Chairperson, I want to thank everyone who has spoken. I want to say the following to them:
U insette, kommentaar en standpunte hier genome, is belangrik en ons beskou dit as waardevol. [Your input, comments, and points of view stated here are important, and we consider it valuable.]
I would also like to take this opportunity and thank the Deputy Minister for his continued support. My thanks go to all the portfolios falling within the Ministry for the Public Service and Administration for their continued commitment and hard work.
The boards of the State Information Technology Agency, Sita, Government Employees Medical Scheme, Gems, and the Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority, continue to play a critical role in providing strategic guidance and direction to these institutions. Thanks for that.
In this regard, I want to call on this House to join me as we wish a speedy recovery to the chairperson of the Public Services Sector Education and Training Authority, as he is going through some challenges.
I would also like to thank the staff at the private office of the Minister and the Ministry who contends with our heavy schedule and has to work long hours at times. Without them I would not be able to do much. You are like family. Most importantly, I want to thank my family whose support gives me strength. Thanks to the portfolio committee for the oversight role and political guidance.
Allow me, as I conclude, to say that due to time constraints and also due to the value we put on all the issues that you raised-some factual and some entertaining-we would like to undertake to respond to all the issues raised in writing. We are going to address you one by one regarding the terms of the issues that you raised. We are committed to respect Parliament as an oversight institution.
We are going to respond to the issues of the portfolio committee collectively. We know that it is through our co-operation that we will make it a reality. The separation of powers in South Africa is not an issue that we think about as utopian, but it is an issue that we believe in and practice.
As a country we will continue to contribute towards improved public service and administration in Africa and in the international arena. We would do this to ensure that Africa develops in tandem with the rest of the world and that we entrench our position as an equal participant in the world family of nations.
We will soon submit our second report in compliance with the African Peer Review Mechanism. We have gone through the country's second assessment in terms of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Convention on Combating Bribery. Through the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy, Palama, we are championing the African Ministers of Public Services Programme on Capacity. Through the Centre for Public Service Innovation, CPSI, we are leading the programme on the All Africa Public Sector Innovation Awards. The Public Service Commission continues to lead in the Association of African Public Service Commissions.
We commit ourselves to be available throughout the financial year to respond to all the issues that hon members raised. The budget will assist us to do our work of making a difference regarding efficiency, effectiveness and development orientation.
Let's make sure this happens in our lifetime, because within the times allocated we would not be able to say it all, but I want to guarantee that all that the Ministry has to say is contained in a budget message booklet. This booklet is readily available as you leave. Collect it and look at what we are saying regarding these issues. We might even find answers to some of the issues that were raised.
As we indicated, we are going to comment on this, we may just have to reflect on some of the issues raised here and indicate as to where we are. It is true that Budget Vote 11 also incorporates funding meant for the Public Service Commission and Palama.
We welcome the comments and thank all the members who have spoken about this development. We are addressing this matter, understanding fully that it is the decision of the Ministers' Committee on the Budget, which I am also a member of, to address issues related to the proliferation of Budget Votes. The end result of which is the development of new departments and new entities after the advent of the passing of the amendment to the Public Service Act, and government components are established. We have to address this issue. An interim arrangement, as we move towards doing that, is to make sure that we revisit and address these issues. We are committed that this is an issue that will soon be concluded as an interim arrangement.
Coming to the Public Service Commission, what I welcome, as members have said, is that no one has said that the previous arrangement was the best. It has not been the best, we have raised these things. This issue has been an issue for one portfolio committee after the other. We are not saying that the previous dispensation was the best, because if we want to see the independence of this institution, we need to locate it perfectly where it belongs.
Thanks to Parliament, through you, Chairperson, we know that an ad hoc committee which was chaired by Professor Kader Asmal, former Member of Parliament, has done some work and we believe that it will be at the advent that, as we conclude the debate on the recommendations, we will be in a position to say that all of us are proud of the corporate form of the Public Service Commission. This also applies to Palama.
Concerning the single Public Service, there is no contradiction between talking about the single Public Service and the Constitution. The Constitution stipulates in Chapter 10 that South Africa has one administration. This administration subscribes to the values that are contained in section 195 of the Constitution. These values will cut across all spheres and also apply at the level of state-owned enterprises.
The issue of oneness is there. So, if you have your public administration, you will want to agree on the programme of action that you need to implement, and therefore you will need an arrangement of structures that will implement this in order to talk to each other. We must not talk Batho Pele at national and provincial levels and not do the same at local government level. We want to address that issue.
There is no debate at the current moment, regarding the issue of a single Public Service, suggesting that we are going to centralise everything and do away with municipalities. No, that is not an issue. The issue is that we want to harmonise the conditions of service. You want to have a situation where you have a seamless arrangement in the provision of services. You want to have an arrangement where there would be mobility of skills across the three spheres. You need to do that. In fact, it was not even the case between the national and provincial sphere before the amendment of the Public Service Act. That is why we are saying that the road to conclude the debate on the single Public Service is not a narrow road; it is a road that all of us need to contribute to.
We need to embrace what the Deputy Minister has said. We should not opportunistically pluck the feathers of that chicken with the broken leg on the side of the road whilst still alive. We need to assist it and show it where to go. At the moment the debate on the single Public Service is, as I said, an extra-parliamentary engagement. It is at that level where we need to strengthen it and take the process forward.
Vuvabyi bya PSETA hi byi vonile. Hi wu kumile ndzombo wa kona naswona ku nga ri khale hi ta kota ku swi lulamisa. (Translation of Xitsonga paragraph follows.)
[We have identified the weaknesses of PSETA. We have found the cause and it won't be long before we are able to deal with it.]
One hon member has indicated that Sita is letting the Minister down. If the opposite of letting me down is letting me up, I want to state "watch this space". In no time Sita will be an agency of note for all of us. I thank you very much. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.