Chairperson, the Minister is right in saying that she has only been in this position for five or six months. However, regarding the figure that the Minister is quoting - 125 people with disabilities in the sectors - it is a shame. My question is: When will the Minister be ready to give answers to this House? I understand that hers is a new department, but when will she be ready to give answers?
No, that's not a fair question. The Minister has just given you an answer. What more do you want?
I won't go into a dialogue with you, Chairperson.
Okay. The number of people with disabilities employed in the Public Service
50. Ms B P Mabe (ANC) asked the Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities:
(1) What is the total number of persons with disabilities who are employed in the Public Service, categorised as (a) deaf, (b) sight, (c) hearing and (d) physically disabled employed as Assistant Director, Deputy Director, Director, Chief Director, Deputy Director-General and Director-General;
(2) whether she considers such figures sufficient; if not, what measures is her department putting in place to address the situation; if so, what are the relevant details? CO177E
The MINISTER OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: Chairperson, the reply to the question is that the information we currently have at our disposal reflects the representation of persons with disabilities as reflected in Persal. The representation, for instance, on assistant director and deputy director levels is not indicated in the table that I am going to be reading. Attached here are Persal statistics as at 30 June 2009 of senior management levels. All other categories will only be available in a little while. I will start with the Eastern Cape in terms of provinces and national departments. If you look at employees with disabilities at senior level in this province, you will find that there are only three of them - one male and two females. The Free State has one male and no females. Gauteng has two males and no females. Limpopo has nine - eight males and one female. Mpumalanga has two - two males and no females. North West has two - two males and no females. The Northern Cape has two - two males and no females. The Western Cape has two - one male and one female. KwaZulu-Natal has no one at all. National departments have 28 - 18 males and 10 females. The grand total is 51, with 37 males and 14 females.
The figures I have run through are certainly not sufficient. In order to address this, firstly, the Department of Public Service and Administration has developed the Job Access Strategic Framework, as I have said earlier, which is a strategic framework for implementation across all departments in the Public Service. There are various outcomes that are expected through the implementation of the strategy. It is envisaged that these intended outcomes will go a long way in addressing a lot of factors that have contributed to the inability of the Public Service to meet its stipulated employment equity targets with regard to people with disabilities. So, these outcomes include, but are not necessarily limited to, the creation of an understanding of the mandate and legal context of the strategic framework that I have referred to. This will be achieved through training on disability management in the Public Service for senior managers, human resource practitioners and disability focal points.
Secondly, we need to ensure the creation of an enabling climate of appropriate attitudes and sensitivities that are accommodative of people with disabilities. This requires that all officials in the workplace attend workshops so that they can understand issues better. This also means that the mind-set in the country has to change so that all of us, without exception, do something better to improve the participation of people with disabilities in workplaces.
We also need to consider reasonable accommodation and accessibility which must be given priority in all planning of departments. This will also involve ensuring that a specific budget is made available for reasonable needs of accommodation for people with disabilities, including assistive devices. As an example, if a blind worker is employed and this person has skills in the workplace, one needs to provide tools needed for this person's skills. These would include, of course, working with Braille. One can also have someone in the workplace to assist with this person's movement. Another alternative is to have a guide dog to be with this person in the workplace. This means that the workplace must be conducive to different kinds of accommodative programmes or support processes so that people with disabilities can feel comfortable in the workplace. This is not just about creating job opportunities, but it is also about ensuring that these people are assisted to give their best and that they are given the tools to do so.
Departments should have disability focal persons who are adequately capacitated. We also need to develop different measures of developing skills and capacity among people with disabilities.
Lastly, we need to ensure accessibility to employment and upward mobility, especially by increasing representation at senior management levels through reasonable accommodation in the workplace, skills development, bursaries and other measures. I thank you.
Order! Minister, I gave you a bit of time to finish answering your question. Normally, if a question involves numbers, we allow Ministers time to table those numbers because it takes long to respond to a question like that.
Chair, can I ask the Minister to make sure that we get this information in written form for it to be used by the committee in doing its work.
The MINISTER OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: Certainly, Chairperson - as early as tomorrow.
Chair, in her reply the Minister has - very briefly at the end - also referred to the importance of ensuring accessibility in the workplace. I want to ask her whether that also extends to Parliament and to institutions like legislatures. This is because I sat in a committee meeting this morning, where I observed how difficult it was for a member in an electric chair to find parking in the committee room to be able to participate fully in the meeting. I am referring to S12 next door.
Order! Mr Watson, you should be asking me that question. I don't know if the Minister is interested in answering this question. The question must be referred to me. I am in charge of Parliament. It is up to you, Minister, if you would like to respond to the question. I will not forbid you to respond if you wish to do so, but the question should actually be referred to presiding officers. I can respond to your question if you want.
Chair, if that is the case, then this also means that this question should be directed to managers in any other workplace and not to the Minister if what you are saying now is true.
Order! It is quite true.
No.
Order! You may differ with me. I don't want to argue with you. But it should be like that in Parliament. If this is not done, then we should do it. This is what the policy says.
Action taken in response to reports from Public Protector, including action on recommendation by Public Protector to review Government tender process
55. Mr T Harris (DA) asked the Minister for the Public Service and Administration:
(1) Whether he has received any reports from the Public Protector in the past twelve months; if so, what was the nature of these reports;
(2) whether he has acted on any of these reports; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(3) whether he or his department has taken any action on the recent recommendation by the Public Protector to review the Government tender process; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details? CO185E
Chairperson, the answer is certainly no. We have not yet received any report from the Public Protector during the stated period.
After the question on issues related to the review of the tender processes was posed, the Public Protector made a recommendation that we meet with their office to make a follow-up on the matter even though the report was not available at the time. We also took up this matter with the Minister of Finance so that we could jointly respond to it because it's a shared responsibility. Therefore, as soon as the report is made available to us, we will certainly share the information. Thank you.
Steps taken to ensure public servants are issued with name tags
60. Mr M W Makhubela (Cope) asked the Minister for the Public Service and Administration:
Whether any steps are being taken to ensure that all public servants are issued with name tags; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, (a) what steps and (b) how many public servants have already received their name tags? CO192E
Chairperson, the answer is yes.
At the moment, as the Department of Public Service and Administration, we are working on consolidating statistics to determine the exact number of public servants who comply with the requirement of wearing name tags. In order to get the exact number of public servants who are wearing the name tags, one needs to be in their areas. Therefore, we have requested the leadership and the executive authorities to provide information about their departments. We in the Department of Public Service and Administration have almost 100% compliance rate on the issue of wearing name tags. We are almost there because there are some newly recruited employees who do not have name tags since the process of acquiring them takes time.
I have sent out a circular to all my colleagues - the executive authority - to make sure that they provide information on compliance in this regard. As soon as this is available we'll then share it with you. Thank you very much.
Progress made with regard to support for policy implementation and reviewing of policies where necessary
61. Mr M W Makhubela (Cope) asked the Minister for the Public Service and Administration:
Whether any progress has been made in respect of (a) support for policy implementation and (b) reviewing of policies where necessary; if not, why not; if so, (i) what progress and (ii) what are the further relevant details? CO193E
Chairperson, the answer is yes. We are making considerable progress with regard to support for policy implementation in the Public Service. We do this through various workshops which we hold every year to remind departments and executive authorities about these policies. By way of example, we do this every year through conferences on Batho Pele, where we reflect on what the policy is, how compliance is supposed to be reached and the resources that are necessary to be able to deal with that.
For issues around gender mainstreaming, we have conferences every year to remind departments that this is a policy that has to be complied with. Even when it comes to issues around the question that hon members were asking in as far as the appointment of people with disabilities is concerned, we have those engagements every year so that we can see ourselves moving government's current 0,2% actual performance rate to the 2% that is required. So, we do remind government departments to deal with issues related to policy implementation. Thank you very much.
Training of employees as health and wellness practitioners with reference to Minister's 2009-2012 Medium-Term Strategic Plan
62. Mr M W Makhubela (Cope) asked the Minister for the Public Service and Administration:
Whether, with reference to his 2009-2012 Medium Term Strategic Plan (details furnished), the training of the 400 employees as health and wellness practitioners has started; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details? CO194E
Chairperson, the answer is yes. The training started in 2008 and is still continuing. As part of the response to the HIV and Aids pandemic, the Department for Public Service and Administration made a commitment to regional bodies such as SADC and the Southern African-Netherlands Chamber of Commerce, Sanec, to train 400 managers and practitioners annually in HIV and Aids mainstreaming.
The following is planned for 2009-10 to reach the target of 400 managers and practitioners in the Public Service. HIV and Aids mainstreaming training has taken place from August 2009 and is expected to be completed by February 2010. One hundred and twenty practitioners and managers will be trained during the last week of this month - the week of 26 to 30 October.
The target and period of training for 2011-12 will be determined soon during the next strategic and operating planning sessions. So, that is the position. We do train managers in as far as mainstreaming HIV and Aids at the workplace as public servants is concerned. Thank you.
See also QUESTIONS AND REPLIES.