Gender and Disability in Public Service; Citizens’ Forums; Citizen Satisfaction Survey
Public Service and Administration
08 August 2006
Meeting Summary
A summary of this committee meeting is not yet available.
Meeting report
PUBLIC
SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
8 August 2006
GENDER AND DISABILITY IN PUBLIC SERVICE; CITIZENS’ FORUMS; CITIZEN SATISFACTION
SURVEY
Acting Chairperson: Mr
R Baloyi (ANC)
Documents handed out:
Gender and
Disability in the Public Service Budget Priorities for 2007/2008 Presentation
to the Portfolio Committee: 8 August 2006
The Citizens’ Forums
Toolkit Presentation: 8 August 2006
Citizen Satisfaction
Survey: Criminal Justice Sector: Presentation, 8 August 2006
SUMMARY
The Department of
Public Service and Administration made a presentation on gender and disability
in the Public Service which the Committee felt was too short on useful factual
data.
The Public Service Commission presented its findings on the Citizens’ Forums
Toolkit and Citizen Satisfaction Survey in the Criminal Justice Sector. The Committee commended the Commission on
its work, but queried politicising the forums and the process of how forum
facilitators were appointed.
MINUTES
Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) presentation
The Department presented some of its strategies, policy challenges and
opportunities concerning gender and disability in the public service. These included failures to meet national
equity targets. With changes in South Africa’s economic outlook and
intergovernmental cluster relationship, they hoped to do better in future. Some
of the Department’s strategic leadership challenges were turning stakeholder
input on gender and disability into project innovation for policy outcomes.
Concerning disability, the Department mentioned three areas of focus for
2006-2010, which included increasing recruitment rates, access to
communication, technology, and meaningful work and building employability. They
intended to implement these policies by working with disabled people’s
organisations, linking resources of the disability network to allied
organisations, and strengthening existing resources and stakeholder
consensus.
The Department described some of the issues concerning gender inequity and
outlined a plan of action, which included: coordinating policy and action for
socio-economic growth and development, increasing efforts to redress gender
inequality and generalising best practices across the Public Service and
regularly monitoring performance in measuring impact.
The Department also described some lessons learnt. These included a need for
new rules of engagement and accountability, an open door policy for
collaboration and more diversified skills.
The Department also made managerial challenges a priority to
overcome. These included new project
management models, and learning the subtleties of unfamiliar sectors, bridging
resource and competency gaps, and engaging stakeholders.
Discussion
The Acting Chair thanked the Department for the presentation but was doubtful
if it would meet the Committee’s expectations. He stated that there was room
for improvement in the way the Committee communicated to presenters exactly
what was expected from them. For example, he wanted factual evidence supporting
statements concerning gender and disability in the public service during the
presentation. He also mentioned a need
for concrete facts that could support the Committee and a need for more
details. Examples of particular departments that were doing well on gender and
disability issues would have been helpful.
Mr I Julies (DA) emphasised the need to reach the 2% disability target in the
public service. He also wondered why the disabled were not represented in this
meeting.
Ms H Engelbredtt (Acting Chief Director for Employment Equity at the Department
of Public Service and Administration) stated that historically the disabled had
been excluded by the education system.
The Department needed a closer look at what disabled persons brought to
positions when recruiting. She noted the comment about disabled persons being
represented by a disabled person.
Ms D Tsukudu (Chief Director of Employment, Health and Wellness at the
Department of Public Service and Administration) said that it still faced
problems such as people with disabilities not being placed in positions
matching their abilities because they are disabled.
The Acting Chair re-emphasised the need for the presenters to have concrete
facts to support their statements. He also queried whether the Department had
any interaction concerning women’s issues with the Commission on Gender
Equality (CGE).
Ms Engelbredtt confirmed that it had been interacting with the CGE, mainly
around planning and communication concerning the direction, thrust and calendar
of the Commission. The community development worker was seen as a source of
information but also one who could advise and assist citizens with requests and
information. She stated that her presentation had been a summary and that more
detailed facts would be forwarded to the Chair.
Public Service Commission (PSC) presentation
The presentation covered key points about the Citizens’ Forums Toolkit. These included the PSC mandate, the concept
and practice behind the Citizens’ forums and items to consider when conducting
the Citizens’ forums.
The main concept behind the Citizens’ forums is to provide citizens a place of
assembly for public discussion on matters of public interest that concern
them. The concept evolved as a means
whereby institutions independent of the executive participate jointly in
proposing measures to improve service delivery.
The Citizens’ Forum Toolkit had been developed based on PSC pilot projects in
the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga in 2002-2003.
The Eastern Cape’s focus was the poverty alleviation programme of the
Department of Social Development, and Mpumalanga’s focus was the primary health
care programme of the Department of Health.
The Toolkit includes a step-by-step guide and CD on how to conduct Citizen’s
Forums. Forum groups should be kept small enough to manage and be more than
just about complaints or party politics.
Facilitators should also prevent expectations from participants to rise
higher than could be delivered.
Community cooperation and follow-ups of proposals made during the forums
were also key aspects. The Commission also noted that the Citizens’ Forums were
labour intensive, and depended on skilled facilitators, and timely feedback to
work.
While the Citizens’ Forum concept was still in its infant stage, the pilot
communities had enthusiastically received it.
Training would be provided to departments nationally and provincially on
the use of the toolkit. The PSC said it would act as a facilitating agency for
any of the forums conducted and hoped the legislature, through its various
committees, would facilitate the rollout of the toolkit.
PSC presentation on the Citizen Satisfaction Survey (Criminal Justice
Sector)
This study concluded that there was an ongoing need to monitor and evaluate
services through extensive consultation; that information mechanisms would have
to be created and that there needed to be more attention to creating access for
disabled and rural populations. There also needed to be more coordination
amongst departments of the Criminal Justice Sector.
The study found that while urban respondents were generally satisfied with
physical access to service points, rural respondents were not. It also found most citizens dissatisfied
with the availability of information. With the South African Police Services
(SAPS) they found that users of administrative services were overall more
satisfied with the level of service than users of crime related services. The
latter rated slow service and the attitude of police officers as key among
their concerns.
Among the courts they found that a fifth of court users were confident in the
court system but only 14% said they would be willing to pursue a case or be a
witness. Less than half of court users
felt justice was administered fairly and equally to everyone.
Discussion
Mr R Sikakane (ANC) commented on the good quality of the presentation. He queried how the Citizens’ Forum
facilitators differentiated between personal and popular demands (what
individuals needed vs. what the population at large demanded).
Mr I Julies (DA) stated that there was a need to separate politics from the
people’s needs. He discouraged
including politics in the process.
The Acting Chair queried how issues dealt with in the forums were
identified. He also wondered about
including the proposals of local government as part of the process.
Mr J Diphofa (Deputy Director-General: Monitoring and Evaluation, Public
Service Commission) stated that the forum recommendations were proposals on how
to address needs. He also noted that in terms of approval of facilitators, the
processing of applications takes longer.
Mr J Ernsten (Deputy Chairperson: Public Services Commission) stated that he was monitoring the effectiveness of the methods tried.
The Acting Chair said
that he would be monitoring the effectiveness of the methods they had tried. He
agreed that politics should not be part of the forums, but they should not be
oversensitive.
Mr K Khumalo (ANC) suggested that constituency offices could also be useful for
the Citizens’ Forums.
Mr Ernsten stated that in South Africa things are often discussed from a
political perspective. He also said
that the Committee would have a report from them on a united approach to the
community. He suggested that by doing
both, the result could be a very focused Citizens’ Forum. He also reminded the
Committee that the Commission was a research and investigation institution and
.
Mr I Julies (DA) noted that one did not need ANC membership to qualify for a
house, a home or a car.
The meeting adjourned.
Audio
No related
Documents
No related documents
Present
- We don't have attendance info for this committee meeting
Download as PDF
You can download this page as a PDF using your browser's print functionality. Click on the "Print" button below and select the "PDF" option under destinations/printers.
See detailed instructions for your browser here.