Thank you very much, Chairperson. I wish I could donate two minutes of my time to the chairperson of the select committee. Let me, as I close the debate on the Budget Vote, thank hon members for their inputs. As I have indicated, it is our joint responsibility to make sure that this Public Service is what we want it to be. All the things that have been said here are relevant and very important. We commit ourselves to following that up. I may not touch them individually and say yes to this one and no to that one. No is no answer to any of the things that have been said. I fully agree with all of those, and we shall take care of the situation.
As a response to all speakers, I have a one-size-fits-all comment. Thank you for what you have said.
With regard to the issues around revocrats and bureaucrats, we raised a challenge - and we shall actually put it here - and we committed ourselves to revisiting the instrument of recruitment. We are not only going to revisit the instrument of recruitment, but we shall also define merit in South African terms. If you do not have a number of factors that merit a person suitable for an appointment, you may find yourself missing the point.
I have indicated and requested the Public Service Commission and also instructed my department to work on an instrument. When I introduced this to them, I indicated that this recruitment tool must be modelled around the ruling party's document Eye of a Needle. This will prevent people from claiming that they can be appointed public servants, because not all of them will actually be equal to the task. That is why we have challenges. That is why departments are not spending their money at the end of the day.
Financial management is a serious issue. We are looking into that. There are people in deployment and appointment posts who, instead of working, play and politicise their deployment. When action is taken against them, they say they are being purged. We want to deal with that.
Relevance, in terms of understanding policies, honestly speaking, is one of the things that needs to be practised. You cannot give a person a Bible in a shebeen, ask them to preach and expect that they will talk to the contents of that Bible. The two can't mix.
Thank you very much in terms of what has been said.
Hon Makhubela, Mugwena, loko hi ku hi ta vuya eka tiko hi fika hi kombisa leswaku xana leswi swi hi sirhelelaka ku simeka tipholisi ta hina hi swihi. [Hon Makhubela, Mugwena, when we say we will come back to the nation we will outline what the things are that serve as the guiding principles in implementing our policies.]
We need to look into these things. For instance, there is nothing that can be identified as an anomaly in the Public Service that does not have a policy to address it. We just need to find out why the people are failing to implement things.
You spoke of 112 vacancies. We can have that as a subject on its own. One of our commitments - I indicated that when I mentioned that we shall come up with a Sita turnaround strategy by July - is to find ways of dealing with our record management system, Persal. Sometimes vacancies that are said to be available do not tally with the figures. These are some of the things we are going to investigate. We shall come back and address you after that exercise. We shall be able to say how many vacancies are available, where they are located and why they are not filled. If officials confirm that the personnel record system does not tally with what is actually reflected, then we shall investigate. Those are the things that are very important.
Thank you, Mr Burgess, for saying that you feel proud to belong in South Africa. The ANC says South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. It is for that reason that I'm thanking you for recognising that. But that recognition should be accompanied by a commitment for all of us to soil our hands and contribute to the betterment of the lives of the people of South Africa.
We have taken a decision because you might have seen that we can't afford a situation in which the relationship between ourselves, as a caring employer, as government and labour is antagonistic. We engage one another. We are not engaging one another out of choice, but we do it because we have taken a decision to establish collective bargaining processes, and through those structures we'll be able to find peace with one another. That is exactly what we are doing. That is why it was possible, within a short space of time, to agree as an employer together with labour that we would set a deadline for 30 June 2009 to resolve all occupation-specific- dispensation-related questions. We will come back and announce progress early next week because we are still assessing. But, rest assured, we are on board. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]