Chairperson, the Senior Management Service Conference is an annual forum where senior managers in the Public Service come together to engage on issues that affect their work with a view to sharing ideas that contribute to improving service delivery.
This year's conference, held in Durban, focused on public health. We have to indicate that this was the first time that senior managers engaged on issues in a focused manner, looking at and focusing on a particular issue, public health in this instance, as I have indicated. They made a call at the end of the conference to say that collaborative leadership, as that was the theme of the conference, is something that needs to be promoted at all levels - vertically, horizontally, in all sectors and across spheres. In that regard, we, as Parliament, also have a responsibility to share our views in as far as how we would like to see ourselves contributing to the improvement of the approach and the practice of improving services to our people.
Next year's conference is going to focus on education. The resolution by the conference has been that the approach should not just be an event, but should also be a process that has a build-up process from January until the conference is held. We therefore make a call that members of Parliament should also take part in this. Thank you very much. [Applause.]