Issued by: SA Communication Service
PLEASE NOTE: THE SAMDI NATIONAL CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD AT THE LORD CHARLES HOTEL, SOMERSET WEST AND WILL BE OPENED BY THE DEPUTY EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT, MR THABO MBEKI ON 13.03.97
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PRODUCTIVITY AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT AWARENESS, 13-14 MARCH 1997 IN SOMERSET WEST, CAPE TOWN
This conference is designed for political leaders, directors-general from provincial ad central governments and chief executive officers of public enterprises. It is universally recognized in every country, developed or developing, that productivity has a major role in increasing the national welfare, and that the economic growth, stagnation and decline are accompanied by either an acceleration or a slowdown in productivity improvement. High productivity and quality will increasingly become the key to progress and success in every organization, public or private, as South Africa moves into an era of shrinking resources and increasing population. There is a greater need to focus on the improvement of productivity and quality in the public sector which is charged with the responsibility of being the engine and locomotive to drive the RDP to its envisaged destination.
The rationalization ad right-sizing of the public service makes it even more imperative to focus more intently on productivity ad quality improvement in the public sector, for whilst the number of public sector employees is being reduced, the number of activities and services they are required to undertake is increasing and will continue to increase as the Government moves towards its goal of providing better services to all its citizens.
The White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service maintains that low productivity results in part from the shortage of appropriate education and training opportunities for the majority of staff. It is against this background that the South African Management Development Institute (SAMDI) has committed itself to making productivity and quality improvement in the public service its main training priority. This conference is the first part of a series of interventions which SAMDI will undertake in the next five to ten years and years beyond. This conference will be followed by a series of productivity ad quality workshops throughout the country in partnership with provinces and departments. In addition to these workshops, SAMDI will undertake training courses focusing on skills transfer.
The conference aims at achieving the following objectives: 1). the promotion of a national awareness of and commitment to the significance and need for productivity and quality improvement in the public sector; 2). increasing and heightening knowledge and understanding of the link between productivity and quality improvement and success in an organization; 3). facilitating the creation of an environment within which a common vision of productivity and quality improvement as national phenomenon can develop; 4). identifying blockages, constraints and other related factors detracting form application of public servants to their work; and 5). arriving at policy and strategic proposals essential for promoting and advancing productivity and quality improvement in the South African public sector.
The first day of the conference will focus on the need for national awareness of the need for productivity and quality improvement, and will involve participation by politicians, directors-general and chief executive of public enterprises. Day two will operate on a workshop format and will be exclusively for directors-general and chief executive officers of public enterprises. The focus of the second day will be identifying blockages and constraints frustrating productivity and quality improvement and the formulation of general policy ad strategic proposals, for productivity and quality improvement in the public service.
SOMERSET WEST