Date: 19/04/2007

Source: Department of Public Service and Administration

Title: Fraser-Moleketi: International Human Resource Management Conference

Keynote address by Mrs G Fraser-Moleketi, Minister of Public Service and Administration, at the International Human Resource Management Conference, Cape Town

Honourable members of Parliament
Fellow Ministers
Professor Sangweni, Chairperson of the Public Service Commission
Mr Oscar Jackson, President of the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR), United States of America (USA)
Esteemed international and local guests

It gives me great pleasure to share a few thoughts with you at this International Human Resource Management Conference co-hosted by the Public Service Commission (PSC) of South Africa and the International Public Management Association for Human Resources. As the custodian of human resource management policy and norms and standards in the South African public service, I am always heartened by initiatives to promote sound human resource management and promote knowledge sharing of this discipline. It's a discipline that is central to building sound public administration. The co-hosting of this conference by the PSC and (IPMA-HR) is an ideal opportunity to bring together human resource practitioners from South Africa and across the globe to discuss the challenges of human resource management.

Human resource management in the South African public service at national, provincial and local government level has been in a consistent process of transformation since the advent of democracy in 1994. The White Paper on Human Resource Management for the Public Service 1997 identified the need for a shift from personnel administration to human resource management. This was a shift that was by no means easy and is one that we are still dealing with today. The mission of the White Paper indicates, "Human resource management in the Public Service should become a model of excellence in which service to society stems from individual commitment instead of compulsion." It is also an attempt to ensure that we have a professional human resource management capacity in South Africa.

Considering that more than one million people are employed in the public service, people are the public service's most valuable asset and managing human resources effectively and strategically is the cornerstone of the broader transformation of the public service.

Traditionally, the management of people in the public service has been regarded as the task of personnel administration components whose main task has been to ensure compliance with centrally determined regulations and prescripts. The White Paper, however, stressed the fact that human resource management within the public service needed to undergo fundamental change in order to actualise among others the following management principles:

* Increased delegation of managerial responsibility and authority to national departments and provincial administrations and within departments, the delegation of day to day management decisions to line managers.

* The development of a service delivery oriented, multi-skilled and multi-cultural workforce critically the need to be able to deal with diversity.

* Creating a flexible environment that takes into account both the operational needs of the organisation and the needs of the employees, giving meaning to the belief set of Batho Pele: "We Belong, We Care, We Serve."

The human resource management strategy for the public service as provided for in the White Paper emphasises the necessity to maximise people development, management and empowerment to accelerate transformation and service delivery that will benefit the people of South Africa. A major human resource management objective is the development of cultural diversity which builds positively on employees' differing cultural backgrounds, so that the diversity adds value, rather than creating obstacles.

Departments and provincial administrations are becoming increasingly complex in terms of size, financial resources, utilisation of personnel and service diversification. Human resource practitioners and line managers are therefore under increasing pressure to apply sound human resource management practices. Applying sound human resource management implies attention to all its strategic components. Sound recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, compensation management, labour relations and management of discipline are but some of the practices that practitioners and managers must master in ensuring effective human resource management.

The theme of this conference, "Building public sector human resource capacity in a developmental state," speaks to the critical need for the South African public service in particular to optimise the utilisation of staff and ensure that there is continuous performance improvement in the public service through the recruitment and retention of competent staff and their continuous development. This can only be achieved if sufficient detailed attention is given to the human resource management practices that I have alluded to. We also need to give attention to the challenges with regard to job hopping, especially within the public service.

I am particularly pleased by the presence of delegates from African countries both as participants on the programme and as delegates in attendance. Human resource management has very specific challenges within the African context. The significance of human resource management is in fact highlighted in the Africa Public Service Charter adopted by the third Biennial Pan-African Conference of Ministers of Public Service in Windhoek, Namibia on 5 February 2001. The Charter stresses the obligations of the administration vis-a-vis public service employees with respect to the different stages of their careers, their remuneration and their working conditions. In particular it emphasises the importance of recruitment, promotion, mobility, redeployment, training, motivation, remuneration, physical safety, working conditions and security of tenure. I am therefore glad that this conference will give attention to the Charter.

There is generally a sense that in South Africa that we could do better in terms of remuneration. Just up the road there is a conference attended by academics, and they interestingly enough, voice a concern that the lucrative conditions of service in the public sector are luring talent out of the institutions of higher learning. Media practitioners tell us the same thing. Yes, we could be more imaginative in our conditions of service but if we share our experiences with colleagues from elsewhere on the continent, this will provide a basis for comparison and analysis. We also need in this regard to look at remuneration in relation to the fiscus and the implications thereof.

In this regard, we in the governance and public service domain greatly value and wish to deepen the existing beneficial collaboration with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA).

There are some key challenges we need to address as we embark on this exciting journey of updating and implementing the African Public Service Charter among African member states. African countries are faced with numerous challenges in their efforts to reform and modernise the African public service. One of the most important aspect to this transformation process is the geo-political setting in which this reform process must take place. As was correctly noted at the UNDESA conference on reinventing government that was held in December 2006, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Charter can only be effectively implemented if the environment is conducive both legally and politically. At the same time the administrative environment should provide adequate compensation for public servants, while citizens must be enlightened and empowered to secure the rights which the legal framework and the Charter entitle them to.

An important exercise in getting countries to embrace the Charter is to find out what sort of impact implementation would have on individual member states. Following discussion on the African Public Services Charter at the Fifth Conference of Ministers of Public/Civil Service, the Addis Ababa declaration mandated Ministers to go deeper in updating the Charter by enriching it with the personal experiences of Member States during the transformative process of reforming the public/civil service. The Charter can only be reformed in this manner through localised in-depth research that will inform perspectives that will be developed. This research output will in turn provide policymakers with a guideline document that would also inform the continental process especially with highlights on meaningful implications regarding implementation.

To advance the work on updating, implementing and domesticating the Charter, I believe that this is an area where we will be able to draw on UNDESA experience in other parts of the world and UNDESA will be able to share the African experience with other regions.

Going forward there are a number of critical steps in taking the process forward and maximising the potential of the Charter.

These critical steps are:

a) the confirming of the Charter publicly
b) comparing the differing national and regional objectives that must be met
c) building internal capacity in order to spread information on and exploit the potential of the Charter amongst all stakeholders
d) introducing the norms and values encompassed in the Charter in all training and induction programmes for public servants
e) assessing the national legal context in terms of public service ethics and the prevention of corruption (and self enrichment)
f) the need to couple local service charters with service delivery and satisfaction surveys to determine baseline information as a tool for monitoring and evaluation.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

As we deliberate, debate and discuss we must also recognise that the developmental state needs more than sound management.

The developmental state needs leadership at all levels of the service delivery chain, for it is those who deliver services that are responsible for improving the lives of our citizenry. In South Africa our Constitution gives very clear direction in Chapter 10, about how the public service must exercise its functions.

We need to be wary of hiding behind so-called best practice and management principles which are often the safe havens for the unimaginative.

What we need is to build leadership, to produce thinkers at every level of the chain, who dare to be different, to look at problems with new eyes, to recognise problems where others see the situation as immutable as the "way we do things".

The President recently wrote to Ministers, Directors-General (DGs) and Heads of Departments (HODs) exhorting us to identify those areas in which he have done well and over the next two years to do even better. He used the word "audacious" with reference to our efforts to improve delivery.

I believe that this is a call not just for South Africa, but should apply to public administration globally.

Let us use the deliberations of this conference as a spring board to push the boundaries and let the excellence shine through.

Thank you!

Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
19 April 2007