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President Jacob Zuma appointed the Commission of Inquiry into the Remuneration and Conditions of Service in the Public Service and Public Entities listed in Schedule 3A and 3C of the Public Finance Management Act, in August 2013, and some progress has been made in its work.

The Commission was first announced in the State of the Nation Address of February 2013.

The Commission was appointed by the President to investigate remuneration and conditions of service in the public service and public entities listed in Schedule 3A and 3C of the Public Finance Management Act with the remuneration of educators receiving priority attention.

According to the terms of reference, matters being probed include organisational development, job evaluation and grading, recruitment, appointment and promotion, human resource planning and performance management systems, policies and practices in the public service.

The original term of the Commission was eight (8) months: (07/08/2013 – 06/04/2014) and it has since been extended to 06/04/2017.

In October last year, retired Chief Justice Ngcobo requested to be released from his duties and the President duly acceded to the request. On 23 November 2015, the President appointed the Retired Deputy President of Supreme Court of Appeal, Justice Kenneth Mthiyane as the new Chairperson of the Commission.

Since then, Justice Mthiyane has been hard at work studying the volumes of information already gathered by the Commission in order to map the way forward – now that he has officially assumed the position of Chairperson of the Commission.

 

The mandate:

The key areas that the Commission is required to report to the President on by no later than 7 August 2017 are:

 

(a)  Remuneration and conditions of service;

(b)  Efficiency and effectiveness in the public service;

(c)  Fiscal sustainability of the wage bill; and

(d)  Efficient, economic and effective public service delivery.

   

All departments and government components, established in terms of the -

(a)    Public Service Act, 1994;

(b)    Employment of Educators Act, 1998;

(c)    South African Police Service Act, 1995;

(d)    Correctional Service Act, 1998;

(e)    Civilian Secretariat for Police Service Act, 2011; and

(f)      Public Entities listed in Schedules 3A and 3C of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999;

 

are included in the Inquiry.

 

The Process of the Inquiry

—  Phase I:       Baseline research and briefing sessions.  This phase is complete;

—  Phase II:       Information gathering.  This involved the gathering of information, data and evidence using methodologies such as written submissions; researching and analysing existing and other data. This phase is almost completed.

The following are some of the activities that were undertaken during Phase II:

§  11 March 2015 a briefing session to all stakeholders in the Education Sector was held.

§  4 May 2015 call for written submissions in the Education sector was made.

§  The deadline thereof was 30 June 2015.

§  20 May 2015 was the briefing session for the remaining sector and public entities.

§  1 June 2015; a call for return submissions to the remaining sector was made.

§  The deadline thereof was 31 July 2015.

§  A blanket 31 August 2015 extension of the deadline for submission was granted.

§  The Commission has received a total of 218 written submissions:

ü  78 from the Education Sector;

ü  119 from Public sector,

 

ü   21 from Public Entities, and

 

ü  1 from SAPS.

§  The Commission has only received submissions from 5 provinces, namely the Free State; Northern Cape; Gauteng; Eastern Cape and the Western Cape.

§  All stakeholders had been given until 31 December 2015 to make submission – which was the final cut-off date following numerous requests for deadline extensions.

—  Phase III:      Verification and clarification of issues.  This phase will involve clarification and verification of issues raised in the written submissions, which will be conducted mainly through consultations with affected stakeholders; focus groups; site visits and public hearings.

—  Phase IV:  Publication for comment of a provisional report setting out the Commission’s findings and recommendations on the key issues on which the Commission is required to report; and

—  Phase V: The submission of the Final Report to the President.

The Commission is currently wrapping up Phase II and will be commencing with Phase III immediately thereafter.

 

The members of the Commission include Dr Vincent Maphai and Ms Elizabeth Maepa.

In addition, Advocate Richard Sizani, the Chairperson of the Public Service Commission and Mr Bongani Khumalo, the Acting Chairperson of the Fiscal and Financial Commission, were appointed as ex-officio members of the Commission on 07 August 2015.

 

Issued by The Presidency