PRESENTATION BY PREMIER
Thank you Chairperson,
Honorable Members of executive council
Dr. S.C. Nyathi
Heads of Departments
Ladies and gentlemen.
It is with great honour and pride that I stand before you today.
Eight months ago, shortly after taking office as Premier of this province, I stood before you and outlined our vision for the remainder of the financial year.
Many of you, colleagues, would agree with me when I say those were rough times when the evil and divisive forces of Mammon had taken complete control of some of us. As a province our people watched in horror as we tore out each other's eyes - all in pursuit of narrow of selfish interests.
I mention these things not to open old wounds but so that all of us can have a common understanding of how far we have travelled on the road of improving the lives of our people.
Allow me to take this opportunity once again to thank all those who loyally stood by their organisation and government. I believe that our discussions here will be open and frank and that all we do and say for the next two days will be guided by our selfless dedication to what our people want a better life.
We must engage as leaders, all of us, none better than the other. I am reminded of a great army general who when he saw the enemy approaching and his men trembling in their boots, switched his monocular to this blind eye and bioldly declared "I see nothing".
Only when the enemy was a few hundred meters away did he order his men to fire. Needless to say the enemy was beaten.
I need not remind you that if Nelson had not gone into battle with a plan he would not have been able to ward off the enemy. His men would have wasted vast amounts of ammunition scaring off the enemy that was still miles away. He waited until they were quite close before firing and that he did with deadly effect.
As we gather to discuss essential issues aimed at rebuilding and redeveloping our Province, we should know that no battle can be won without a plan.
The two days that we shall spend here should help us as leaders to develop a product that will take into account the needs and aspirations of the citizens of this province.
Many of our people are still without adequate access to health care, basic education, clean water and sanitation, passable roads, and other basic necessities for human development.
The vast majority of those who voted us into power are still subjected to misery, hunger and starvation excarcebated by high levels of grinding poverty.
As Government we are faced with a massive challenge - that of restoring human dignity and respect. That of ensuring that all citizens are treated as equals.
As long as our children, our youth, the women and the disabled are daily victims of indecent assaults and other crimes, we cannot with pride and honesty say we have created a better life.
Chairperson, over the past three months, we have engaged various stakeholders in the Province including, the Town Councils, Amakhosi, and structures of Civil Society on issues of service delivery.
We did these through the Cabinet Outreach Programme. This has been a very important vehicle for us to relate to members of society. This machinery has enabled us to listen to what our people were saying.
We have always maintained that we are a government that is in daily and respectful contact with the people. We said we would listen to and learn from them. Indeed we were able to do so and everywhere we go our efforts are hailed. It was indeed an honour for me to realise that Gauteng and the Northern Cape have ebmarked on similar programs.
As Members of the Executive Council we are here to finalise a five-year plan of accelerated Service Delivery for our Government. This integrated plan is very crucial and forms the basis for meeting the needs of the citizens of the province.
It will enable us to deliver on the promises we have made that of using our available resources maximally. Unless each one of us as leaders know what the other is doing or not doing we will constantly have duplications.
The silo approach to government must come to an end. We need to plan as a unit because that is what we really are.
When the roads are bad our people complain abiout governnmemt not delivering. They don't talk about Pyublic Works. No, they tralk about govenrment. That is why our five-year plan is so important. It is a cornerstone for enhanced delivery and becomes a yardstick to measure achievements and impact.
This further enforces requirements of the New Public Service Regulations that all of us have to be accountable. Alongside our five-year plan we need to develop a plan for 2000/1.
This is a primary and foundation phase of our intervention. Without carefully taking care of this phase, we might find that at the end of a five-year period we are were we were when we started.
There will be no delivery of improved quality of services as long as we still have a Government that is sick of corruption. As long as Government resources are still diverted to fulfill personal needs and aspirations we will not be able to educate our children.
We will not be able to heal the sick and feed the hungry. We will not be able to repair roads or build bridges were these were washed away by the rain recently.
Our clarion call should be: The people first.. Nothing I do matters unless it benefits MamMatsebula in Ngodini. Nothing I do will be done to line my own pockets. That is a pledge each oine of us should - no MUST make today.
Every MEC, all Heads of Departments and all members of the public service.
Let us fight corruption. Lets build a sound and accountable administration that is embraced by the principles of BATHO PELE; an administration and Government that will put people first.
The new Public Finance Management Act must ensure that Government resources are not mismanaged. The Public Finance Management Act is by far the most radical transformation of public sector finance in Africa.
Once implemented, the Act brings us in line with best practice in the world. We are on the brink of being at the cutting edge of public sector financial management.
We are all delighted because it is very explicit on how we should handle issues of mismanagement and this is a supporting instrument that will enable us to uproot corruption.
Managers who do not perform or who can't manage public resources will account for their deeds and this will cascade to all levels within Government.
Therefore, it becomes very imperative that managers start managing to avoid embarrassments. A colleague recently quoted the following lines:
"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up
It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed
Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up
It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve
It doesn't matter whether you're a gazelle or a lion
When the sun comes up, you'd better be running".
This saying applies to all of us, but particularly to accountging officers. Your work must be geared such that you are ahead of the shrewedest and most nimble-fingered crook in your department.
Unless you do so you will be eaten. We have during the past few months streamlined and re-organised ourselves to ensure efficiency.
This was achieved through the creation of the Social Service, Governance and Administration, Infrastructural Development, and the Economy, Investment and Employment clusters.
We believe that this arrangement will enable Cabinet to be able to focus on issues of delivery through integrated support provided by the clusters. Let us all of us work together and ensure that these clusters are functional.
Before I sit down allow me to share a few thoughts with you.
I mentioned earlier that as government we have limited resources. It therefore is imperative that we prioritise our activities and provide services in a cost-effective manner in order to maximise benefits to our people.
Senior managers are therefore under constant pressure to not only prioritise, but to also improve the service delivery mechanisms. Accounting officers in government departments are confronted with multiple programmes that need duplicative supporting processes and staff. For instance there is a constant need for us to modernise and upgrade our computer and telecommunication systems almost on a daily basis.
But we are also faced with the demand to provide quality service. Now one may be tempted to ask. Is the maintenance of our telecommunications a core function?
Is communications a core government function? The tendency is often to neglect those issues we do not consider as core functions. Maybe it is about time we streamline processes that are not central to the departments' strategic functions or core to departmental processes.
We can do this by bundling some of those supporting processes and non-strategic activities into a separate organisation, which in turn treats the processes and activities as the core of its own business.
The concept is called shared services and being tried out by a number of government departments. The concept of shared services, simply brings together these functions that are frequently duplicated and inconsistent across departments, and provide these services at a lower cost and more efficiently, through a Shared Services Centre.
Shared services centre operates as a free standing business, usually based at an independent location led by a senior executive providing service minded leadership. How much do we spend on procurement? If we do that through shared servicing we can make a saving.
Think about it. In conclusion, we are all here together faced with a huge challenge of ensuring that the basic needs of all citizens in particular the majority of citizens in the province are met. Therefore, this two-day retreat should enable us to finalise a comprehensive strategy to better the lives of our people.
I thank you.