Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister in absentia, our Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Ms Joyce Moloi-Moropa, distinguished guests in the gallery, both local and international, molweni, dumelang, avusheni, goeiemre and good morning!
This is the Congress of the People's maiden speech on the Public Service in this Old Assembly. I would like to start by quoting from section 195(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, relating to Public Service and Administration, so as to remind all of us what we must uphold according to the Constitution:
(d) Services must be provided impartially, fairly, equitably and without bias ... and i) Public administration must be broadly representative of the South African people, with employment and personnel management practices based on ability, objectivity, fairness and the need to redress the imbalances of the past to achieve broad representation.
The Congress of the People believes that a sincere effort is required to depoliticise the Public Service across all spheres of government in support of our Constitution and improved service delivery. Nobody should be excluded as a result of political orientation, skin colour, tribe, gender or physical ability or disability. The Public Service Commission should be specifically sensitised to monitor and investigate the many complaints in this regard. This will place an even bigger workload on an already understaffed Public Service Commission, with an associated cost which should be of great concern. However, if the current issue is left unresolved, it will remain one of the serious stumbling blocks on the road to a single Public Service, as is the aspiration of the current government.
The Congress of the People believes that the commission is understaffed and it will support an increased budget to ensure the effectiveness of this important oversight function and governance role which looks to govern all Public Service departments.
The Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy, or Palama, is aimed at developing the skills of junior and middle managers in the Public Service. The target of providing a total of 1,625 million person training days in a single year is admirable, but too ambitious in our opinion. Mechanisms must be developed to measure the effectiveness of the training, using performance review data pre and post training and customer surveys. At the end of the day we are there to serve the citizenry of South Africa.
Consideration must also be given to cyclical refresher training courses, so as to ensure consistent service delivery. If you create an expectation, that is the minimum service which will be expected of you.
The Congress of the People welcomes the initiatives by the Department of Public Service and Administration to increase women representation in senior management and to employ more disabled persons. I must note though, Minister, that you yourself have quite a top-heavy male environment, and I do not say this tongue-in-cheek. I'm sure this is something you will address in time.
Not enough information is available with regard to how a single Public Service will be implemented, and the benefits and implications thereof for organisation, process and infrastructure. People, process and technology are key. People need competency training in order to operate technology. Technology is not always the answer to the people's problems.
The Department of Public Service and Administration has a legal mandate to oversee the State Information Technology Agency, or Sita. Since its inception in 1999, Sita has been plagued by a high turnover of CEOs and, sad to say, is currently again being run by an acting CEO. This situation creates instability throughout the organisation, with related effects on services delivered. An investigation should be launched into the high CEO churn, so as to establish if the problem is candidate selection, the board - which is significantly depleted - the work environment or the mandate of Sita itself.
ICT is a key enabler in respect of service delivery and the application thereof will to a large extent determine if many of government's goals are achieved. Current issues at Sita include a slow response, perceived high costs and a lack of meeting service-level agreements to government departments.
We suggest that the role and mandate of Sita be reviewed, as it is not meeting the demands of the end users in the current form. I quote from Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's address to the portfolio committee in her area the other day, that there is a tender on the smart card issue which is holding back Home Affairs. Other ICT functions can be decentralised to departments to enable them to better deliver service to their citizens and to be held accountable for those services.
Priority must also be given to the implementation of an IT service management strategy. This will contribute to the establishment of a service catalogue and a culture of agreeing and measuring service-level parameters. This will go a long way towards improving service delivery.