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Date: 07/08/2003
Source: Ministry for Public Service and Administration
Title: Fraser-Moleketi: Salga Consultative Conference


PRESENTATION BY THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION, GERALDINE FRASER-MOLEKETI, AT THE SOUTH AFRICAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION'S (SALGA) CONSULTATIVE CONFERENCE, 7 August 2003

Chairperson of Salga,
Salga office bearers,
Mayors of municipalities and
Municipal managers

To address such an august gathering, the Consultative Assembly of 284 Municipalities, represented by their mayors and municipal managers, is indeed an honour; it is an opportunity for us to share our experiences and to assess the challenges we face as agents for development - a role that derives its mandate from the essence of our democratic state, the Constitution. It is a pertinent moment in our history as we enter the 10th year of our democracy, to review our activities.

Often the circumstances in which we try and fulfil our role are beset by difficulties that threaten to undermine the essence of what we are trying to achieve - amongst others service debts and capacity shortfalls. I am sure that each one of us has sometimes felt that there is no appreciation of these difficulties and our efforts are not recognised.

Let me assure you that the country is proud of the work that you are doing and we, in national government pledge our continued support to you, who, perhaps more that any other sphere, are at the coalface of delivery.

The issue of the single public service has been raised in the public domain at a very early stage. It raises expectations that it will be a reality very soon. Yet we know that the achievement of a single public service will be a medium to long-term process. I would therefore urge you to be cautious in your pronouncements on this matter, to allow the process to unfold in good time.

We must be conscious of the realities that we face on the ground. A study conducted last year found that there are notable discrepancies between the remuneration and conditions of service of the public service and local government. As you will also know, there are even more significant discrepancies between municipalities. There may even still be discrepancies within municipalities, as a result of the amalgamation process that preceded the elections of December 2000.

So clearly there is a great deal still to be done.

For there to be a single public service, there must be uniformity, or at the very least compatibility, with regard to conditions of service, both in terms of administration and management on the one hand, and mechanisms to facilitate mobility between the spheres on the other.

President Mbeki focused on these core issues in his State of the Nation Address in February this year. Our President said: "We will this year finalise the proposal for the harmonisation of systems, conditions of service and norms between the public service in the national and provincial spheres on the one hand, and the municipalities on the other."

This is our challenge. The Governance and Administration (G&A) Cluster has established a task team to assist in taking this process forward. Salga officials serve on this task team, as do officials from DPSA, DPLG and the National Treasury. This is the same team that conducted the comparative study into conditions of service last year.

It has been reconstituted under the G&A Cluster and has just begun its work.

One of the areas of achievement thus far this year has been the development of a draft policy document by DPLG on the assignment of powers and functions to local government. The document argues strongly for the use of the more formal assignment procedure to transfer functions to local government, in preference to delegations. This is because the municipality gains the full responsibility for administering the function in the long term, with secure access to grant finance - and in some cases even the protection of legislation.

The policy framework sets out detailed procedures for the assignment of functions. The most important test relates to the principle of subsidiarity, reflected in the Constitution in section 156(4).

There are three main provisos. Firstly, that the matter or function must necessarily relate to local government. Secondly, that it should be most effectively administered locally. And thirdly, that the municipality must have the capacity to administer it.

For it is very important that assignments and delegations do not simply add to the burdens of municipalities. Various criteria must be weighed before a decision on assignments can be made.

These include:

* the capacity of the municipality;
* a comparative assessment of the capacity of the assigning body;
* whether it is important for the function to be exercised across the whole province or the whole country;
* whether there will be efficiency gains in managing the function broadly across the whole province or the whole country;
* the importance of proximity between those accountable for delivering the service and those receiving it;
* whether there is access to alternative revenue sources; and
* the cost of transition.

These criteria are weighted by agreement between the assigning party and the proposed assignee. This seeks to ensure that the assignment of functions is carefully thought through and does not impose unwarranted burdens on municipalities.

The policy document also addresses the challenging area of the transfers of human resources in terms of assignments and delegations. In some instances, functions have already been allocated to local government, and public service personnel are being transferred.

Because of the problem I mentioned earlier - the discrepancies in terms of remuneration and conditions of service - sometimes staff working alongside one another have different conditions of service, benefits, working hours and leave dispensations.

I have quoted before, the concerns raised by my colleague the Minister of Health, who said last year already that the incomplete merging of provincial and municipal health services presented problems in terms of the effective management of facilities. For this reason the Minister views "the incorporation of municipal workers into the public service, effectively creating a single public service, as the most significant contribution that could be made at this stage to the building of our district health system."

This is an urgent challenge for the G&A team.

The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry is also engaged in transferring staff from the public service to local government, and is doing a great deal to provide support and resources to local government in taking on the staff and functions. We would like to learn more about the procedure employed by the Department, and may be able to assist the process by providing mechanisms for the smooth transfer of staff.

Because these transfers are already happening, and in some instances causing problems at departmental and municipal level, as well as within service delivery institutions, we must attend to this issue as a priority.

We will develop mechanisms to assist the departments and municipalities, as well as a broader framework for ongoing restructuring, which can be included as part of the policy document on assignments.

Our aim in this work is to facilitate the mobility of staff between the public service and local government. It will also help us understand all the complexities involved in making the public service and local government more compatible. We would also like to learn from the R293 transfers which have already taken place.

We must also bear in mind that the transfer of powers and functions also has financial implications, and we must diligently apply the rule that finance must follow function. We cannot have a situation where unfunded mandates are foisted upon local government. So this will be an important chapter of the finalised policy on assignments.

The National Treasury is conducting a focused study into the financial implications of incorporating local government into the public service. Four municipalities will be selected for the study, a metro, a district municipality and a large and a small local municipality. The financial implications of incorporation will be investigated in detail and a report will be drawn up. From this we will get an idea of the overall cost implications.

One of the most important areas of work currently underway, is the internal rationalisation of conditions of service and restructuring of collective bargaining arrangements in local government. This is being undertaken by SALGA as part of the broader process of the transformation of local government envisaged in the White Paper on Local Government.

You will no doubt be aware of the work that has been done this year towards rationalisation. The achievements to date include:

* The adoption of the TASK job evaluation system for the local government sector;
* The establishment of a task team of revisit the grading of municipalities;
* The reduction in the number of accredited medical aid schemes in the sector;
* The reduction of the employer contribution to pension funds to 18% with effect from next year;
* Initial work on a local government remuneration policy; and
* The adoption of a performance management system.

We applaud these positive steps, especially the attention that has been paid to aligning your processes to public service medium-term strategy. We hope that SALGA will continue to implement its internal rationalisation and restructuring processes, note that there is bound to be opposition to this initiative - by those whom have been privileged in one way or another.

So it is fair to say we have made a promising start on this important work.

At the Cabinet Lekgotla held last month, the Governance and Administration sector put forward various proposals regarding a programme of action for the way forward.

We proposed that Phase One be completed when the policy on the assignment of powers and functions is finalised, by September 2003.

Phase Two entails the development of a mechanism for human resource transfers by January 2004. This will be ready to present to the January Cabinet Lekgotla.

Phase Three is the internal rationalisation of the local government conditions of service and bargaining system. This is already underway and the target that has been set for completion is January 2005.

During 2005, Phase Four will be implemented, including the development of framework legislation and the overall finalisation of conditions of service.

These targets are very ambitious, and we must focus our efforts to meet them. In particular, DPSA, DPLG, Salga and National Treasury must work together to ensure that the strategies for the reform and rationalisation of systems, conditions of > service, financing and norms are aligned and steadily converged. My Department looks forward to working closely with Salga on these issues.

By now there has been much debate on the issue of an integrated public service. There is broad consensus in government on the creation of an integrated public service, although the details of the transition and the eventual regulatory framework must still be worked out.

In particular, we must take into account that local government, like the provincial and national sphere of government, is a distinctive sphere of government in terms of the Constitution.

Local government has its own transformation imperatives, as well as detailed systems, structures and legislation. It will soon receive new financial management legislation in the form of the Municipal Finance Management Act.

Any public service regulatory framework that seeks to incorporate local government will need to respect the integrity of local government legislation and policy, as well as the experiences gained from the transformation process since 1994.

Finally, I would like to remind you that we are not pursuing the goal of an integrated public service for its own sake. We believe very strongly that it will improve service delivery, specifically in two ways:

* An integrated public service can help address service delivery problems associated with the current fragmented machinery of government. We can achieve cohesion and greater impact;

* It can also help facilitate mobility of skills between the spheres of government, effectively enabling a more equitable distribution of skills in the public sector.

We all have different roles to play in this process. It will only be through working together that we will be able to achieve our goals. By improving service delivery at the local, provincial and national levels we improve the lives of all South Africans.

As we approach the end of the first decade of democracy, we can look on our achievements with pride. But we have only walked a short way along the road to building a truly developmental state where the citizens of our country are able to fulfil their true potential in a creative and prosperous society. The journey remains a challenging one, but one that we should travel with excitement and anticipation as we build a better life for the people of South Africa.

Media inquiries should be directed to Tembela Kulu, 082 497 3220
Issued by the Ministry for Public Service and Administration, 7 August

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