3 SEPTEMBER 1999
Today's events combine two critical elements of our government's programme to ensure a better life for our people.
On the one hand there is our Public Communications Package or PCP, which is aimed at ensuring that the people of our province have greater access to information about government and are able to influence its activities.
On the other hand there is our Customer Service Charter, which will ensure that when people do interact with government they receive the best quality service.
First, some details on the Public Communications Package.
Our objective with the PCP is clear: we are empowering our people by ensuring they are better informed - and, as a result, they will be able to participate more actively in shaping the future of our province. It is a fundamental intervention into ensuring we consolidate democracy in our province.
The Public Communications Package which we have presented today is driven by recognition of the fact that we, as government, have an obligation to ensure an open flow of information on issues which affect our people.
We have an obligation to inform all the people of the province about our programmes to speed up delivery and to provide what our President, Thabo Mbeki, refers to as a caring society - one which guarantees the dignity of every citizen.
Part of ensuring that dignity is to see to it that every citizen knows what government is doing and is able to influence those activities.
This is a marked difference from previous governments, which deliberately denied people access to information as part of their strategy of oppression.
Ours, as everyone knows, is a government with a deep-rooted commitment to transparency and accountability. We do not embark on secret projects. We do not have slush funds. We do not manipulate information to suit our own ends.
Ours is a government which has entrenched in the Constitution the right of access to information - a right which will be substantiated later this year when our national Parliament adopts the Open Democracy Act. The Act, when passed, will provide South Afri cans with the tools they require to facilitate public scrutiny of government. It will also protect whistleblowers within the public service who come across corrupt practices.
Ours is also a government which facilitates the free flow of information to the mass media. We have a clear media strategy and have appointed media liaison officers in every government department, and in my own office, as well as in the Legislature to ensu re that the media - the eyes and ears of the public - have access to all the activities of government.
Granted, we do not always like what the media has to say and we may even question their motives at times. But we recognise their right to publish what they consider to be worthy of publication - provided they do so in accordance with the applicable codes o f ethics.
It is also important to see the launch of our Public Communications Charter in the context of the broader information revolution which is sweeping across not just South Africa but our entire continent.
It is this information revolution which has enabled us to produce innovations such as our Provincial Government Web site, which is on view for the first time today.
Ten years ago, who would have imagined seeing young South Africans working away at computer terminals in telecentres in rural parts of our country, dialling into the Internet to find the information they need to complete their school projects, or accessing our own Government web site to find out what new development government is planning in their area?
As government, we must use the technology at our disposal, and the other forms of communication outlined in our Public Communication Programme, to build bridges of understanding between various communities, and to empower the people of Africa with informat ion which can contribute to their sustainable development.
We must use it to build our understanding of the diverse strengths and weaknesses of our province, to share our common problems and to jointly find solutions.
As Africans, we have been among the greatest innovators on our planet. We need to draw again on that resourcefulness and creativity to provide new solutions to the challenges facing our continent - challenges which exploit the opportunities created by the information revolution.
The second important element of today's function is the launch of our Customer Service Charter, which enshrines our commitment to serving the needs of the people of our province.
It contains a commitment - which I will personally oversee - to being courteous and helpful and to have knowledgeable staff available to deal with your queries. This is not an empty commitment, or a public relations exercise. It marks a genuine commitment to being responsive to the public, to being service-oriented, and to putting the people first.
This commitment to putting people first is encapsulated in the broad programme, across the entire South African public service, called Batho Pele - or, in Xhosa, "Abantu kuqala".
Batho Pele was launched last year to transform the quality of service provided by government. It engenders customer orientation and holds public servants accountable for the services they provide. It is about consulting the users, setting service standards and getting the best possible value for money.
Our Customer Service Charter echoes these principles. From today onwards I can guarantee the following from the department known as the Office of the Premier:
We would like you to monitor our progress and give us feedback on this initiative. If you are treated badly by my office, or if you receive unsatisfactory service, it is critical that you let us know. Only through feedback can we monitor the quality of ser vice we provide - and only through monitoring can we continue to improve.
Ladies and gentlemen, you will see the connection between these two initiatives - our Public Communications Programme and our Service Charter. Because it is one thing to make a public commitment to providing greater access to information: but it is another thing to back it up with a general improvement in our service standards. We will be bridging the gap between intentions and actual delivery.
The combined effect of today's activities, then, is to put in place a platform for the ever-increasing flow of information to the public- and to ensure that these empowered members of the public have access to a public service which is geared towards servi ng their needs.
It is an ambitious project, we admit, and one which we have embarked upon after a great deal of thought and planning. It is a project which is going to put increasing demands on our public servants at a time when they are already dealing with massive chang e in the way the public service functions.
But it is a necessary one-one which the people of the Eastern Cape deserve.