Hon Chairperson, chairpersons of the committees, hon Minister, Collins Chabane, hon members, distinguished guests, the director-general, senior officials of the department, comrades and friends, I'm pleased and honoured to be part of the first budget since the inception of the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation as well as Administration in the Presidency. May I also take this opportunity to thank the Minister for welcoming me into the department.
President Jacob Zuma has commanded us to be the engine in his endeavour to change how government works. Indeed, as a Ministry and a department we have taken this mandate very seriously. In the past few months I have been visiting different provinces and state institutions to brief them and explain to them our mandate and to solicit their support in building a better society. I must say that the support and enthusiasm have been overwhelming. I will deal with the outcomes of my visits in detail later in my address.
As the Minister said, June has been declared Youth Month, and it is very significant for us to present our Budget Vote during this month as the Ministry which is also responsible for youth affairs. This year's Youth Month is being celebrated under the theme, "Youth Action for Economic Freedom in our Lifetime".
Sir, 16 June 1976 remains an unforgettable milestone in our country's struggle for national liberation, because the youth of that time unequivocally expressed their preparedness to dedicate their lives to the liberation of South Africa. The youth of our country took to the streets against the unjust policies of the past. Most importantly, they were struggling for a single, free and compulsory education for all.
The youth of 1976, filled with a conviction of wanting to build a democratic, nonracist and nonsexist South Africa belonging to all who live in it, protested against the white apartheid regime and the then status quo. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the 16 June 1976 Soweto and other related uprisings. Today's youth activism is directed towards successfully combating poverty, unemployment, underdevelopment and HIV/Aids. While the youth of 1976 fought for freedom and the creation of a democratic state, today's youth are focused on building the country's and their own personal economic development.
As Minister Chabane mentioned earlier, we have received quarterly reports on key results and challenges that require changes and interventions. This is based on our successful implementation of our outcomes approach. We are indeed confident that we are making good progress and that the challenges we face are not insurmountable. Cabinet has considered the first set of reports on the outcomes.
Allow me to focus on the key mandate of this government, which is service delivery with a special focus on and attention to frontline service delivery monitoring. For the past year we have largely been focused on the outcomes approach, but we have recently started to put more focus on frontline service delivery monitoring.
The aim of frontline service delivery monitoring is both to affirm good performance and to assist departments, municipalities and entities to improve service delivery points which are performing poorly. Collecting information directly from users of government services and from service delivery points is crucial for government to continuously verify if it is meeting the expectations of citizens and to identify where government is doing well and where improvements are needed.
Again, we are implementing this mandate in close co-operation with the Offices of the Premiers, which monitor frontline service delivery at provincial level, and the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, which monitors municipalities.
Our frontline service delivery monitoring programme has two elements in it. First, there are visits by government officials to service delivery points to assess the state of delivery and engage with civil society to develop a structured approach for citizen-based monitoring of frontline service delivery.
Although this takes the form of surprise visits, we also engage with the management of the service delivery points, both before and after visits. The aim is to provide them with useful toolkits to monitor and improve delivery of services.
Examples of services to be monitored include Home Affairs, social grants, municipal services, vehicle licensing, police, and health services. The focus of the monitoring is on the targets relating to service delivery quality in the Outcome 12 Delivery Agreement, namely customer satisfaction, unit cost of services, and other customer-oriented indicators, such as waiting time in queues and response times.
Both we as a department and the Premiers' Offices are currently training officials to carry out these assessments. In this regard we have developed a number of assessment tools to be used by monitors. These include questionnaires and checklists which we are currently piloting in provinces and in national departments, as the Minister has indicated.
The President and various Ministers have been visiting, and will continue to visit, institutions such as hospitals, schools and police stations on an ongoing basis. One of the examples is the visit that we undertook to the Eastern Cape yesterday, where we were monitoring schools.
Since my appointment to this portfolio I have started to undertake unannounced visits to service delivery sites such as hospitals, early childhood development facilities, Thusong service centres and municipalities. The visits include interaction with political leaders, officials and citizens at service delivery points.
When we visited KwaZulu-Natal we found that there was a nerve centre that tracked service delivery in the province. The centre has a dashboard which indicates where there is progress and where there are challenges. In Mpumalanga and in the Free State we also found that there are already monitoring nerve centres.
We also made an unannounced visit to Northdale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal. Patients and staff shared their challenges and experiences where services are rendered, and how services are rendered. However, what was heartening for me was that our people understand that government is now working harder and faster. Patients even had suggestions on how we could improve service delivery, which confirms the ANC's slogan and I quote, "Working together, we can build better communities." So far we have visited six provinces, and I want to say that on Wednesday next week we are visiting the Western Cape.
The commitment shown by the provincial leadership in ensuring that performance monitoring and evaluation, PME, becomes a systemic culture of this ANC government is indeed encouraging. In this regard the department is supporting the President in his hands-on monitoring programme and interactive approach. Therefore, the President and this government of the ANC must be appreciated. [Applause.]
Turning to citizen-based monitoring, citizens have a right to decent standards of service and have a responsibility themselves to hold government accountable through providing credible information about the quality of service, both good and bad. This is true to the spirit and letter of the Freedom Charter where it says, and I quote: "The people shall govern."
The information collected by citizens should be fed back to service delivery departments both to affirm good practice and to advocate improved services. In many countries governments have worked with nongovernmental organisations, NGOs, and community-based organisations, CBOs, to facilitate citizen-based monitoring, which involves developing the monitoring instruments to be implemented by citizens employed by NGOs and CBOs.
We ourselves have recently initiated discussions with the community advocacy and monitoring project of the South African Social Security Agency and the Black Sash regarding the expansion of similar citizen-based service delivery monitoring initiatives in South Africa, and we intend to take this work forward over the coming year.
Our department is currently working with other departments and spheres of government to address issues raised with the President by citizens through the presidential hotline, and face to face with the President and us, in Balfour, Bekkersdal, Umzimkhulu, Sweetwaters, Madelakufa, Mthatha, Libode, Bethlehem, Mossel Bay and Struis Bay. The list continues.
In addition, we are in the process of establishing an African monitoring and evaluation learning network, which will be kick-started with an African conference on monitoring and evaluation, M and E, later this year, in conjunction with some other academic institutions and other international organisations. The conference will be attended by officials from other African countries which are implementing or planning to implement performance monitoring and evaluation initiatives similar to those being implemented by us in this country.
On issues raised by the President in his state of the nation address, government has declared 2011 a year of job creation. In his state of the nation address President Jacob Zuma indicated that this department must provide a report on the filling of vacant funded posts within six months, and monitor the work of government departments with regard to job creation. This work is under way, and I'm pleased to report that.
We are working with the Department of the Public Service and Administration, DPSA, on the filling of vacant funded posts. We have done a situational assessment which gives us a picture of what interventions are required. In summary, the results to date indicate that government as a whole has made very good progress in filling vacant funded posts.
In conclusion, with regard to monitoring job creation, we have been working closely with the Department of Economic Development to put in place a range of mechanisms to monitor the impact of the state on job creation. We are also working with Statistics South Africa, which collects information from the private sector on its job creation. We are confident that we will be able to give a comprehensive report in August this year.
I would also like just quickly to say something. I should probably say it in my own language so that I can say it better.
Loko Phuresidente Jacob Zuma a sungula Ndzawulo ya Vulanguteri bya Matirhelo na Nkambelo ku katsa na Mafambiselo eHofisini ya Phuresidente miehleketo ya yena na mfumo wa ANC a yi ri ku endla leswaku ku antswisiwa vukorhokeri eAfrika Dzonga. Ndzi swi teka kuri ku rhandza tiko ra yena, ra Afrika Dzonga. Vanhu va Afrika Dzonga va fanele ku n'wi seketela na ku hi seketela hikuva i mfumo wo sungula wa ANC eAfrika Dzonga ku ta na Ndzawulo leya Vulanguteri bya Matirhelo na Nkambelo ku katsa na Mafambiselo eHofisini ya Phu residente leyi lavaka ku voniwa hi mani na mani, ku lwa na vanhu lava nga endleki ntirho, ku lwa na vanhu lava nga na vukungundzwani, ku antswisa mitirho na ku hundzula vutomi bya vanhu va Afrika Dzonga.
Ndzi tshemba leswaku mihlangano leyin'wana leyi nga kona eAfrika Dzonga yi ta n'wi seketela Phuresidente Jacob Zuma na mfumo wa ANC. [Va ba mavoko.] (Translation of Xitsonga paragraphs follows.)
[When President Jacob Zuma established the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation as well as Administration in the Presidency his mind and that of the ANC-led government was to improve services in South Africa. I regard this as love for his country, South Africa. The people of South Africa must support him and also support us, because it is the first ANC-led government in South Africa to come up with the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation as well as Administration in the Presidency which seeks to be seen by all in the fight against people who do not do their work and those who are corrupt, and also to improve service delivery and to change the lives of the people of South Africa.
I believe that other organisations which are present in South Africa will support President Jacob Zuma and the ANC-led government. [Applause.]]
Chairperson, let me lastly take this opportunity to pay my respects to our stalwart, Ma Sisulu, who taught us to be what we are as the ANC. She taught us to be transparent, and that we must be transparent, as we are. She also taught us to deliver service to the people, and to deliver that service to the people of South Africa with pride and dignity.
Let me also take this opportunity to thank the President, my colleagues in the executive, the Minister, Collins Chabane, and the entire team in the department and the Presidency, as well as my family, for supporting me at all times. Thank you very much, Chairperson. [Applause.]