Date: 04/10/2005
Source: Department of Public Service and Administration
Title: G Fraser-Moleketi: Conference on Implementing Charter & related initiatives for Public Service Improvement in Africa


Keynote address by Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Minister for Public Service and Administration at the occasion of the Conference on Implementing the Charter and related initiatives for Public Service Improvement in Africa
Director of Ceremonies,
Deputy Prime Minister Libertine Amathila,
Honourable Governor of the Erongo Region,
Mayor of Swakopmund,
Honourable Delegates,
Excellencies,
Distinguished members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen

I am indeed honoured to deliver the keynote address today. South Africa interprets this invitation as an indication of deepening relations and ongoing endeavours of ensuring we deal with challenges facing Africa. There are very special bonds that our countries share, and we believe as our histories have been intertwined, so will our future.

The Deputy Prime Minister brings a certain energy to events and discussions that focuses all of us on the issue of how do we move from noble ideas and big intentions to implementation. Once again, she has put this particular stamp also on the theme for this Conference: "Implementing the Charter and related Initiatives for Public Service Improvement in Africa".

As I am occupying the podium today I do so with the utmost humility. The topic is a massive one with many underlying factors that are constantly changing. The great challenge is that the Charter is not caste in stone but will evolve around the changing elements. No matter how we deal with public sector reform and shaping public sector ethics it will have massive consequences and ramifications. South Africa, as all other countries, is continuously struggling to improve on our own arrangements in order to have better government; to have stronger and more inclusive relations with our citizens and organs of civil society; to involve the private sector in order to mobilize significant resources for the development of our people; to alleviate poverty and hardship that many of our people experience daily.

We certainly cannot boast that we have perfected any recipe notwithstanding the fact that if we have to run a checklist of what is regarded as so-called "best practice", South Africa has made provision for it, somehow. (I would argue to a fault some times, because we were not always critical enough about the internal consistency and the underpinning assumptions of some of the initiatives that we have introduced.

In terms of progress I can assure you that when we are doing our own assessments, for example in Cabinet, we are brutally honest, highly critical and although we recognise the progress we make, we are always acutely aware of how much remains to be done and how much scope is left for improvement.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The nexus between public governance and state performance or achievement in terms of growth and development has been receiving significant attention. At the United Nations (UN) it features in significant proportions in the thinking, deliberations and written output. The World Bank - for all its sins - has been engaging with these issues for the better part of four decades. Academics have concerned themselves with it. Practitioner communities in nation states and regional contexts, professional bodies, political parties ,