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The National School of Government (NSG) officially launched the Compulsory and Mandatory Programmes, which are in line with Chapter 10 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) and articulates the basic values and principles governing public administration. These values are a mix of compliance, learning and developmental aspirations.  The introduction of the suite of programmes will require all public servants to be re-oriented in understanding the role of government mandate, and more importantly, role that every government employee needs to take up in realizing government aspirations as outlined in the National Development Plan. In this regard, NSG is ready to occupy the public sector training space thus assisting government as it embarks on building a developmental and capable state to take the country forward on an economic growth trajectory.
 
In the  2019, SoNA the president announced that in order to strengthen the capacity of the state, the NSG will introduce a suite of compulsory courses, covering areas like ethics, and anti-corruption, senior management training, supply chain management, deployment of managers to the coal face to strengthen service delivery. The Compulsory and Mandatory Programmes are a suite of courses introduced by the National school of Government as a response to tackle reported fraud and corruption in the public service that threatens the integrity of the country as a whole. Through the programmes, the NSG also aims to arm new and existing public servants with skills to deal with new challenges that the government faces. It is hoped that this will improve performance and ensure effective  delivery of service to South African citizens.
 
Upon empowerment of public servants through the Compulsory and Mandatory programmes, the NSG calls national, provincial and local government departments to plan their demand led training on the basis of closing the gaps identified by the Auditor-General reports, Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) results and Budgetary Review and Recommendations Reports (BRRR) of the various parliamentary Portfolio Committees. The launch was attend by Directors-General of government departments and CEOs of organs of state, SETAs, the Head of Secretariat of the HRD Council, heads of provincial academies and provincial representatives and HRD coordinators of national government departments.
 
Mr Stephen Miti, representing all provincial academies in the county pledged their support towards the roll-out and implementation of the programmes. “It is our belief that the programmes are driven by the need to have a capable state, and as a result we support the new venture”, he said.  In addition to that, the Director-General of the Office of the Public Service Commission; Dr Dovhani Mamphiswana   emphasised that if the state seeks to be the employer of choice, public servants need to lead by example and inspire confidence. Adv Richard Sizani, the Chairperson from Public Service Commission, represented Minister for Public Service and Administration, Ms Ayanda Dlodlo. In the speech he highlighted that “it is important to reflect on the political mandates given to this Ministry by the ruling African National Congress”.  He further indicated that the Ministry is guided by the resolutions taken at the 54th national conference, which resolved that the transformation and modernisation of public administration should deal comprehensively with human resource development, capacity building and professionalization of the public administration and establishment of necessary systems and processes.
 
At the said Conference, it was resolved that the NSG must play a central coordinating role in capacitating employees in all spheres of government, provide support for talent management and provide guidance for appointments, succession planning and career development.  It was also noted that this would require specific interventions such as the establishment of a national competency assessment functions, implementation of a public service-wide skills database, and policy proposals for the setting of compulsory competence requirements for certain occupational categories for entry or mobility within the public service, a space of which the NSG is befit to occupy.
 
In closing, Adv Sizani also acknowledged the role played by National Treasury in supporting the rollout of the compulsory mandatory programmes. The National Treasury provided an additional direct financial allocation to the NSG for a three-year period. Cabinet also approved the direct payment for compulsory programmes to the NSG by relevant employing/sending departments from their respective training budgets.
 
 
 
Issued by Government Communication and Information System