Hon Chairperson, Minister and hon members, a key impediment to service delivery in South Africa is the Public Service and bureaucracy that are created around it. Front-line public sector workers complain about the red tape that they have to comply with before they can render services. Even the President of this country has lamented how long it takes to have something done in government.
While we, in the UCDP, welcome the establishment of this department, we are astounded that government concedes that service delivery is a problem even in high offices. We note that the President has no time for business as usual, where people feel entitled to positions even if they behave like place holders.
The work ethic of government officials has to improve to see them depart from setting date stamps for hours before they sit behind their desks. The UCDP believes that the success of the country depends on hard work. Excellence is wrought through diligence, not indolence. It is this department that has to ensure that payments to all government service providers are effected within 30 days. We noticed that even yesterday, as the President was addressing this constituency, little progress had been made in this regard, despite what the Minister said here earlier.
We appreciate that the department is striving to ameliorate working relations among departments to avoid the silo operations which, in some cases, end up in duplication of half-done projects.
As the department's oversight cuts across all spheres of government, we put it to you, hon Minister, to prevail upon municipalities to ensure that, as they develop new residential areas, they do not leave out naming the streets accordingly. One notices, for example in Pretoria, that there are places that were established post-1994 and have street names that may in future be changed to what is usually termed appropriate. This is a waste of resources. There should be no need to undo what has been done in the present, taking into account what is going on at present regarding this matter. Let us nip the matter in the bud.
The 12 priority outcomes of the government, as listed, indicate that basic education needs urgent attention. We should move away from producing semiliterate and seminumerate products. We argue that if government has a department to monitor the performance of other departments, why should the Department of Basic Education develop cold feet at the slightest sneeze of the SA Democratic Teachers' Union, Sadtu, against education officers or inspectors of schools?
It is disconcerting that, up to this point, senior managers in government have not complied with the simple issue of declaring their interests. We maintain that it is the duty of this department to follow up on this matter and find out why the 8% or so are not complying - 8%, because the Department of Public Service and Administration, DPSA, yesterday indicated that only 92% had complied. And, if the DPSA can't do it, then we believe that it is this department that should do it. Let us strive for consistency and not harbour some holy cows.
While we do not want to sound prescriptive, we notice that some areas, as indicated by the Deputy Minister - Gauteng, Free State and the Northern Cape - that had disruptions because of poor service delivery have had visits of reassurance from the highest office in the land. Yet, there have been quite a number of these instances in the North West, but no such visitation. This creates the impression that the province is forsaken, taking into account that it is one of the poorest and the only one without flight facilities in this country.
We hope political heads will have the will and decisive leadership to implement the strategic plans with acceptable and impressive objectives that departments always present, and not call to be policed by this department. I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]