14 September 2000
The role of the nation state continues to change within a globalised environment. What we are certain about is that a strong state is vital to our participation in this global arena. The role of training institutions in South Africa is therefore important to ensure a stronger state through the capacity building of the human potential that serves the people, and therefore serves the nation as a whole.
As much as globalization may present more opportunities and choices for prosperity it is not a universal remedy. From our perspective we need to look at the role of the state in harnessing the forces of this phenomenon in the interest of the broader common good but not leading to the marginalisation of the nation state from a globalised world.
Unlike the forces of nature, globalisation is neither neutral nor value free. Whilst it manifests itself primarily through technological and economic forces, it is also supported politically. Although technical and economic aspects of globalisation have been accorded importance, there are nevertheless important political, social, institutional and cultural dimensions, which deserve far more attention than they have received to date. This points towards a realisation nationally and internationally that we need strong and efficient governments.
There is a growing acknowledgement regionally, nationally and internationally that there is a need for a stronger, more efficient state. A state is not determined by size but by its skills base that will allow appropriate interactions and delivery of services globally and locally.
It is important for our national democratic, non-sexist, non-racist state to have the capacity both through human resources, institutional capability and policy interventions in order to promote people-centred development and accelerate the fight against poverty, hunger, ignorance and disease. This will only be possible if the state has been transformed from the instrument of the powerful into a driver of development for the country.
Skills development is one of the major challenges facing the new South Africa. It is crucial for the improved living standards, increased productivity levels and a higher competitiveness on the world market. The Skills Development Act promulgated in 1998 by the Labour Department lays the foundation to redress the past by introducing new training systems which place special emphasis on enabling the formerly disadvantaged to actively participate in the country's economic activities.
The purpose of the Skills Development Act are achieved by establishing an institutional and financial framework, which includes the establishment of the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETA). The public service has been demarcated as a SETA, and the Department of Public Service and Administration has been involved in a consultative process to establish the Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority (PSETA), with the scope of coverage being national and provincial departments that perform core public service policy and administrative functions.
We emphasize that the development of competitive advantage and competencies in the public sector needs personnel globally skilled. The Public Service is extremely diverse and covers all economic sectors and is located in all provinces. Total employment in the Public Service, excluding the Department of Defence is 981 950. Senior and middle management in the Public Service does currently represent the broader population in terms of gender and racial representatively although there have been significant improvements since 1994. The Public Service is fairly youthful, with 49% of public servants in national departments under the age of 30. The sector profile reflects a range of skills needs of which the PSETA will need to prioritise those that are transversal and meet the needs of national and provincial departments.
Provinces employ about 70% of all public servants and the health and education sectors employ the largest amounts. These employees are on average distributed as follows (in provinces):
Provinces inherited homeland administrators- especially N-Province, E-Cape, KZN, Mpumalanga and NW-Province. These provinces experience the following problems:
|
Sector |
Number of departments |
Average number of employees per department |
Per cent share of total public service employment |
salary level 1-2 (elementary employees) |
Salary level 6-9 (post-secondary degree) |
|
Economic services |
12 |
800 |
1% |
20% |
39% |
|
Regulatory sector |
50 |
700 |
3% |
28% |
35% |
|
Agriculture and allied |
12 |
4,600 |
5% |
62% |
18% |
|
Infrastructure |
28 |
2,700 |
7% |
62% |
17% |
|
Security services |
12 |
21,400 |
24% |
9% |
58% |
|
Social services |
42 |
14,800 |
59% |
16% |
62% |
|
Total |
156 |
7,000 |
100% |
21% |
54% |
|
Sector |
Per cent share of total public service employment |
Per cent share of public service personnel expenditure |
Per cent of sector’s budget spent on personnel |
|
Economic Services |
1% |
1% |
9% |
|
Regulatory Sector |
3% |
6% |
31% |
|
Agriculture and allied |
5% |
2% |
33% |
|
Infrastructure |
7% |
4% |
20% |
|
Security services |
24% |
25% |
68% |
|
Social services |
59% |
62% |
55% |
|
Total |
100% |
100% |
48% |
|
Occupational grouping |
total employment (thousands) |
% share of total public service employment |
Average no. employees per sub-occupationa |
average salary level |
Average monthly salary |
Average monthly package |
Benefits as % of package |
|
major professions |
671 |
61% |
83,890 |
6.3 |
4,500 |
5,700 |
27% |
|
Elementary |
212 |
19% |
8,500 |
2.1 |
2,100 |
2,700 |
26% |
|
Administration |
105 |
9% |
3,600 |
6.0 |
4,200 |
5,400 |
27% |
|
skilled production |
62 |
6% |
1,000 |
3.8 |
2,800 |
3,600 |
30% |
|
small professions |
49 |
4% |
300 |
6.6 |
4,800 |
6,200 |
29% |
|
Managementb |
13 |
1% |
n.a. |
11.8 |
13,300 |
18,100 |
37% |
|
Total |
1,105 |
100% |
3,700 |
5.4 |
3,700 |
4,800 |
28% |
(Source Personnel Expenditure Review Report 1999)
|
Number of public servants |
% public service |
|
|
Social Services |
651 339 |
61 |
|
Core Civil Services |
18 128 |
2 |
|
Economic Services |
61 789 |
6 |
|
Infrastructure |
74 929 |
7 |
|
Criminal Justice |
171 782 |
16 |
|
Defence and Intelligence |
81 783 |
8 |
|
Other |
847 |
0 |
|
Total |
1 065 997 |
100 |
Source: PERSAL, December 1999
When we look at the South African public service the Social Services accounts for 61 per cent of all public service employment. The second largest sector is the Criminal Justice sector. Defence and Intelligence, Infrastructure and Economic Services are rou ghly of equal proportions (accounting for eight per cent, seven per cent and six per cent respectively of the public service). The smallest of all the sectors is the Core Civil Service or Regulatory Civil Service.
The immense variety that exists in the size of sectors, their relative size to the whole of the public service and in which salary levels the majority of the personnel are concentrated. The Security Service and Social Service departments are disproportionately large when compared to all the other sectors. The majority of their personnel are to be found in the salary levels six - nine, which are commensurate with highly skilled, production workers. These groupings are usually highly qualified. Although the Agricultural and Allied and the Infrastructure Sectors are relatively small, the majority of the employees in these departments are elementary, unskilled workers. Skills development in sectors like these would have to be considered in conjunction with the needs of a changing public service.
The Public Service is also faced with the challenge of developing an accountable and effective management core to ensure the acceleration of service delivery. The South African Management and Development Institute, SAMDI, plays a crucial role in building t he capacity of our managers. It is however not only training and development that is necessary but an integrated strategy to build strong management in the public service.
To professionalise this critical echelon of the public service, Cabinet has decided that a distinct Senior Management Service (SMS) be established. This would include Heads of Department and other senior managerial and technical executives of the public service. The SMS process will include distinguishing between managers and professionals, rigorous recruitment and selection systems, competency profiling of all new and current senior executives in relation to their jobs, performance assessments systems, training and development regimes, and flexible remuneration systems.
The needs of the state in building a more skilled public service are clear. Training institutions in South Africa should question whether they are developing the human potential of this nation in a way that supports the state and develops a better skilled nation.
The South African Management Development Institution (SAMDI) is faced with building the capacity of public servants in the work sphere. SAMDI and like institutions would be greatly assisted if tertiary institutions work to equip potential public servants with relevant skills before they get to the work sphere. In regard to this the Public Service has developed JUPMET.
JUPMET, The Joint Universities Public Management Education Trust (JUPMET) represents a consortium of six universities seeking to develop a university based development Management Training programme for the Public Service.
The consortium includes three historically privileged and predominantly white universities namely, Pretoria, Stellenbosch and Witwatersrand and three historically disadvantaged and black universities, namely Fort Hare, Durban Westville and Western Cape. The consortium was established in 1995 to collaborate on increasing and enhancing the level of training and education for the public sector. A key focus has been capacity building in the six universities for institutional development, joint curriculum and materials development, staff development and building international linkages. These universities were selected on the basis that academics employed at the institutions are often involved in the formulation of policy that governs the Public Service. A key aim is to deepen the link between the training and application of policy. The involvement of academics proves to be important towards guiding the workforce of the future.
In the past many public service training initiatives trained regardless of the needs of the public institutions they should have been targeted. Experience throughout the world has shown that work based training and development interventions yield more effective results (also referred to action learning). The key is maximizing communication and linkages between the public service, the 'demand' component, and the training institutions, the supply side of the equation, to meet the skill and capacity needs of the public service. For us the emphasis of training must be based firmly in the reality of the workforce and needs of an evolving public service, which should have a firm hand in directing both the content and the methodologies of public service curriculu m. After all training should not be an end in itself but rather a means to and end, which in this case is increased performance in the public sector.
Perhaps if we all come together and work toward this much improved human resource, will start to realise the concept of an 'Intelligent State' as proposed by Bernardo Kliksberg.
According to Kliksberg the 'intelligent state' is one which provides public services for the broader population, acting without prejudice towards anyone. Secondly, the State has strong institutional frameworks from which to launch all policies and decision s providing the broader good to its citizens. To establish this broad social good the State should establish an information system designed to monitor social policies, generating data and be the catalyst for social institutional renewal. Moreover, this State will function as part of an inter-organisational body with its focus on management towards the social good and integrate the participation of the local citizens for the same reason.
We may actually argue that an 'intelligent' state can be likened to the notion of a 'development state'. In developing countries, the state has as its primary function the promotion of development and social progress in their own countries and regions. These "developmental" states tend to play a wider role in the economic, social and cultural lives of their people; their interventions, for good reason, are more than minimalist.
It is vital that a 'developmental state' acknowledges and builds the capacity and expertise necessary to face the challenges of the modern world. Key among these is Information Communication Technology, which is in fact the platform of globalisation. Capacity in maximising ICT's is crucial to the developmental state because the availability of technology and its dissemination amongst many sectors of society is, in the words of our President, a 'critically necessary condition for economic and social development' (Launch of the Presidential Strategic Leadership Development Programme, 23 July 2000).
The President notes:
"If government is to play a central and leading role in the process of ensuring that our country is not left out of the information society, to avoid technological cumulative slow down which will lead to economic marginalisation, then we need to act urgently on this issue of bringing appropriate skills and training in the public sector."
If globalization is to result in greater democratization and prosperity for all, the stronger players must act in the interests of humanity as a whole rather than to maximize their own narrow interests. The leaders of developing nations must speak up in the interests of the poor and indebted countries, just as President Mbeki has done recently when he addressed the G8 summit in Okinawa.
In this context it is critically important that we join forces on a regional level in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and on the level of the continent in the Organisation for African Unity (OAU).
Each society must identify its fundamental developmental and governance priorities and put in place a state, which allows and enables them to achieve their objectives. This does not mean neglect or ignorance of international experience and global processes, but rather an understanding built upon analysis of local and international experience, with a view to evolving appropriate models for the country.
We have spoken at length about a 'strong state'. It is a concept that brings us back to transformation on a national level. President Mbeki set the platform when he restated the transformation objectives of the ANC-led government at the organisation's Nat ional General Council meeting in Port Elizabeth on 12 July. These objectives call for a strong state that is committed to development; a state which assumes responsibility for the upliftment of its people for the benefit of all. If we are to be a player i n a global world then the foundation for our participation must be set firmly within the confines of our own priorities.