Address by Doctor Zweli Mkhize, Acting Premier and MEC for Finance and Economic Development on Public Sector Human Resources Convention, International Convention Centre (ICC), Durban

Programme Director
Human Resource practitioners
Representatives from businesses
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

On behalf of the Premier, let me first express my appreciation to all of you for travelling to KwaZulu-Natal from your provinces to share your views on this important matter. The theme for this convention is appropriately entitled, "Transforming Human Resources Management in the Public Sector: From transactional management to boardroom strategic partnerships" The theme for this convention speaks to the critical need for senior executives to ensure that Human Resource function shift from an operational function to a strategic one if government is to succeed to develop and retain skilled personnel.

This year's convention provides a snapshot of your successes as Human Resources practitioners but more importantly the opportunity to identify gaps and bottlenecks, and to propose improvements. Strengthened human resources management is needed to ensure that this country make substantial progress toward reducing poverty, fighting diseases and growing the economy.

Progress has been made in improving service delivery but there is much still to be done. There is an urgent need to close the gap between all policies that we have put in place and the reality of people's experiences in the workplace.

The release of the White Paper on Human Resources Management in 1997 ushered in an era of co-operation between government as an employer and its workforce. Government broadly announced that "the management of workers should be regarded as a significant task for those who have been charged with the responsibility and should be conducted in a professional manner." In drafting the White Paper, government and stakeholders had recognised that Human Resource practitioners are in a unique position to understand and assist in a national effort to better the lives of our people.

Government Human Resources framework which came into being in 1999 provides for the establishment of a flexible management that takes into account both the operational needs of the organisation and the needs of employees. In short, the framework seeks to ensure that Human Resource practitioners understand their workforce's experiences and then act on their experiences to improve working conditions.

Your task is to provide leadership to improve morale in your departments. Key to this will be your ability to communicate the government's programme of action to million of civil servants who are tasked with the responsibility to make this democracy meaningful to the ordinary citizens.

Skills shortage

Since 1997, staff turnover and shortage of skilled personnel still remains the most serious threats to effective service delivery. I have no doubt that all of us here agree about the negative consequences of skills shortage on the lives of ordinary people.

Quite interestingly, during my interaction with academics, business leaders and government officials from India recently, I have learned that the country has put in place a plan to secure the supply of skilled personnel for the country's labour market and plans are underway to position India as a "Skills Capital" of the world. The Confederation of Indian Industries says by 2020 there will be a 50 percent shortage of priority skills in the English speaking world and when that happens, India wants to be a global skills supplier.

What are we doing as the country?

The South African government is pursuing the objectives of New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). One of the desired outcomes of Nepad is to ensure that the continent accelerates the pace of achieving a set of African development goals, particularly human development.

There is shared commitment:

* to place African countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development
* to halt the marginalisation of Africa in the globalisation process and enhance its full and beneficial integration into the global economy.

In view of challenges posed by globalisation, it becomes extremely important to ensure that our human resources development strategy focuses on developing and supporting the government's workforce. Globalisation is redefining the skills and knowledge that workers need. Companies are following talent wherever that talent is. As economies become ever more sophisticated and ever more integrated, countries are competing for skilled and talented people. On the continent, South Africa is the most affected by the poaching of staff.

And the key to the future of skills development in this country is the national strategic leadership which should be provided by Human Resources practitioners. They play a critical role in linking the country's needs with employer and employee needs, therefore, they should be at the forefront of government's drive aimed at creating an environment where skilled personnel will enjoy long prosperous careers.

There is a distinct relationship between good governance by the state and economic growth and stability. Our effective participation in the global economy as the continent is dependent on how well do we look after our valuable assets, the workforce. The way in which we develop our workforce must undergo a fundamental transition. We must move away from a content-focused model to a capacity building model that produces adaptable and creative thinking workforce. The ongoing training of the workforce is important not only for our overall economic wellbeing; it actually makes the critical difference in life outcomes for individuals too.

It is increasingly becoming clear that information technology has become central to globalisation and to economic development. We should be able to prepare workers to take advantage of the convergence of communication technology. ICT has come a long way in the past two decades. Future advances are now focusing on technology, and more on what it does to improve service delivery.

Government has developed the e-government policy with the intention to advance the interests of ordinary citizens. This is in line with the Batho Pele, People First principles. In this way the e-government policy seeks to encourage accountability and to transform the public sector. E-government enables access to information, empowering citizens to know where to access services.

In July, government announced the implementation of the Information Society Development Plan, which seeks to increase the usage of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) across the three spheres of government as a means of improving public service delivery. The phenomenon of using ICT to raise productivity has helped several nations to achieve higher levels of real growth and increasing standards of living.

Part of provincial government's strategy has been to examine the ICT sector as part and parcel of the broader economy. Initiatives such as the ICT and Electronics cluster impart skills and contribute to building a network of highly skilled workforce. Our vision is to make KwaZulu-Natal a vibrant, innovative, fully inclusive knowledge society with a strong ICT and electronics brand. We want to make KwaZulu-Natal an example of an environment where ICT and Electronic-based innovation flourishes for the benefit of all communities even in remote rural communities.

For few years, the provincial government has been introducing a number of reforms to improve public service. These changes have been made to also keep up with the rising demand of our communities who have become more conscious of their rights which are enshrined in the constitution.

But the single most crucial reform was the launch of the Public Service Training Academy this year. At the launch, KwaZulu-Natal Premier said "the public service should be staffed by personnel who have the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed in a developmental state that is working towards creating a better life for all." He further pointed out: "The focus of concern in this instance is always the quality of service to the public, measured by its accessibility and openness, its speed of delivery and its fairness, to mention a few."

We need to convert the bureaucratic administrators into managers who lead by inspiration, example and are driven by the targets set to achieve agreed objectives within the expected timeframes and within the budgeted resources; ever improving on quality of service rendered more efficiently i.e. realising savings of available resources.

We need practitioners with a problem solving mindset, not those who are problem seekers in the face of many opportunities to advance.

Of importance in the mind of today's managers, should not be how things have always been done, but innovation, and creativity through the utilisation of modern proven systems and appropriate technology, all of which enables the manager to plan ahead whilst being in a position to monitor and evaluate progress and performance together with capacity to match the unavailable skills with the requirements of the job at hand and create a combination which yields the intended results.

Today's management world has no place for indecision and decision making by procrastination; the usual "time will tell" approach.

A manager today has global experience to tap from through the use of internet and current information technology. A manager must know his and her limitations and shortfalls and procure services to supplement any weakness in the system of management.

The manager in a public service which constitutes a developmental state has to be vastly different to the conventional civil servant as inherited from the apartheid state.

The underlying ethos of service to a democratic state as a vehicle for fulfilment of popular needs and aspirations of masses of people who have just been liberated from centuries of oppression calls for a new and transformed civil service. Such a civil service should be driven by the passion to rapidly offer redress for backlogs to ensure that people can testify to the spirit of freedom ushered in 1994.

There is no place for indolence, shifting of papers and rocking on chairs waiting for tea breaks, taking extended lunchtime and early departure from duty.

There is no place for rudeness to ordinary people and attitude of superiority to people who are responsible for your employment and retirement package. There is no space for party loyalties to determine which community will or will not receive services.

A developmental state require civil servants who are deeply committed to the principles of fairness, honesty, integrity, humble service to the people and justice for all. Their moral standing has to be in keeping with the trust that the voting populace has bestowed on the government of the day. Concerns of voters and the public in general have to be addressed with speed and a sense of responsibility.

There is no place for fraudsters and corrupt individuals in the service of new South Africa. The member of the civil service who admitted under the amnesty of the Department of Social Welfare and Population Development that they were corrupt and deliberately abused the pension grants destined for orphans, the destitute and vulnerable, the aged and the sick, was an embarrassing shock. Maybe we need a voluntary peer review mechanism to control all untoward and wayward conduct in public service.

There are many whose conduct has caused communities to lose faith in the ability and integrity of our government through their conduct.

I am mentioning all these issues because the record of internal disciplinary processes and the forensic audit as well as record of prosecution of civil servants has demonstrated that revolutionary morality and integrity has eluded some despite their commendable academic achievements.

We need a new cadre of civil servants; a loyal, trusted and committed servant of our people whose daily dream is to escape from the quagmire of poverty they inherited both as individuals and as communities.

We need to remember that in a globalised world we need an efficient machinery to steer our new democracy to become a model of good governance and the epic centre of efficiency in management which will give the dignity that the governments in the African continent deserve.

Maybe the human resource management should be seen as encompassing the development and nurturing of the humane aspect of our workface emphasising on empathy, respect, honesty, loyalty, integrity and humility above all else, in order for our government's objective creating a caring and human society to be realised.

The culture of human rights must not be a slogan on the posters preached by all but it must be felt by our people on daily basis as they approach government offices for services.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I trust the convention will have time to look at the softer side of the skills that human resources management requires. I look forward to your views on ways to ensure that this government responds effectively to the needs of the majority of our people. For us, government is about people, since it is about people, your discussions should revolve around making sure that government's workforce is properly empowered to serve the community

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Finance and Economic Development, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
19 September 2007