Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, hon members of the NCOP, hon members of Salga, director-general and distinguished guests, what ties us together is our shared purpose and responsibility to transform the South African Public Service into a formidable, effective vehicle capable of supporting the socioeconomic development that South Africa and its people need and deserve: a public administration capable of ensuring human safety and security for each and every person; ensuring the dignified existence of all our people within a human rights framework; and working in a trajectory of perpetual improvement and elevation for all, but particularly providing support to the poor in order to close the gap and erase the sharp disparities that mark the livelihoods of the privileged and the underprivileged.
Uppermost on government's agenda for the ongoing social and economic upliftment and transformation of our society is improvement in the delivery of basic and other services to the people of South Africa. The single Public Service is based on the principle that the institutions across government, whether local, provincial or national, that comprise the machinery of state, have to work together to more effectively fulfil the needs of South African society.
This means that their structures must be aligned and structured in such a way that there are no barriers to co-operation. The single Public Service initiative seeks to ensure greater alignment across the three spheres of government in the areas of human resource management and development, service delivery, information and communication technology, anticorruption and the design of framework legislation.
We therefore urge the department, as the ANC - which continues to lead and drive the process of amalgamation and administration in the three spheres of government through the initiation of an integrated Public Service during this financial year - to urgently implement a single Public Service framework, which will enhance service delivery.
The government has indicated its determination to build a cadre of community development workers, CDWs. This is to ensure that the government works with the people as closely as possible to empower them to participate in and benefit from the process of reconstruction and development.
This challenging but exciting work will require people who are truly committed to serving the people. These are not people who join the Public Service merely to have a job and earn a salary. Rather, these are fellow South Africans who are moved by our common responsibility to ensure that millions of our people break out of the dehumanising trap of poverty and underdevelopment.
They are committed to the realisation of the goal we have set ourselves to create a caring and people-centred society. They understand and have internalised the call for all of us to adhere to a new patriotism. The department has to play a leading role in helping to identify those among our population who fit this description to encourage them to take up the challenge of serving as CDWs.
This is because our work among the people gives us the possibility to get to know and assess many individuals. We will have to use the knowledge to ensure that the nation gets the right people, as it builds the new Public Service cadre of CDWs.
Corruption has a devastating effect on poor people, especially corruption in the Public Service. Corruption costs the government millions every year, money that could have been better spent on delivering services. Corruption also means that some people get an unfair advantage because they can afford to bribe officials to do them special favours. Where resources are scarce and many people need those resources, corruption often sets in.
Therefore, as the ANC, we maintain that corruption is the antithesis of the revolutionary morality that is supposed to be upheld by all functionaries of the entire liberation movement.
The challenges identified in the service delivery protests around the country were due to poor service delivery in some areas. In addition, public confidence in government's ability to deliver has been undermined by corruption and maladministration. Chairperson, I must consider the time. [Laughter.]
In fulfilling its role of building institutional capacity, specifically to fight corruption, the department launched the minimum anticorruption capacity audit, and the anticorruption capacity-building programme, aimed at preventing, detecting and investigating corrupt and unethical practices in the workplace.
During this financial year capacity constraints on government departments should be identified and a prevention plan should be in place to assist those departments that lack critical capacity. Admittedly, some government departments have attracted negative attention, as have some of our municipalities, especially the smaller, more isolated ones in rural areas.
These circumstances have set an urgent agenda for continuing Public Service improvement, and for corresponding and required Public Service training and management development. For the Public Service to respond adequately to all these issues that have been raised in the so-called service-delivery- related protests that we are experiencing, there is a need for the Public Service to relate perfectly to the demanding environment.
Palama therefore needs to be a more focused and appropriately resourced organisation with key people to play its role in developing the public sector cadre required by the South African developmental state.
The role of Palama is central to the developmental role of building the technical capacity of the public service, ensuring professional competence and inculcating a service ethos and citizen-centred values and attributes.
Professional competence will only be obtained by building public sector cadres who can deliver services to the people, show a caring attitude in dealing with citizens, earnestly listen to the people's concerns, truthfully reflect the wishes of the people, sincerely address their hardships and do more to speed up effective service delivery to the people. Therefore, as the ANC, we support the passing of the Budget Vote of the Department of Public Service and Administration. I thank you. [Applause.]