Date: 28/10/2004
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: M Shilowa: Public Sector Summit
SPEECH BY GAUTENG PREMIER, MBHAZIMA SHILOWA, AT THE PUBLIC SECTOR SUMMIT, Muldersdrift, 28 October 2004
Today's meeting is very important in our quest to forge working partnerships between government and the workers in the public service. This summit and its outcomes should serve as a catalyst to mobilise and inspire public sector delivery and help make public sector employees understand their role and responsibility towards the public they serve.
This is not a public sector summit as it should be known as it excludes parastatals and municipalities; all of whom are important in the implementation of this programme we will be talking about.
In working out some of the issues we would need to talk about today, we would need to where possible start at the beginning at least in so far as our democracy is concerned.
One area to start with would be the RDP which outlined some of the key pillars for reconstruction and development. Cognisance would have been taken of the nature of the challenges and therefore the need to rebuild our country, to transform and reconstruct our country.
The RDP would also have outlined its vision of a public service. Within the confines of the constitution, certain key issues on the public service, the ethos, employment conditions and labour relations would have been captured. Looking at that chapter on public service it is clear that the expected relationship between government and the public service employees is broader than a simple employer and worker relationship.
I see this summit as the platform where we, having agreed on the challenges, can agree on how to develop a shared vision between government and the public service workers.
I am using the word "government" to include the executive on the one hand as the elected authority together with heads of department and senior and middle managers.
What is the shared vision of this province and how are we going to roll that out within what is possible? So that management shouldn't ask ordinary workers issues on which management should be working on and then pass the buck.
We need to sit down and say to ourselves, if we were to start all over again, how would we implement our programmes, what type of relationship should be built? We can point out where management is wrong. That would be helpful if we were developing a research paper for academics. It may be helpful to say this is how we should have worked on issues of participatory democracy on the shopfloor, as a model employer in policy-making and decision-making with all the limitations that are there.
Let's start at the beginning.
The results of the past election constitute a perfect outcome of a referendum on government work. The overwhelming majority of the people who voted expressed unequivocal approval of the progress that has been made in the past decade.
The voters, in their own words, said: 'we can see that a long road has been travelled and we can see a map for 2014 that will further take us where we want to be. We like the map'.
But having placed our programme before the people, we need to ensure that they work with us in a people's contract for its implementation. As government we looked at the ruling party's election manifesto to see what needed to be done to give it content.
The Gauteng Provincial Government has worked out a five year plan within a ten year horizon and has published two documents, one being the 2014 document and the other a five year strategic plan, which is a programme which takes the first five years of that 2014 plan. The documents have been made available here today. But as committed trade unionists, management and everybody who is here you have already read them and have views on what we can do to further strengthen our programme. In addition, during the opening of the provincial legislature, further elaboration has been given and people made comments on the plan. Some said it looks good but do we have the commitment?
Government's first and most important partner in the implementation of this programme is the public service employees.
We therefore need to identify what it is we can do together. Our failures are your failures. So no-one should be happy when problems are pointed out in hospitals, pension pay-points, schools and other state institutions. We should all be concerned that the image of the government that we cherish and want to succeed is being tarnished. We should not be happy when that image is tarnished. It doesn't mean there will not be areas of disagreement but this will not be on whether or not we want a better life for all.
Part of the first challenge we face was finding ways in which everybody including the unions could be involved in the development of the five year plan. It is correct that government, in the form of the executive council, needed to sit down and develop the five year strategic programme and map it out to the people of the province.
But I think in departments, as part of giving content to the 5 year strategic plans, we should as one of the key principles of participatory democracy, have sat down with the workers and say: 'this is what the executive has decided, these are some of the plans to give content to what we need to do, what other inputs do you have?' We need to inculcate this in the way we work as the executive and managers and see partnership and consensus not as a hindrance to decision-making, or the right of managers to manage.
This should be seen as part of developing a new way of managing. It is not management by committee or position but a different way of managing that involves the workers as important role-players in management. So when there are disagreements at least the key strategic direction has been agreed on.
This will give content to this shared vision. The five year strategic vision is shared and has been agreed upon by the people, as demonstrated by the overwhelming majority that voted for the ruling party during the elections. But giving it content in terms of what MECs and departments will do to grow the economy, create jobs and fight poverty requires a different process.
Of course it is fine to say we are here to look at how to forge partnership, that our first call is the public service and that we all need to work together as the executive, senior managers and entire workforce, but we need to also say to ourselves, how do we move and tease out issues of continued transformation of society, of the state and of the public service.
Even well established democracies are constantly transforming, let alone us an up and coming democracy. Continued transformation for us is a necessity. How do we respond to the fact that even though the economy has grown, the number of new jobs created does not match the numbers of those seeking employment including the new entrants to the labour market.
There should be no debate on whether or not the economy is growing and at what rate. The issue of concern is whether the number of people leaving school or universities can find jobs in the market. Very few are able to find jobs. When workers are retrenched, are they able to find jobs elsewhere? The answer is that very few are able to find jobs. It should not be a debate about figures. The issue is about what we are doing.
Job creation is something that I worry about, it is something that the public service workers and their unions must worry about, that government and senior managers must also worry about. We need to be able to say, while GDP growth is high, and per capita income is high in the country, but we also know that we have high levels of poverty even in this rich province, living side by side with wealth. Per capita income aggregates an income of somebody who earns R500 a month and somebody who earns R100 000 a month. Yet if you were to go to Sandton, the average per capita would be very high, whereas in Alexandra it would be very low.
Our focus therefore should be on addressing the challenge of poverty. We will continue to provide services such as child support grants, old age pensions, disability grants and other social security grants. We need to ensure that these services reach intended beneficiaries. Public servants need to provide these services not just because of Batho Pele, but because they are concerned about alleviating poverty.
I received a presentation on Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital which revealed a myriad of challenges. These ranged from what workers could do better, what managers could do better but were not, what Headquarters could do better - everyone had a reason why there were problems.
For me what was clear was that despite the explanations, everyone was passionate about how to make Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital better.
This fits well into ensuring that we carry out the mandate of creating a healthy and skilled workforce. We have to look at how to create better conditions for those who work there and provide services. To the extent that there is a heavy workload, what can we do to alleviate that? How do we develop a retention strategy to try and retain those who may be leaving?
If you are in Orlando, the concern of the people is about Orlando clinic, and not Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. They are worried that if they fall ill, and need service, will they be able to get treatment there.
While there has been provision of housing, water and sanitation and other basic services, it is also true that a higher number of our people still do not have shelter and access to basic services.
So those in housing should not only be concerned about manning the customer service but about how they move people from the waiting list into a house or shelter. What do we do together to address this challenge?
Informal settlements remain a problem. Informal means not only shacks but that you are not registered anywhere. If a settlement not an established registered township we cannot provide basic services. We cannot get utilities such Telkom or Eskom to provide services there because the people in such settlements do not have fixed addresses and there is no guarantee that they will not be moved.
We have made a commitment to formalise all informal settlements and ensure that by 2014 there is no informal settlement in Gauteng. This is another area where we can work together to help our people.
If we want to have a shared perspective we also need a shared perspective on the role of the state in social transformation, especially in the role of developmental state, or interventionist, activist state.
Can we find a shared perspective on the role of the state; the role of provincial government in transformation of the state, in defining the role of a developmental state. What can we do together? We also need to say in the context of our province, what the Gauteng Provincial Government is doing as its contribution to defining the role of a developmental state?
We have identified 5 key strategic areas for ourselves. We need to ask ourselves if they help to enhance the role of the state in transformation. Is it by design, by omission or do we have a different starting point? If we take the view that this is a developmental state, when we look at jobs and the economy, we will not debate whether or not the state should play a role in economic activity but we will say what role should the state play in the economy.
If we are agreed on those issues and the role of a developmental state in transformation, we also need to grapple with the question of the kind of public service worker we want. How do we move beyond a situation where I am merely doing my job as the premier but not committed beyond that? How do we move beyond having the best managers into having managers who can best work with people to implement our programme?
We must talk about the kind of managers we want, and their tasks. Is it managers who are perpetually in conflict with trade unions? No, these managers are not needed. Similarly, shopstewards who constantly seek conflict with managers will not help our course. Such managers and shopstewards cannot even agree on the nature of the problems and consequently they cannot find ways of solving them.
I don't want a compliant trade union as it cannot deliver. A trade union delivers if it has the confidence of workers, not of management. I do not want a weak trade union as you cannot reach an agreement with a weak trade union.
We do not need a manager who says we will have a job summit by October, even if we are not ready because the MEC said so. What kind of public service and what kind of leaders on both sides do we want?
In working on these issues we are not just trying to build a better Gauteng as we do not want to be an island of prosperity surrounded by a sea of poverty. That is not sustainable.
So, even as we talk about making Gauteng an integrated globally competitive region economically, it is not about taking our place alongside California or New York. We are a South African province within the African continent. Our quest to become globally competitive should also be to advance the ideals of Nepad. As we become globally competitive as a province our country will benefit and so will the continent.
We also need to be able to look at whether are we integrated in terms of economic, social, and political issues with the municipalities. There we focus on key policy issues and how municipalities can adopt a uniform approach to integrated development.
So there are issues of working with metropolitan and district municipalities, and how to strengthen them. If you want to talk integration, you need to understand the strength of each municipality and how they can contribute towards growth and development of the entire province.
So when we talk of these issues we are not saying we want one metro called Gauteng with one mayor as the premier and a co-ordinator in the Office of the Premier. That would be unconstitutional.
The objectives of the summit have been outlined. I'm hoping that tomorrow when we conclude, we will be able to say we started a process to develop a shared perspective on the transformation of the public service.
Once we have agreed on the shared perspective, we will still have to sit down as different departments discuss how we cascade this shared perspective to all public servants.
In the end it is not an agreement between trade unions and government, but an agreement between government and the entire workforce.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government
28 October 2004
Source: SAPA
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: M Shilowa: Public Sector Summit
SPEECH BY GAUTENG PREMIER, MBHAZIMA SHILOWA, AT THE PUBLIC SECTOR SUMMIT, Muldersdrift, 28 October 2004
Today's meeting is very important in our quest to forge working partnerships between government and the workers in the public service. This summit and its outcomes should serve as a catalyst to mobilise and inspire public sector delivery and help make public sector employees understand their role and responsibility towards the public they serve.
This is not a public sector summit as it should be known as it excludes parastatals and municipalities; all of whom are important in the implementation of this programme we will be talking about.
In working out some of the issues we would need to talk about today, we would need to where possible start at the beginning at least in so far as our democracy is concerned.
One area to start with would be the RDP which outlined some of the key pillars for reconstruction and development. Cognisance would have been taken of the nature of the challenges and therefore the need to rebuild our country, to transform and reconstruct our country.
The RDP would also have outlined its vision of a public service. Within the confines of the constitution, certain key issues on the public service, the ethos, employment conditions and labour relations would have been captured. Looking at that chapter on public service it is clear that the expected relationship between government and the public service employees is broader than a simple employer and worker relationship.
I see this summit as the platform where we, having agreed on the challenges, can agree on how to develop a shared vision between government and the public service workers.
I am using the word "government" to include the executive on the one hand as the elected authority together with heads of department and senior and middle managers.
What is the shared vision of this province and how are we going to roll that out within what is possible? So that management shouldn't ask ordinary workers issues on which management should be working on and then pass the buck.
We need to sit down and say to ourselves, if we were to start all over again, how would we implement our programmes, what type of relationship should be built? We can point out where management is wrong. That would be helpful if we were developing a research paper for academics. It may be helpful to say this is how we should have worked on issues of participatory democracy on the shopfloor, as a model employer in policy-making and decision-making with all the limitations that are there.
Let's start at the beginning.
The results of the past election constitute a perfect outcome of a referendum on government work. The overwhelming majority of the people who voted expressed unequivocal approval of the progress that has been made in the past decade.
The voters, in their own words, said: 'we can see that a long road has been travelled and we can see a map for 2014 that will further take us where we want to be. We like the map'.
But having placed our programme before the people, we need to ensure that they work with us in a people's contract for its implementation. As government we looked at the ruling party's election manifesto to see what needed to be done to give it content.
The Gauteng Provincial Government has worked out a five year plan within a ten year horizon and has published two documents, one being the 2014 document and the other a five year strategic plan, which is a programme which takes the first five years of that 2014 plan. The documents have been made available here today. But as committed trade unionists, management and everybody who is here you have already read them and have views on what we can do to further strengthen our programme. In addition, during the opening of the provincial legislature, further elaboration has been given and people made comments on the plan. Some said it looks good but do we have the commitment?
Government's first and most important partner in the implementation of this programme is the public service employees.
We therefore need to identify what it is we can do together. Our failures are your failures. So no-one should be happy when problems are pointed out in hospitals, pension pay-points, schools and other state institutions. We should all be concerned that the image of the government that we cherish and want to succeed is being tarnished. We should not be happy when that image is tarnished. It doesn't mean there will not be areas of disagreement but this will not be on whether or not we want a better life for all.
Part of the first challenge we face was finding ways in which everybody including the unions could be involved in the development of the five year plan. It is correct that government, in the form of the executive council, needed to sit down and develop the five year strategic programme and map it out to the people of the province.
But I think in departments, as part of giving content to the 5 year strategic plans, we should as one of the key principles of participatory democracy, have sat down with the workers and say: 'this is what the executive has decided, these are some of the plans to give content to what we need to do, what other inputs do you have?' We need to inculcate this in the way we work as the executive and managers and see partnership and consensus not as a hindrance to decision-making, or the right of managers to manage.
This should be seen as part of developing a new way of managing. It is not management by committee or position but a different way of managing that involves the workers as important role-players in management. So when there are disagreements at least the key strategic direction has been agreed on.
This will give content to this shared vision. The five year strategic vision is shared and has been agreed upon by the people, as demonstrated by the overwhelming majority that voted for the ruling party during the elections. But giving it content in terms of what MECs and departments will do to grow the economy, create jobs and fight poverty requires a different process.
Of course it is fine to say we are here to look at how to forge partnership, that our first call is the public service and that we all need to work together as the executive, senior managers and entire workforce, but we need to also say to ourselves, how do we move and tease out issues of continued transformation of society, of the state and of the public service.
Even well established democracies are constantly transforming, let alone us an up and coming democracy. Continued transformation for us is a necessity. How do we respond to the fact that even though the economy has grown, the number of new jobs created does not match the numbers of those seeking employment including the new entrants to the labour market.
There should be no debate on whether or not the economy is growing and at what rate. The issue of concern is whether the number of people leaving school or universities can find jobs in the market. Very few are able to find jobs. When workers are retrenched, are they able to find jobs elsewhere? The answer is that very few are able to find jobs. It should not be a debate about figures. The issue is about what we are doing.
Job creation is something that I worry about, it is something that the public service workers and their unions must worry about, that government and senior managers must also worry about. We need to be able to say, while GDP growth is high, and per capita income is high in the country, but we also know that we have high levels of poverty even in this rich province, living side by side with wealth. Per capita income aggregates an income of somebody who earns R500 a month and somebody who earns R100 000 a month. Yet if you were to go to Sandton, the average per capita would be very high, whereas in Alexandra it would be very low.
Our focus therefore should be on addressing the challenge of poverty. We will continue to provide services such as child support grants, old age pensions, disability grants and other social security grants. We need to ensure that these services reach intended beneficiaries. Public servants need to provide these services not just because of Batho Pele, but because they are concerned about alleviating poverty.
I received a presentation on Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital which revealed a myriad of challenges. These ranged from what workers could do better, what managers could do better but were not, what Headquarters could do better - everyone had a reason why there were problems.
For me what was clear was that despite the explanations, everyone was passionate about how to make Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital better.
This fits well into ensuring that we carry out the mandate of creating a healthy and skilled workforce. We have to look at how to create better conditions for those who work there and provide services. To the extent that there is a heavy workload, what can we do to alleviate that? How do we develop a retention strategy to try and retain those who may be leaving?
If you are in Orlando, the concern of the people is about Orlando clinic, and not Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. They are worried that if they fall ill, and need service, will they be able to get treatment there.
While there has been provision of housing, water and sanitation and other basic services, it is also true that a higher number of our people still do not have shelter and access to basic services.
So those in housing should not only be concerned about manning the customer service but about how they move people from the waiting list into a house or shelter. What do we do together to address this challenge?
Informal settlements remain a problem. Informal means not only shacks but that you are not registered anywhere. If a settlement not an established registered township we cannot provide basic services. We cannot get utilities such Telkom or Eskom to provide services there because the people in such settlements do not have fixed addresses and there is no guarantee that they will not be moved.
We have made a commitment to formalise all informal settlements and ensure that by 2014 there is no informal settlement in Gauteng. This is another area where we can work together to help our people.
If we want to have a shared perspective we also need a shared perspective on the role of the state in social transformation, especially in the role of developmental state, or interventionist, activist state.
Can we find a shared perspective on the role of the state; the role of provincial government in transformation of the state, in defining the role of a developmental state. What can we do together? We also need to say in the context of our province, what the Gauteng Provincial Government is doing as its contribution to defining the role of a developmental state?
We have identified 5 key strategic areas for ourselves. We need to ask ourselves if they help to enhance the role of the state in transformation. Is it by design, by omission or do we have a different starting point? If we take the view that this is a developmental state, when we look at jobs and the economy, we will not debate whether or not the state should play a role in economic activity but we will say what role should the state play in the economy.
If we are agreed on those issues and the role of a developmental state in transformation, we also need to grapple with the question of the kind of public service worker we want. How do we move beyond a situation where I am merely doing my job as the premier but not committed beyond that? How do we move beyond having the best managers into having managers who can best work with people to implement our programme?
We must talk about the kind of managers we want, and their tasks. Is it managers who are perpetually in conflict with trade unions? No, these managers are not needed. Similarly, shopstewards who constantly seek conflict with managers will not help our course. Such managers and shopstewards cannot even agree on the nature of the problems and consequently they cannot find ways of solving them.
I don't want a compliant trade union as it cannot deliver. A trade union delivers if it has the confidence of workers, not of management. I do not want a weak trade union as you cannot reach an agreement with a weak trade union.
We do not need a manager who says we will have a job summit by October, even if we are not ready because the MEC said so. What kind of public service and what kind of leaders on both sides do we want?
In working on these issues we are not just trying to build a better Gauteng as we do not want to be an island of prosperity surrounded by a sea of poverty. That is not sustainable.
So, even as we talk about making Gauteng an integrated globally competitive region economically, it is not about taking our place alongside California or New York. We are a South African province within the African continent. Our quest to become globally competitive should also be to advance the ideals of Nepad. As we become globally competitive as a province our country will benefit and so will the continent.
We also need to be able to look at whether are we integrated in terms of economic, social, and political issues with the municipalities. There we focus on key policy issues and how municipalities can adopt a uniform approach to integrated development.
So there are issues of working with metropolitan and district municipalities, and how to strengthen them. If you want to talk integration, you need to understand the strength of each municipality and how they can contribute towards growth and development of the entire province.
So when we talk of these issues we are not saying we want one metro called Gauteng with one mayor as the premier and a co-ordinator in the Office of the Premier. That would be unconstitutional.
The objectives of the summit have been outlined. I'm hoping that tomorrow when we conclude, we will be able to say we started a process to develop a shared perspective on the transformation of the public service.
Once we have agreed on the shared perspective, we will still have to sit down as different departments discuss how we cascade this shared perspective to all public servants.
In the end it is not an agreement between trade unions and government, but an agreement between government and the entire workforce.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government
28 October 2004
Source: SAPA
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