.
Above all we must keep track with new development in the sphere of public administration and management. The public service transformation programme in South Africa is heavily influenced by the international trends and developments in the area of public management and administration.
That is why it is imperative that we encourage our public servants to be
Community Development Workers. This is a new type of public service employee
specially tasked with assisting and enabling social development. They will be
tightly integrated with community structures and assist in breaking through
layers of government and bureaucratic inertia.
They will be public servants on a mission! They will ensure that local
development initiatives are taken forward in planning instruments at higher
levels of government. It may also be necessary to undergo a development paradigm
shift which may include:
· the need to transfer resources in the form of grants, from the richer to
the poorer areas that are characterised by high levels of unemployment and
underdevelopment;
· recognition of the reality that, on its own, and even in the developed world,
the market is incapable of totally eradicating poverty and underdevelopment;
· acceptance of the reality that it may be impossible for unaided underdeveloped
regions to create the conditions that would make them attractive to the private
sector as profitable investment areas;
· the requirement to ensure the existence of a strong and growing economy
capable of producing the resources required to address the challenge of
underdevelopment;
· the critical importance of public sector investment in social and economic
infrastructure as well as productive capacity in the underdeveloped areas; and,
· the central importance of the state as a social agent to effect the necessary
resource transfers, and ensure their productive utilisation in the
underdeveloped regions to uplift them, so that they reach the stage of
development that will enable them to become part of the economic mainstream,
fully integrated in the rest of the (market) economy.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure that all of us by now agree that we need a public service that works in a way that embodies our democratic ideals.
Let me conclude by pointing out that we face immense challenges in turning the public service around so that it comprises organisations that provide the services that citizens expect. Services that are comparable to what other governments elsewhere provide, and also comparable to similar services provided by private and community sectors.
That we face immense challenges is true, but cannot be used as an excuse to explain failure to build effective organisations that provide quality services. One immediate challenge we must continue to tackle is how to retain these exceptional individuals who keep providing exceptional results despite the challenges. The issue of what is called "red-tape" also comes to mind.
The challenge is to find a balance between efficiently providing services
that are citizen responsive with the requirement that in a democracy public
servant should be regulated by laws, and in many instances follow prescribed
procedures that we the citizens have imposed in order to ensure administrative
fairness. How do we ensure that our public service system has a common set of
values and principles as per our Constitution, while at the same time being
flexible enough to allow the different sectors and organisations the freedom to
respond to the specific challenges in their sector?
How do we build an organisational culture that values the need for results and
entrepreneurship with the need to consult with stakeholders and account to
elected representatives and communities?
How do we provide for alternative service delivery methods where that makes sense, while still being able to hold the service providers to the same ethical values and administrative fairness that would have been expected from public servants? How to expand the culture and practice of excellence in the system such that it constitutes the dominant organisational culture in such a large organisational system?
These are difficult question, but I believe we should answer them honestly if we are to fulfill our contractual obligations with the masses of our people in the province.
I wish to thank you for your attention.