Thank you very much, hon Chairperson. Public servants have to manage their lives in order to balance public interests and private interests. This includes having interests in private businesses. This, of course, is mindful of policy and legislative positions that obtain at that moment.
I want to refer to two instances in this regard. Firstly, public servants are allowed to have interests in business, as long as they manage the potential conflict of interest through disclosure and recusal. Secondly, public servants are allowed to perform remunerative work outside of the Public Service. This is what we generally refer to as remunerated work outside public service, RWOPS.
We are in the process of reviewing this dispensation. Hence we have developed the framework on ethics and integrity to manage the following two behavioural questions: firstly, whether we should not ban public servants outright from having interests in business; and, secondly, whether we should not outlaw RWOPS, or performing of remunerative work outside public service, completely. These are not easy tasks. Hence we started the process of consultation.
This morning I had to address the portfolio committee in this regard. As we deal with these questions, we should deal with them mindful of the fact that these citizens of South Africa called, by their employment, public servants are, on the other hand, citizens who are entitled to particular rights.
We are looking at this and the possibility is that we might have to review some of the policy and legislative instruments that at the moment prescribe the conditions that obtain. I thank you very much, Chairperson.