13 August 2002
BUILDING A SINGLE PUBLIC SERVICE THAT SERVES WITH PRIDE.
Creating a single public service for South Africa is a constitutional requirement that began with the amalgamation and rationalisation of former public service establishments in 1994 and was completed in 1997.
Restructuring is about building a single team to work together to put people first and deliver on the priorities of government. It is about instilling pride in the work of public servants and making the public service a place to serve with pride.
In the implementation of restructuring, we will ensure that we deal with the poor distribution of skills across the public service - both geographical and sectoral. We will also deal with undesirable attitudes towards work and the public, thereby uprooting inefficient modes of service delivery, unwanted work ethics, outdated systems and procedures.
The framework agreement concluded on 13 June 2002 provides Government with a positive basis on which to implement restructuring in the Public Service with special focus on utilisation of human resources.
As stated in the agreement, Departmental and Inter-Departmental Task Teams (IDTT) must be established to be responsible for the overall co-ordination and monitoring of the transformation and restructuring process of the Public Service. These structures must be in place no later than 15 August 2002.
Departments are required in the formulation of human resources plan to match and place personnel in accordance with service delivery needs, taking into account their competencies. These reports must be completed by end September 2002. The guiding theme will be to recruit from within, train from within, retaining the needed skills.
The report on excess employees and vacancies will be released jointly with the open vacancy advert in January 2003. This will pave the way for those searching alternative employment outside the public service.
To facilitate appropriate redeployment, as from 05 August 2002, vacancies will be filled from within government and external advertising of vacancies will be done with the approval of the IDDT.
To ensure provincial co-ordination, the Premier's office in each province must appoint a team responsible for the overall co-ordination, monitoring and supporting of all departments within the province.
Another key component of the restructuring is on-going training and development of the public service, an area which the South African Management Development Institute champions. Since the launch of the Presidential Strategic Leadership Development Programme, 310 modules have been presented and 5390 senior managers have been trained. Approximately 10 500 people have been trained since February 2002. Key training programmes deal with compliance to PFMA, Project Management, Financial Management, and Service Delivery Management.
SAMDI recently acquired further donor funding from the Belgian government amounting to R 14 000 000. These funds are earmarked for training in three key areas, namely emerging managers, middle managers and PSLDP. Targeted provinces are KZN, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
The rationalisation is not only relevant to national and provincial structures or spheres of government but also essential in the sphere of Local Government. DPSA, SALGA and DPLG team conducted a Comparative Study on the Remuneration and Conditions of Service of Local Government and the Public Service. The study has identified that different conditions of service apply within Local Governments and the public service. It recommends harmonisation of these conditions of service to be embarked upon to allow for mobility of staff between the Public Service and Local Government and within Local Government. Furthermore capacity building and training of municipal personnel is also seen as paramount to service delivery.
Recommendations of this study will form the basis for solutions in promoting mobility within the public sector, primarily between the public service and the local government.
Media enquiries: Contact Ministry for Public Service and Administration,
Ms Tembela Kulu @ 082 497 3220.