Hon Chairperson, Minister for the Public Service and Administration, the hon Lindiwe Sisulu, the Deputy Minister for the Public Service and Administration, hon Ayanda Dlodlo, Members of Parliament, hon members of the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration, Chairperson of the Public Service Commission, if they are here, together with commissioners that are present, heads of various entities of the Department of Public Service and Administration, respected guests, ladies and gentlemen, we have gathered here during an important time on the political calendar, not only for our country, but for the entire African continent.
In May 1963, the then Organisation for African Unity, which was called the OAU, and which later became the African Union, AU, was formed in this month, the month of May. Now, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, as Africans of different shades, we ought to take a moment and celebrate the achievements of this giant organisation. As we forge ahead in unity, we salute the efforts of the founding fathers: Kwame Nkrumah, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and Haile Selassie, to mention but a few. Certainly, despite her challenges, Africa is rising for unity and prosperity!
With full Afro-optimism, there is no doubt that South Africa, under the political leadership of the ANC, has made significant progress in the ongoing socioeconomic transformation of the state in particular and society in general since the dawn of democracy in 1994. This suggests that, collectively, we are making strides towards achieving the objective of constructing a developmental state within the context of the National Democratic Revolution strategy.
The NDR, amongst other things, seeks to ensure that every South African, especially the poor, experiences improved quality of life. Clearly, we have achieved so much, but we are not there yet. There is certainly more that still needs to be done in order to build a developmental state underpinned by our history and socioeconomic realities. We must accept that the Public Service administration of our country is at the epicentre of this mammoth task.
Hon members would recall that in line with the 5 priorities of our government, 12 Outcomes were adopted in the current political cycle as part of our government's results-based approach. This innovation was of strategic necessity to ensure that the collective efforts of the government are strategically focused towards the achievement of specific outcomes that have a value-adding impact on our country and its people. I think that is a really big step forward!
It is indeed a great pleasure today to debate Budget Vote 12 of the Department of Public Service and Administration, DPSA. Allow me, therefore, to take this opportunity to express my gratitude on behalf of the committee to hon Minister Sisulu, Deputy Minister Dlodlo and the entire staff of the department for their co-operation and the tremendous work done so far with regard to the departmental mandate, that is of Outcome 12.
In 2010, President Zuma signed performance agreements with the Ministers in relation to the new outcomes-based approach adopted by government. The hon Minister Sisulu is tasked to lead Outcome 12, focusing on achieving "an efficient, effective and development-orientated Public Service and an empowered, fair and inclusive citizenship".
The department is really doing well, even though much still needs to be done. The outputs of Outcome 12 are as follows. I won't take you through all of them. There are 5 in number, and I will take the last 2 tackling corruption effectively, and citizen participation and social cohesion, amongst others.
The aspect of a fair and inclusive citizenship still remains a challenge and we believe that various clusters of government will do justice to this critical aspect. The sooner we focus on citizen participation and social cohesion, the better for our country.
Ho senyehile ka ntle ka kwana. Tantang e kgangwa ke lerole; ha ho ngwane motle. Re tlamehile ho ruta setjhaba sa heso ho jara boikarabelo ka nako tsohle. Ba tlamehile ho lemoswa hore mmuso ona ke wa bona; lefatshe lena ke la bona. Ebang ho na le lebaka la ho ipelaetsa, ba tlamehile ho ipelaetsa ka tsela e nepahetseng. Ba se ke ba senya ntho tse abetsweng bona, tse kang: Laeborari, makoloi a sepolesa, diholo tsa setjhaba, jwalo-jwalo. Hore ba be le boitemohelo bo jwalo, ba tlamehile ho eletswa, ba be ba rutwe. (Translation of Sesotho paragraph follows.)
[Things are getting out of hand. We need to teach our communities to be responsible at all times. They need to be made aware that this is their government; this is their land. If there is a need to protest, they need to do so in an appropriate way. They should not destroy facilities that are allocated to them, like libraries, police vehicles, community halls, and so forth. For them to have such an attitude, they need to be guided and to be educated as well.]
We need to embark on a deliberate action to conscientise our society to this reality. Indeed, the portfolio committee will always ensure that it assists the department in achieving the highlighted outputs. Many different interventions have been undertaken to ensure that the department delivers services to the people of this country.
The hon Minister has already indicated to the portfolio committee that there is a need to fix the engine in order for the Public Service to function effectively and efficiently. The committee agrees and we will support that.
President Zuma's words are instructive in this regard, as he said:
What we need is a different type of public servant, a public servant who respects the citizens he or she serves, a public servant who values the public resources he or she has been entrusted to manage. We need a public servant who comes to work on time and performs his or her duties diligently.
The portfolio committee, therefore, fully supports the noble ideal of the developmental state that is willing, capable and caring. Certainly, as articulated in the Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP:
No political democracy can survive and flourish if the mass of our people remain in poverty, without land, without tangible prospects for a better life. Attacking poverty and deprivation must therefore be the first priority of a democratic government.
In tandem with the National Evaluation Policy Framework of our government led by the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, DPME, it has been possible to determine the extent to which the 12 Outcomes, or priorities, are being progressively achieved through the Mid-Term Review report. As this committee, we did get a presentation of the Mid-Term Review report and we realise how government is able to also evaluate and measure its performance. It is a great achievement as well.
In terms of the Mid-Term Review report of Outcome 12, some of the key challenges that have been identified included the following. They were 12 in number, but I won't go through them. You will see them once you read the report. However, I would like to talk about this one: There were overly centralised and inappropriate decision-making processes in many departments; corruption and maladministration threatened to undermine efforts to improve and expand service delivery. There is a high turnover rate of heads of department and senior management, which is something we need to focus on as the committee since there was also a proposal from the Public Service Commission even prior to the NDP to look into the establishment of the head of the Public Service. We will engage with the department on that as well.
Furthermore, the Mid-Term Review report concludes by revealing that: There has been little progress to date in implementing a single Public Service that incorporates the current Public Service at national and provincial levels as well as municipal employees; and lastly, the legislation on the single Public Service has not been finalised. So, part of it is that it assists us even to develop a programme in terms of the weaknesses and areas where we have not done well.
We therefore regard the Mid-Term Review report as an important instrument for our oversight work. We will still pursue the collaboration of committees for this report. The clusters of Parliament are best placed to develop a comprehensive programme of oversight using this report.
In 2012, this august House approved our country's National Development Plan. The vision of NDP 2030 stipulates that:
... to address the twin challenges of poverty and inequality, the state needs to play a transformative and developmental role. This requires well- run and effectively co-ordinated state institutions with skilled public servants who are committed to the public good and are capable of delivering consistently high-quality services, while prioritising the nation's developmental objectives.
Without leaving our understanding of the National Democratic Revolution behind, this committee will ensure that we do not underscore on liberating our people completely from the demon of the past.
The Public Service Commission, as an independent institution that supports democracy, has worked well with the committee. I want to emphasise that the Public Service Commission has always displayed respect and co-operation towards Parliament and towards this committee in particular. There has never been a time when we had to trail behind media on its oversight reports. The commissioners in the Public Service Commission are very clear about their reporting to Parliament.
We have raised critical issues that are constitutional to the commission, and at all times they do their best to cover every reasonable scope raised by the committee. As we speak today, the Public Service Commission has moved away from the thematic approach on its reports to a comprehensive framework that covers every area of oversight from various departments. This will create consistency in terms of tracking down progress in reporting.
Just last week, the committee was presented with the approach of oversight through the basic values and principles that govern public administration, which is section 195(1) of the Constitution. We never felt undermined or disrespected at any stage. We will always respect their independence and collaboration. We will collaborate with them on our oversight task. Honestly, it does pay a surplus, not just dividends. With this collaboration, we achieve a lot, and some members will bear witness to that kind of work that we do.
On section 195(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, we still expect further work since this clause refers to the institution to which these principles apply. Those institutions, for instance, talk of "the administration in every sphere of government". The local government aspect is still lacking in their oversight reports. We are aware that there is so much work that is being done internally by the Public Service Commission to amend its legislation to cover local government.
Another point refers to "organs of the state". I just want hon members to think about "organs of the state". This needs thorough focus. We are well aware that sufficient focus needs to be put on aid, particularly to the courts of this country. As the Governance and Administration Cluster, we will partner with the Portfolio Committee on Justice and the Peace and Social Security Cluster to oversee the courts.
Yes, of course, some of the judgments passed in courts leave much to be desired. Possibly, this is because there has not been sufficient focus on oversight in this area. In this democracy, there are no sacred cows. Oversight is a mandate given to Parliament, and it will be done.
Clear separation of powers and roles will always be observed, even though at times the courts take decisions that overrule the government's programme and tell them what to do. A major concern is that we cannot have a judicial system that favours the rich and the wealthy while the poor are punished further, simply because they cannot afford to pay very expensive lawyers. This state must undo the injustices of the past.
Kuyamangaza ukubona amajele agcwele izigangi ezingabantu bethu abampofu. Izigwilii zona ziqasha abameli abadumile ukuze bazikhulumele emacaleni azo. Kubi ukubona abampofu babolela emajele kodwa izigwili nogombela kwesakhe bekhululeka ngenxa yokuba nedola. Kusho khona ukuthi le nkululeko akusiyo eyabantu bethu abampofu.
Sizacubungula kabanzi imithetho yezinkantolo ukuze singashaywa ingwijikhwebu. Ozakwethu abangakwesokunene bakukhonzile ukugijimela ezinkantolo lokho kusho ukuthi bazitshele ukuthi bazoshaywa yivoti ebantwini, bese besibusa ngazo izinkantolo. Cha, angeke sikumele lokho! [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[It is shocking to see that there are so many poor people in our prisons. The wealthy hire well-known attorneys to represent them. It is bad to see the poor people rotting in prisons when the rich and the elite are free because they have money. It means that this freedom is not for our poor people.
We will review the judicial system before things go pear-shaped. My colleagues seated on the right like to run to the courts, which means that they know that they will not get votes from the people, and therefore they try to govern through the courts. No, we will not allow that! [Applause.]]
Our government in general, and the Department of Public Service and Administration in particular, must address the skills gaps in the Public Service. The professionalisation of the Public Service is one aspect that the NDP highlights as critical for our country. The committee is therefore pleased that the department is championing the idea of professionalising the Public Service.
The "school of government" concept for developing and empowering a capable Public Service cadre is fully supported by the committee. [Interjections.]