Thank you, hon Chairperson. My presentation in this Budget Vote will focus on some entities that fall under the Department of Public Service and Administration, DPSA, such as the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy, Palama, and the State Information Technology Agency, Sita. This flows from the fact that both are charged with the supply of skills and tools of trade and IT, to enhance efficiency and professionalism in the delivery of services. Although Palama was doing fairly well in delivering on its mandate, it soon dawned that, as evidenced by the results, it was not winning the war. Consequently, steps have been taken to convert it into a school of government.
Credit must go to the Minister for the Public Service and Administration, the hon Lindiwe Sisulu, who in her first year of office pulled out all the stops to establish a school which will open its doors to admit its first students in October this year. In launching this ambitious project, which takes the form of a corporate university, the Minister stated that:
The school envisages the building of human capacity of the state by establishing uniform and high entrance standards and requirements, emphasising professionalism, discipline and commitment to serve, and ensuring adequate numbers of personnel to ensure service delivery.
The emphasis on discipline and professionalism is an answer to failed delivery of services. We in the portfolio committee feel that she is steering the department in the right direction. Accordingly, the IFP will support this Budget Vote.
Unfortunately, this is not the case with Sita. To a large extent, in many government offices, information technology is conspicuous by its absence. No wonder that in many police stations and courts manually written court documents simply disappear without a trace on the eve of a court trial. In fact, Sita not only failed to deliver, but it was also poorly managed, with taxpayer money often fraudulently disappearing.
In 2010, a decision was made to appoint a new board to run this entity and effect a turnaround strategy. A number of officials were suspended and investigated, but without much outcome. In fact, as late as September last year, the Auditor-General issued a qualified audit report on Sita. The said report is teeming with damning findings such as the following:
Lack of proper planning for procurement, which resulted in the absence of provision for deviations, largely due to the instability in the leadership structures, which also resulted in the lack of accountability by leaders and government structures.
Heads of department, in particular, are mandated to deal with corrupt officials, but they have let down the country. They treat their fellow corrupt colleagues with kid gloves. Those that are found guilty are given a letter of warning as a sanction, which is a mere slap on the wrist. Otherwise, they allow cases to drag on, with the excuse that there is a lack of evidence, while in the meantime accused are earning full salaries whilst doing nothing.
This finally compels the law-abiding citizens of this country to take the law into their own hands. Can anyone actually blame the masses that eventually take to the streets and toyi-toyi? Can anyone blame those who barricade streets, throw stones and burn cars? The question is where all this will end. We learnt from the media today that:
South Africa's wave of service delivery protests is far greater than previously imagined, with official police data revealing more than 3 000 service delivery protests in the past four years.
The question is how long South Africa will survive this. I thank you. [Applause.]