Hon Chairperson, hon Minister Richard Baloyi, hon Deputy Minister Ayanda Dlodlo, hon members of the House, distinguished guests, this budget is dedicated to the loss of the inimitable earth-mama, Mama Albertina Sisulu.
The 52nd national conference of the ANC in Polokwane resolved to create a single Public Service which would enable administrations in all spheres of government to be organised and to operate in ways that would ensure efficient, qualitative, collaborative and accountable service delivery that would promote the social and economic development of the Republic.
A single Public Service would further require the enhancement of service delivery through flexible structures that enable and promote operational and front-line integration, innovation by means of electronic government, human capital and talent management, managerial accountability, performance and a people-orientated service.
This is in line with the expression in the strategy and tactics document in that the building of a developmental state must be based on four attributes: strategic orientation, capacity to lead, organisational capacity and technical capacity. It also requires further enhancement of service delivery through systematic information and knowledge management, and corroboration between institutes within and across spheres of government, as well as between those spheres and private developmental sectors.
We therefore say as the committee to our hon Minister that as the ANC continues to lead and drive the process of unification of the administration in the three spheres of government through the initiation of an integrated Public Service, you must put in place the necessary processes towards the implementation thereof.
The President has declared 2011 as the year of job creation. To respond to that call, the starting point would be to fill all the funded vacant positions in the Public Service. It has been agreed that there is scope to improve the employment intake in the public sector - in the process strengthening education, health, the social work sectors and the criminal justice system in South Africa - by filling all the posts. That would make an indelible contribution to job creation. Of course, in terms of updates, we commend the department for the efforts taken thus far.
In addition, there are opportunities to create stable employment through the Public Service employing people for certain tasks that are currently outsourced and casualised. By dealing with the casualisation of jobs, we will ensure that the unions will indeed also support the department in that regard because they are against casualisation.
The Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy, Palama, was developed to help build a capable Public Service through providing and co- ordinating extensive opportunities and to access leadership and management competency and development-orientated programmes specifically aligned with the learning and knowledge needs of Public Service managers and executives. If this can happen, it will help correct the bureaucratic attitude of the past in terms of changing public servants to create a development- orientated Public Service cadre. Palama therefore has an obligation to ensure that public servants are capacitated in leadership, management and administrative competencies that are central to the South Africa developmental state.
Hon Minister, in last year's Budget Vote the department undertook to launch the executive development programme, a postgraduate certificate in executive leadership, which will be customised for local government leadership and for members of legislatures and Parliament.
Currently, we have just had local government elections, and over 50% of councillors are brand new. In that context, movement in that regard must be speeded up. During this year we want to see the implementation of the programme. We believe that Palama's role is central in our efforts to achieve the crucial national objective of creating a fair, balanced, productive, knowledgeable and sustainable Public Service that will secure and strengthen our democracy.
The State Information Technology Agency, Sita, has been created. We welcome that and we welcome the progress that has been made thus far. I think that from now on all the players that have needed to gain from it will indeed have to be recorded in terms of the objective of having to have a targeted record of Sita's performance. That will indeed be monitored and there will be a dialectical relationship between the House and the department.
Hon Minister, the department should give this targeted performance information to the House committee from time to time. In the same breath, we also want details and the specifics of phase 2 of Sita's turnaround strategy, which is aimed at transforming Sita into a prime system integrated for government.
In his state of the nation address on 14 February 2003, President Thabo Mbeki identified the need for a Public Service echelon of multiskilled community development workers. Both presidential and provincial izimbizo revealed deficiencies in service delivery to communities, and therefore a need was identified to examine where we currently stood regarding the delivery of service to the poor and how service delivery could be improved.
South Africa's Constitution reflects a commitment to establishing a developmental state and a participatory democracy. In this context, much progress has been made by government. The increment in public investment has been noted. The remaining challenge, however, in the second decade of democracy is to address poverty and inequalities. This can only be done with the type of Public Service cadre that we are talking about.
The introduction of the community development workers, CDWs, is designed to address institutional gaps in order to meet the constitutional mandate as well as to accelerate service delivery and promotion. We would also want the department to act as a watchdog in implementing the decision of the resolution, especially in terms of health care where the CDW has to collaborate with ward committees. This is very important.
I am happy to see that there have been numerous innovations in the CDW programme, including the excellence awards, innovation awards, the launch of the grass-roots innovation booklet - a handbook for community development workers - and the CDW programme master plan. Further, hon Minister, we must accordingly examine all critical questions that lead to the support we give to this cadre of workers. I think they must not be marginalised, but integrated into the entire Public Service.
Government has established the Government Employees Medical Scheme, Gems, to address historical imbalances and inequalities in respect of the provision of conditions of service of public servants. We would also want the department to move further down to the lowest salaried public servant so that those who do not have access to medical benefits can be given access.
During the course of this financial year, this House will expect quarterly reports, as we have said, but we will also need to engage with the Minister as to which areas are going to be best located in terms of the oversight visits.
Batho Pele was adopted in 1997 as the framework to establish a new service delivery ethic in the public sector, in line with the nation's constitutional ideals which promote efficient, economic and effective use of public resources in a manner that is development-oriented and responsive to the needs of the people. Batho Pele constitutes the inner core of the White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery, which allows citizens living in Third World conditions to hold public servants accountable.
It was intended that the vigorous adoption of these democratic principles would lead to a discernable break from the overcentralised, hierarchical and rule-bound system inherited from the previous dispensation and would set out a mechanism for accountability.
Hon Minister, our oversight experience in the Select Committee on Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta, has shown us that the focus of delivery has shifted in terms of Batho Pele principles, especially at the municipal level. This has been demonstrated by a series of service delivery protests, which implies that while there might be a political challenge, at the official level Batho Pele principles aren't in place because the people get information and answers when they are in front of a municipal counter. Therefore we ask the hon Minister to what extent service delivery has been transformed in line with Batho Pele principles.
In South Africa corruption is a manifestation of many problematic social dynamics. We know that the department has set up an anticorruption unit, that there is a prevention hot line and many mechanisms to fight corruption. So we would also request the Minister to apprise the committee of the extent to which we are able to reduce corruption. This is precisely because the government has taken over what the ANC fought for for many years. The ANC has been fighting apartheid as a corruption, apartheid having been defined as a crime against humanity. Therefore, we need to be apprised of developments because we must reduce corruption, and others that may not know history must know that the ANC started to fight corruption long before the democratic dispensation.
Hon Minister, there has been an outcry from civil society, the media and the public on the growing demand that this problem must really be overcome. We do not need to be dictated to by the media from time to time, but we must respond to what causes the media to write the things they do.
At the same time, the growing realisation must be that we need to get a grip on this phenomenon in order to bring it down in such a way that everyone has confidence in the leadership of the government. Government must take further steps to fight corruption by incorporating all relevant stakeholders to play their role, to contribute and to assist in this regard. It should not only be the national government that fights corruption: the provincial and local government should also use the anticorruption strategy as a brief to fight corruption in their own spheres.
Let me conclude by saying that the committee accepts the budget and we wish for there to be continual engagement in this regard. Thank you. [Applause.]