SPEECH BY DR ZST SKWEYIYA, MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION, AT THE PARLIAMENTARY MEDIA BRIEFING WEEK,

9 SEPTEMBER 1997

Introduction

• Members of the press, the diplomatic corps, ladies and gentlemen. At the Parliamentary media briefing week held at the beginning of this year I detailed the progress that my Ministry had made in negotiating the transformation of the public service. I expressed a confidence that 1997 would be the year when the enabling framework of policies, agreements and legislative reform in the Public Service would begin to have an impact. This has been the case.
• In the six months since the Parliamentary media briefing week held in February this year, my Ministry has sustained this focus on improving the performance of the Public Service. This focus on improved performance encompassed the auditing of administrative capacity, the development of tools for performance management, the ensuring of accountability and the implementation of projects to improve service delivery. The government is committed and forging ahead.
• At the time of the Parliamentary media briefing week earlier this year, a number of corrective measures were already underway to address the structural issues hampering the delivery of service in both national departments and provincial administrations. This is an ongoing process and my Ministry continues to pursue the programme of action detailed in the White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service.
• The progress made in implementing this programme of transformation has been detailed in the various budget votes, reports, legislation and policy documents that my Ministry has tabled in Parliament and other Government structures. The progress being made is also evident in the agreements that have been reached in the Central Chamber of the Public Service Bargaining Council. In addition, relative consensus is being reached with various stakeholders on the range of policy issues being addressed by my Ministry.

Improvement of Conditions of Service

• One of the major achievements of this year has been agreement on improvement of conditions of service with unions representing the majority of public servants. The agreement provides for a salary adjustment of at least 9% for the lowest paid 80% of public servants, with substantially higher adjustments for those at the minimum level and lower adjustments for managers. It also provides for the extension of rank promotion to various occupational classes, with effect from August 1997. The adjustments reflect a good faith effort by the government to live up to its promise to adjust salaries over a three-year period.

Bargaining Structures and Processes

• Recently members of my department also participated in the drafting of a constitution for the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council under the auspices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. The constitution has been submitted to the Registrar and once it has been registered, the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council can be formally established. This will be an ideal forum to deal with transversal issues. It will also prevent the duplication of negotiations that have up to now taken place separately in the police and education sectors and the rest of the Public Service

Government Employees Pension Fund

• It should also be noted that intensive negotiations between the State as employer and employee organisations culminated in the restructuring of the benefit structure of the Government Employees Pension Fund. The subsequent amendments to the Rules of the Pension Fund became effective on 1 May 1997. The advantages of the amended rules are that benefits are modernised, state expenditure is reduced, the mobility of public servants is improved, the manipulation and abuse of the retirement system is prevented, and the preservation of pensions is promoted.

Employment Conditions for Women

• The conditions of service of women in the Public Service have also been reviewed. Previous discriminatory practises against women with regard to housing and pension entitlement have been repealed. Maternity leave has been reviewed. The twelve months quali@ng period before a woman is entitled to maternity benefits has been removed.

Affirmative Action and Representativeness

• In addition to these conditions of service issues, a number of policy issues have also been addressed. The Constitution requires a public service broadly representative of the South African people. It also sets out the basic values and principles governing public administration and enables measures to advance persons disadvantaged by apartheid. In practice this proved difficult because the Public Service Act and other regulatory prescripts were ambiguous and thus susceptible to diverse interpretations.
• Amendments to the Act give effect to the provisions of the Constitution, in particular, the appointment of persons to promote representativeness. Provision is being made for the Minister of Public Service and Administration to make policies regarding employment and other personnel practices including the promotion of broad representativeness. This is covered by the Public service Laws Amendment Act, 1997, on which I will dwell a bit later.
• In addition to these amendments my Ministry has developed a policy document on this issue which sets out a conceptual homework that is linked to service delivery. The idea is to move away from a simplistic approach that puts emphasis on numbers to a new focus on the effective management of diversity.

Employment Policy

• Similarly, a consultative review of the employment practices and procedures of the Public Service has been initiated. Current rules and procedures are outdated. They are over prescriptive and do not focus effectively on the attainment of key human resource objectives such as the establishment of employment equity. They emphasise process at the expense of the achievement of strategic outcomes.
• The proposed new employment policy for the Public Service will contain parameters for inclusion in the Code of Best Management Practices that is being developed. The proposed employment policy is the basis for the performance management procedures and training programme that is being developed.

Legislative Reform

• As alluded to earlier, my Ministry has legislative reform. The Public Service away with discriminatory provisions also been engaged in a programme of Act was amended in April 1996 to do which were still in existence. A new Public Service Commission Bill, 1997, and the Public Service Laws Amendment Bill, 1997, were presented to Parliament earlier this year. These Bills reflect the new roles of the Ministry, of executing authorities and of the Public Service Commission as stipulated in the new Constitution.

Where a power or function was previously vested in the Public Service Commission, it shall now vest, depending on the nature of it, in the Ministry for the Public Service and Administration or the executing authority as the case may be.

There will be a clear devolution of powers to executing authorities. This will ensure that they will now have original powers on aspects like internal organisation, appointments, promotions, discharges and other career incidents of public servants. The Minister for the Public Service and Administration will in turn be empowered to determine policy, norms and standards relating to employment and other personnel practices, salaries and conditions of service, labour relations and Public Service transformation and reform.

The Public Service Commission Bill, on the other hand, will facilitate establishment and appointment of a new Public Service Commission for the country as a whole. The Constitution, 1996, assigns the Public Service Commission the role of promoting the values and principles set out in Section 195 of the Constitution.

These include, inter alia, a high standard of professional ethics, efficiency, the economic and effective use of resources, development oriented public administration, impartiality, fairness, equity and unbiased service rendering through a public service that is responsive to the needs of the public.

The Commission, as an independent statutory body, will therefore be the guardian of democratic values and principles in the Public Service. Both the Public Service Commission Bill, 1997, and the Public Service Laws Amendment Bill, 1997, have recently been passed by the National Assembly. The National Council of Provinces is presently dealing with them and will hopefully pass them later this month. This will signal a radical break with the past and the provisions of these Bills will have a significant impact on the performance of the Public Service.

Training & Capacity Building

• It must be borne in mind, however, that all the agreements, policies and legislation that I have outlined have substantial training implications. This is especially so given the skills shortages in key areas of the Public Service. The South African Management Development Institute (SAMDI) has accordingly been reviewing its training programmes to match identified needs.
• The development of new modules and the upgrading of course materials in the areas of human resource management training; productivity and quality management; communication and customer services; and policy analysis and project planning having accordingly been given priority. A total of 86 courses in the areas of management and leadership development, training of trainers, provisioning administration and human resource management were presented by SAMDI during the first half of 1997. A further 14 courses were also presented specifically in the provinces.

Code of Conduct

• Another important milestone in the transformation process over the past six months was the adoption of the Code of Conduct for public servants in June of this year. The Code of Conduct, which was developed by the Public Service Commission, is enforceable in law and contravention will result in misconduct in terms of the Public Service Act. The Code of Conduct provides a framework to guide ethical behaviour in the Public Service and is intended to promote high standards of professionalism.

Transformation Structures

• There have been other milestones in the transformation process. A number of structures have been established to drive, facilitate co-ordinate the transformation process. The Inter- Provincial Transformation Co-ordinating Committee was launched in February 1997. The National Transformation Co- ordinating Committee, composed of national departments and organised labour, was launched in March 1997. In addition, the Public Sector Transformation Forum, composed of business, labour and government, will be established under the auspices of NEDLAC.

Transforming Service Delivery

• I cannot conclude this review of actions taken to transform the Public Service without mentioning the Batho Pele programme and the initiative to develop a new set of management tools for the Public Service. As indicated in the Draft White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery, the Batho Pele or "People First" programme engenders a customer orientation and holds public servants accountable for the services that they provide. It is about consulting users of services, setting service standards and getting the best possible value for money.
• The aim of the initiative to develop a new set of management tools for the Public Service aims to produce user-friendly and concise new regulations for the Public Service. These regulations will reflect all pertinent Government policies that bear upon the Public Service and will be underpinned by the principles of good management. The new regulations will replace the current regulatory homework in the Public Service and will be supported by an extensive guide on good management practice. Obviously the matters that are of mutual interest will be subject to collective bargaining.

Provincial Review Audits

• In sum, I think it can be fairly said that comprehensive and thorough going actions are being taken to transform the Public Service. Given that my Ministry conducted the provincial audits which details serious and substantial inadequacies in key areas of public administration, I am not for one moment downplaying the enormity of the challenge facing the government and the Public Service.
• As I have indicated in previous comments on the Provincial Review Reports, we must not lose sight of the fact that connective and remedial measures have been initiated by provincial administrations and national departments. In addition, a number of capacity building initiatives are currently being undertaken in conjunction with bilateral and multilateral agencies.
• The Provincial Review Reports also contain specific recommendations and I am confident that the new Public Service Commission and the Presidential Review Commission will continue to build on this work in the pursuit of their constitutional and statutory mandates, respectively.

I thank you.