Minister for the Public Service And Administration Budget Speech

Minister for the Public Service And Administration, Ms Faith Muthambi, gave her Budget Vote Speech on the 24 May 2017.

___________________________________________________________________________

Deputy Minister for the Public Service and Administration, Ms Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba
Honourable Members
Chairperson of the Presidential Remuneration Review Commission, Justice Kenneth Mthiyane
Chairperson of the Public Service Commission, Adv. Richard Sizani
Chairperson of the Government Employees Medical Scheme – Ms Nontobeko Ntsinde
Director-General of the Public Service Commission
Director-General of Department of Public Service and Administration
Director-General of the National School of Government
Executive Director of the Centre for Public Service Innovation
Principal Officer of the Government Employees Medical Scheme
Distinguished guests
Fellow South Africans

Honourable Chairperson, we stand here today with much humility to present to this august house Budget Vote 10, with which we hope to deepen our transformation of the broad public service, so that it may correctly be wired to address the pressing problems confronted by the masses of our people.  We present this Budget Vote with the view of following in the footsteps of the longest serving President General of our revolutionary movement, the African National Congress.       In honour of President Oliver Reginald Tambo and during the centenary since his birth, we dedicate this Vote to the hundreds of thousands of public servants who have chosen the path to emulate his selfless life of service.

Honourable Members, It is common knowledge that Presidents Tambo and Mandela chose a life of selfless service despite the attractions and full potential of a more prosperous and self centred life. 

Reflecting on this chosen path, in the seminal life story of President Nelson Mandela in the Long Walk to Freedom, years later, President Tambo said:

        “For years we worked side by side in the offices near the Courts. To reach our desks each morning, Nelson and I ran the gauntlet of patient queues of people overflowing from the chairs in the waiting-room into the corridors… when we started our law partnership, we had not been rebels against South African apartheid, our experiences in our offices would have remedied the deficiency. We had risen to professional status in our community, but every case in court, every visit to the prisons to interview clients, reminded us of the humiliation and suffering burning into our people.”

It is this selfless dedication, we wish to deepen and promote in the public services of today.  It is this type of dedication, vigour and humility we intend to ignite further in our public services.  We do so conscious that the majority of our people remain without a means of control over their own lives as they continue to be exploited only to fuel the engines of profit in servitude to white monopoly capital and global iterations.  Consequently, as we dedicate this vote to the thousands of public servants dedicated to changing the material conditions of our people, we do so conscious that unless a radical socio-economic transformation path is undertaken those conditions will not improve.  To paraphrase President OR’s address to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1986 our economy cannot be reformed, our struggle has entered a phase which marks the final days of the white monopoly dominated system. 

To move us further in that phase we require a new, innovative, selfless and inspired type of public service, in the mould of OR Tambo.  All of which are in line with the principles of Constitution of the Republic to “provide [an] effective, transparent, accountable and coherent government”. 

Although this Budget seeks to address our radical socio economic transformation agenda in the longer term, it does adhere to our medium term aspirations as contained in the National Development Plan.  The National Development Plan builds the foundation for an efficient, effective and development oriented Public Service as part of a capable and developmental state, which can facilitate and implement a Radical Socio Economic Transformation. In this regard, our strategic mandate as a portfolio is to create an enabling policy environment for the rest of the Public Service and to support the effective implementation of these policies, through among others, monitoring, training and the promotion of innovation.

Honourable Chairperson: This year, in September, also marks twenty years since the adoption of the Batho Pele Principles and the White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery.  During the adoption of these principles the then Minister of Public Services and Admnistration, Dr Zola Skweyiya, reflected that:

“Government’s most important tasks is to build a public service capable of meeting the challenge of improving the delivery of public services to the citizens of South Africa. Access to decent public services is no longer a privilege to be enjoyed by a few; it is now the rightful expectation of all citizens, especially those previously disadvantaged… The transformation of our Public Service is to be judged, rightly, by the practical difference people see in their everyday lives.”

During this financial year we will therefore adhere to these principles and related public policies to this test presented by the first democratic Minister for Public Service and Administration with a view of improving on them and aligning them to our reinvigorated agenda.  As we review these we will also take lessons from hard working public servants such as the winner of our fourth Annual National Batho Pele Excellence Awards, Ms Thulisile Mathenjwa (may you please rise).  We take this opportunity to thank and appreciate Ms Mathenjwa for walking in the footsteps of President OR Tambo and being an embodiment of a public servant that South Africa deserves.  Ms Mathenjwa works in one of our most important, but neglected sectors which can accelarate our radical economic transformation agenda --- that is the Agriculture sector.  Millions of women occupy this sector and go unnoticed, we must find ways to further empower such women whilst ensuring a shared and inclusive growth in that and other sectors in our economy.

Inclusion, participation and empowerment will require an innovative public service which is accessible to all its citizens. 

The Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) is a cross-cutting facility of government aimed at entrenching and driving the culture and practice of innovation in the public sector to address service delivery challenges.  Consequently, the centre “is responsible for establishing norms and standards relating to transformation, reform, innovation and any other matter to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the public service and service delivery to the public”.

In advancing this the  Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI), will partner with various institutions within the health, safety and security and education spheres in order to collaborate on the development of prototypes as well as nurturing and sustaining a public service innovation and learning culture.  These collaborations will include the development and implementation of the multi media innovation centre as well as an innovation journal.  Work will also continue in relation to the ever-popular Public Sector Innovation Awards as well as the Annual Public Sector Innovation Conference.  Chairperson allow me to recognise Ms Ramadimetja Cathrine Masekoameng who represents one of the sixteen 2016 awardees of the Public Sector Innovation Awards.  She comes from the Limpopo Provincial Treasury’s Revenue Enhancement Strategy Project which was awarded the coveted 2016 Innovator of the Year title (may you kindly rise).   This project is an example of how government departments can refocus to revenue generation in the current dwindling equitable share. 

Going forward, we will also pay greater attention to the governance and accountability measures at the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) with the aim of rendering greater effectiveness and broader participation, an area of work the Deputy Minister shall elaborate on.

Honourable Chairperson:

Our ethos is one guided by the Constitution and it implores us to demonstrate that We Belong (to our communities), We Serve (our communities) and We Care (about our communities).  In the end we must ensure that our government belongs to all our people and it is in service to our people, wherever they are.

It is against this background that during January 2017, we embarked on the Back-to-School Campaign where we visited a number of schools in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.   We were accompanied by strategic partners from the private sector, as part of the Public-Private Partnership, who sponsored different items which were donated to the identified and deserving historically disadvantaged learners in these different schools.

Through the SABC Foundation, we awarded two top matriculants with bursaries.  In Mpumalanga province, in partnership with the MTN Foundation, we donated 11 Multi-Media Centres; 100 bicycles and related accessories and 1 000 talking books to schools.  The MTN Foundation has also signed an agreement with the contractor to construct an ICT laboratory at Tshimbupfe High School this financial year.   I would like to acknowledge Mrs Kusile Mthunzi-Hairwadzi (General Manager: MTN Foundation) (May you please rise).  We also donated school shoes for identified needy learners at Nine (9) schools in Limpopo province through the Professor Alfred Nevhutanda Foundation.  In absentia, we would like to appreciate Mr Khwezi Ngwenya, who is model public servant and an employee of the Estate Affairs Board, an entity under the Department of Human Settlements, who donated out of his own pocket a sizeable number of pair of shoes to schools in the KwaZulu Natal Province.   We can upon other public servants and other prominent persons to emulate these exemplary citizens.  We also encourage other corporate citizens and foundations to partner with us in our initiatives.

We hope these contributions will go a long way to assisting those in need to make their lives better.  We have the responsibility to inculcate the ethos of service and volunteerism as a way of life for all public servants. Everyday must be filled with service and care for our people let us not wait until the next Mandela Day or any other calendar day for us to encourage an active public service and citizenry.

Working Together, We Move South Africa Forward.

Honourable Chairperson: In moving South Africa forward together we amended the Public Service Regulations on the 1st of August last year, so that we put in place policies and regulations to curb corruption in the public service.

Through these amendments these Regulations stipulate clearly that Public Servants must not conduct business with any organ of state or be a director of a public or private company conducting business with an organ of state.  Public Servants were informed accordingly that they should cease doing business with organs of state or resign from the public service.

The Regulations introduced transitional arrangements for the implementation of Regulation 13(c), which provided public service employees with a period of six months - which ended on 31 January 2017 - to relinquish their interests in businesses involved in conducting business with an organ of state, or to resign from the Public Service.  Employees who opted to resign from such businesses were required, in terms of the transitional arrangements, to provide proof of resignation to their Heads of Department by the end of February 2017.

In this regard, the National Treasury manages the Central Supplier Database (CSD) empowered centrally register suppliers who want to conduct business with the State.  As such, it provides a list of names of individuals and businesses conducting business with the State to the Department.  By comparing data from PERSAL with that on the Central Supplier Database, public service employees intending to conduct business with the State, as well as those conducting business with the State, are identified. In January 2017, we forwarded letters to Executive Authorities, identifying those officials that are registered on the Central Supplier Database and those who are conducting business with an organ of state, to create awareness on the transitional arrangements.

In March this year, we matched the Central Supplier Database information with PERSAL data.  A total number of Eleven Thousand Five Hundred and Sixteen (11 516) Public Officials were found to be registered on the Central Supplier Database and were therefore in a position to perform business with an organ of state.  As at the end of February 2017 and for the period 1 October 2016 to 28 February 2017, a total of Two Thousand Five Hundred and Thirty Six (2 536) employees, who were registered on the Central Supplier Database, have resigned from the Public Service. We are currently following up with departments to assess if there are any remaining public servants have not resigned from the companies they were associated with.

To assist with implementation of Regulation 13 (c), we approved two directives:

o   On 13 September 2016, a Directive on Other Remunerative Work Outside the Employee’s Employment in the Relevant Department as contemplated in Section 30 of the Public Service Act, 1994, was approved.  This Directive came into effect on 1 November 2016. The Directive clarifies that although employees may obtain permission for remunerative work outside their employment, such permission shall not be used as a basis for conducting business with an organ of state.

o   In January 2016, a Directive on Conducting Business with an Organ of State was approved to clarify the definition of an “organ of state,” and excluding certain activities that are not considered to be conducting business with an organ of state; for example, teaching activities at universities. 

Honourable Chairperson: With effect from 1 February 2017, National Treasury amended the registration process for prospective suppliers to be registered on the Central Supplier Database, to prohibit public service employees from being registered.  During the registration process all suppliers are matched against the PERSAL system, to establish if they are Public Service Employees or not.  If a match is obtained, the person is flagged and is then required to provide proof that he/she is not a public service employee. 

We view misconduct in a serious light and will continue to strengthen measures for effective consequence management in the Public Service.

Honourable Chairperson: As part of the Medium Term Strategic Framework (Outcome 12) Government has identified the management of discipline as one of the priority indicators. The intention is to reduce the period it takes to resolve disciplinary cases from the baseline of 134 days in April 2015 to 90 days by April 2019. Of the Ten Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty Four (10 754) cases analysed, as at 31 March 2017, the median number of days taken to resolve disciplinary cases was 61 days. Notably Six (6) of the nine (9) Provincial Administrations were below 90 days. The median for National Departments was 91 days.

Work will continue to support departments that are above the median. Further, the Department has established a pool of experts to support departments by making available chairpersons, investigators and employer representatives to be used in disciplinary hearings. In this regard the Department has received 38 request for assistance and 97 experts were assigned.

A major concern for Government is the role of departments in capturing, updating and maintaining the required information, with regard to discipline management, on the PERSAL System. Steps will be put in place to ensure that all departments capture and regularly update information on PERSAL.

These are among the critical initiatives through which we seek to promote an intregrity-driven public service, in the footsteps of OR Tambo. To complement these efforts, on Friday, 19 May 2017, we revived the National Anti-Corruption Forum, which is duly constituted by Government, Business and Civil Society to co-ordinate sectoral strategies in the fight against corruption.  The Public Service Commission is assigned the Secretariat responsibility of the Forum.

These efforts will be complemented by further actions in relation to the vexing challenge of non submission of financial disclosure forms by the due date of 31 May.  We are pleased to note the progress recorded during the 2016/2017 financial year, wherein five provinces and 35 national departments achieved 100% submission rate of financial disclosure forms.  This is the highest submission rate by both the national and provincial departments since the inception of the Financial Disclosure Framework in 1999.  For the financial year ending 30 April 2016, 92% of Senior Managers filed their disclosures on time.  The introduction of the eDisclosure, an electronic format of submitting financial disclosures, has assisted in increasing compliance rate.

Honourable Chairperson: The Public Service Commission (PSC) is entrusted to promote the constitutional values and principles in the public service, especially those in Section 195. 

The Commission finalised a Framework for the promotion of the constitutional values and principles and evaluation of the performance of the public service against these values and principles.  The Framework defines each principle, set out the scope and content of each principle and proposes a number of performance indicators for each principle. 

The Public Service Commission has also developed an evaluation tool to assess compliance with the values in the public service.  The tool will give a unique perspective on the public service, on whether we are adhering to and achieving the intended goals of the values on an outcome level, and not merely ticking the compliance boxes with legislation.

In the 2016/17 financial year, the Public Service Commission finalised 80% of the 651 grievances and 77% of the 355 complaints lodged with it and made recommendations to Executive Authorities. Most of the outstanding cases were received in March 2017. The rate of finalisation can be ascribed to improved business processes implemented by the Public Service Commission.

Over the years, the PSC has actively monitored the extent to which the Public Service has succeeded in meeting the required employment equity targets.

The PSC found that significant progress has been made in ensuring equity in terms of race and gender. Despite this it is our firm belief that more still has to be done in securing gender parity and women’s leadership at all levels particularly at the highest levels of the public service. We have also noted the limited progress in achieving the disability equity target of 2%. To advance this target we will seek active partnerships with organisations operating in the disability sector, particularly the civil society and the labour movement, in line with the Disabled People South Africa motto of “Nothing About Us, Without Us”.

These efforts will be complemented by the recommendations of the Portfolio Committee that the PSC conducts a followup study to determine factors impeding government departments in achieving 2% of people with disabilities and 50% of women in senior management in the public service and make proposals for improvement. Without meeting these targets our agenda for a radical economic transformation and inclusive growth are under serious threat.

As we conduct this analysis and head count and determine where and at what level are the women and people with disabilities located, we will also pose the fundamental question of whether our Department and indeed the entire public service is appropriately wired and designed to meet the Department’s specific mandates and our urgent objective for a radical socio-economic transformation.

In doing this we also continue with the ongoing engagements we have had with all our unions and stakeholders so that we may ensure a smooth and progressive process of capacitating the public services, whilst also taking on board (as far as possible) the concerns of labour, the stakeholders and most importantly our citizens to whom we owe our very existence.

Honourable Chairperson: A fundamental consideration in the promotion of ethical conduct in the Public Service is the extent to which conflicts of interest that may exist between the public servants’ private interests and public duties are managed.  Potential conflicts of interests are managed proactively through the Financial Disclosure Framework so as to avoid these from becoming actual conflicts of interest which can easily lead to corruption.

A primary function of the Public Service Commission is to scrutinise the financial disclosure forms received and advise Executive Authorities on the prevalence of potential and actual conflicts of interest. In this regard, the Public Service Commission will scrutinise 100% of all submitted financial disclosure forms and will extend its focus from partnerships and properties to the acceptance of gifts.

The Public Service Commission will also conduct public administration investigations into complaints lodged with it.  Apart from the hosting of departmental workshops on professional ethics, the Public Service Commission will also host an event in partnership with the Moral Regeneration Movement on building an ethical Public Service.

The Public Service Commission will continue its programme of inspections of service delivery sites. The purpose of inspections is to evaluate service delivery from the perspective of citizens and identify service delivery challenges that can be addressed immediately.

Inspections are successful because they give the Public Service Commission quick insight on how administrative arrangements impact on service delivery.  The Public Service Commission will continue to improve the quality and impact of this work, specifically regarding the rigour of its methodology; the specific role of the Public Service Commission in inspecting functional standards, for example health and education standards, in which it does not have specific expertise; its coordination and collaboration with other bodies like the Office of Health Standards Compliance; and the usefulness of its recommendations.

Honourable Chairperson: The National Development Plan (NDP), in prioritising the “Building [of] a Capable and Developmental State," observes the importance of delegations and proposes more consistent delegations supported by appropriate systems of support and oversight.

To advance the proposals in the National Development Plan (NDP), we have issued a Directive on Public Administration and Management Delegations in August 2014.  The Directive on Delegations applies to all national and provincial departments as well as government components listed in the schedules to the Public Service Act.  Since the issuing of the Directive, the Department has provided ongoing support to departments to implement the Directive.  

We reported to this House last year that by 31 May 2016, the Department would have compiled a report on compliance with the Directive on Delegations.   We are happy to report back to the House that the report has indeed been compiled which reflects on the overall compliance by departments.

The overall compliance by departments, as at 15 March 2017, was rated at 63% for all departments - 68% for national departments and 61% for provincial departments. Of the 158 Departments assessed, 100 departments complied with the Delegations - 30 national and 70 provincial departments. The implementation of the Directive is closely monitored through the Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) process of the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation.

As part of Phase Three (3) of implementing the Directive, in February 2017 we have issued the Guide on Administrative and Operational Delegations.  The Guide provides delegation principles and a toolkit for assessing and developing discretionary decision-making at an operational level.

Honourable Chairperson: The establishment of the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS), in 2006 was aimed at introducing an accessible and affordable medical scheme to public service employees and their dependants. Despite the fact that since its inception, GEMS has grown to become South Africa’s second-largest medical scheme, we may have to frankly evaluate the possible existing barriers to participation which have been raised by some employees, with a view of improving efficiencies and effectiveness of the scheme.  Such an evaluation would have to be in line with our radical economic transformation agenda and in lieu of the ongoing discussions and support we have provided to the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) and the Competition Commission Health Market Inquiry.

We are pleased to announce that, the Scheme’s cost containment measures again yielded good results and the Scheme’s non-healthcare expenditure remains one of the lowest in the healthcare industry at 5.70%. The GEMS specialist network was expanded in respect of the number of disciplines covered and the total number of specialists on the network was 1 055.

Honourable Chairperson: The National School of Government (NSG) is mandated to provide or facilitate the provision of training to public servants.   As a national training provider, the National School of Government must act as such and intensify training and provision of required skills to the public service to deliver on the National Development Plan goals.

The Deputy Minister for the Public Service and Administration will elaborate more on the role of the National School of Government shortly.

      We therefore present to this House our Budget Vote, with overall

      allocations as follows:

                  Department of Public Service and Administration-R456 919m (Four Hundred and Fifty Six Million)

                  Public Service Commission                    -           R245 664m

                  (Two Hundred and Forty Five Million)

                  National School of Government             -           R160 506m

                  (One Hundred and Sixty Million)

                  Centre for Public Service Innovation-  R34 055m

                  (Thirty Four Million)

This vision is our guiding star and will be at the centre of our approach as we reenter our multi year salary negotiations after the three-year agreement came to an end on 31 March 2017.  We are also alive to the fact that we have not performed to the optimum and in full accordance to our agreements in the previous three year agreement, and will endeavour to do more and do better, to our mutual benefit and as far as possible.  Once we agree we will also put in place a joint and continuous monitoring system with labour, for we believe that it is imperative we work for a productive and stable public service. We have to collaborate with our labour partners and ensure that the public service machinery functions with the ultimate goal of delivering efficient services to the people.

On behalf of the Ministry of Public Service and Administration, we commit to ensuring that the mandate of this Portfolio is carried out.  We will continue working with government departments in all spheres of government as well as our social partners, because Together, We Move South Africa Forward. We have the singular and honourable pleasure to present Budget Vote 10, which we believe to be the basis of a radical, transformed, and service oriented Department of Public Services and Administration, during the year in which we celebrate 100 years since the birth of OR Tambo.  Which allocation is just over 897 million rands and will lay the foundation for the urgent transformative tasks and implementation of our radical socio-economic transformation. Such a transformation will benefit all our people and most importantly place at the centre of all of our efforts since We Belong to our people, We Care about our people, We Serve our people.

Honourable Members: This Budget Vote Speech also occurs a day before Africa Day, which marks 54 years since the founding of the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) which has been transformed to the African Union. We dare not forget the founding principles such self-determination which are the foundation of our prime continental union.  We also dare not remain complacent in implementing key and voluntary instruments of our beloved Union, amongst them being the African Peer Review Mechanism.  In marking this grand day for Africa’s journey towards political and economic liberation let us place at the centre those on our continent who continue to face oppression, such as those women, children and men in the Western Sahara and Mayotte.  Let us also recall that it was African daughters and sons, in the main, who provided refuge to our beloved OR Tambo and thousands so that we may realise President Tambo’s vision “of a South Africa in which black and white shall live and work together as equals in conditions of peace and prosperity”.

With that I urge honourable members to give support to this important budget vote which will accelerate service in the name of the millions who desire quality, efficient and effective services.

I thank you.

BUDGET VOTE SPEECH BY THE DEPUTY MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION MS DIPUO LETSATSI-DUBA, MP
  
Minister for the Public Service and Administration, Ms Faith Muthambi
Honourable Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Dr Makhosi Khoza
Chairperson of the Presidential Remuneration Review Commission, Justice Kenneth Mthiyane
Chairperson of the Public Service Commission, Adv. Richard Sizani
Chairperson of the Government Employees Medical Scheme – Ms Nontobeko Ntsinde
Directors-General and Heads of MPSA entities
Honourable Members
Distinguished guests
Fellow South Africans
 
Honourable Chairperson, we are honoured to present to this House the Budget Vote of the Ministry of Public Service and Administration.
 
As the Public Service and Administration, we are forefront in building capacity of the state. Our role is to ensure that throughout all of government, services are delivered efficiently, effectively, in a manner that redresses the imbalances of the past and restores dignity to citizens previously denied access to basic government services.
 
We present this Budget Vote seeking to make right, these wrongs of our past. This is in line with the vision of generations of illustrious leaders that led our liberation movement.
 
As the nation commemorates 2017 as the “Year of OR Tambo”, we are reminded of the values that ANC President Oliver Reginald Tambo stood for. We question ourselves on how we can embrace these values to strengthen our government, as we seek to decisively respond to the aspirations of each citizen of this country.
 
Oliver Tambo left us a significant and an enduring heritage. It is a heritage that enhanced our Constitution, and contributed to the inclusive and equitable policies of our democratically elected government. This is a legacy that lives on, and one we need to strongly build on.
 
This world renowned Constitution today, calls for a public administration that is accountable, transparent and development-oriented. We owe it to this remarkable legacy of OR Tambo, to ensure that public institutions are well-run and effectively coordinated. These are institutions that will diligently and consistently deliver in line with the heightened expectations of the public that we serve.
 
Against the increased citizen expectation for improved services, including the need for innovative service delivery tools, mounting pressure is put on government to find more creative ways of responding to citizen’s expectations. 
 
Honourable Members
 
This calls for the public service to be more open minded and to embrace new thinking, new ways of doing things, as this approach will present opportunities to derive simpler solutions to our common day challenges.
 
To address the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality as contained in the National Development Plan, the public service has to reinvent itself -- to find new ways of adding value to the systems and practices in place.
 
The Centre for Public Service Innovation, the CPSI, continues to entrench the culture and practice of innovation in the public sector through various programmes. In 2016 the CPSI took a strategic decision to launch a series of workshops that target the leadership of sectors to ensure that innovation is embraced as a vehicle for service delivery enhancement.
 
As part of this drive, the CPSI conducted four sector-specific workshops for 163 Hospital CEOs and Clinical Managers in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal where numerous health innovations, unearthed through the Annual Public Sector Innovation Awards Programme, were shared. The purpose of the workshops was to encourage the replication and mainstreaming of implemented public sector innovations within the Health Sector.
 
In 2016/17 the CPSI continued to facilitate the replication of innovative solutions unearthed through the Annual Public Sector Innovation Awards Programme. The Saving Blood, Saving Lives project from Edendale Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, where it saved the hospital R16 million in three years, is an example of such an innovation.
 
In 2016 this project was recognised by the Minister for the Public Service and Administration, as a Category Winner, for its role in reducing the use of blood and blood products thus saving government money. This project is the first recipient of the GEMS Health Award, an accolade that the Government Medical Aid Scheme bestows, within the CPSI Innovation Awards Programme, on health sector institutions that have used innovation to solve service delivery challenges.
 
Honourable Chairperson
 
We are happy to report to the House that the CPSI has facilitated the replication of this solution at various hospitals in Gauteng, namely, Bertha Gxowa Hospital where about R117 671.00 was saved between June 2016 and February 2017; Far East Rand Hospital where R180 000.00 was saved between November 2016 and February 2017; and Leratong Hospital with an average saving of R42 000.00 per month since November 2016. Tembisa and Pholosong Hospitals will be commencing in this financial year. Of importance is that these savings are used to address other service delivery challenges in these institutions.
 
Within the last year, the CPSI facilitated the replication of a crime prevention solution in 67 no-fee schools in Gauteng, in partnership with the Departments of Community Safety and Education. The solution connects households and schools to sector policing vehicles, police stations and community police forums for quicker response time to incidents of crime. To date, 25 police stations have been connected to households and schools in Gauteng and North West Provinces.
 
As part of the bigger plan to infuse e-learning in the education sector, I am happy to announce that the CPSI facilitated a ministerial handing over, as recent as the 13th of March, of multi-media computer labs to two schools in Umtata, namely, St John’s College and Ngwayibanjwa. The implementation of these facilities already contributed to the improvement of matric results of these schools in 2016.
 
Honourable Members
 
The CPSI’s Annual Innovation Conference has become the biggest community of practice or forum for the public sector which draws delegates from all three spheres of government as well as the private, academic and non-governmental sectors.
 
In 2016 we drew delegates from Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries and as far as the People’s Republic of China. During the Ministerial Roundtable within the conference, the Minister for Public Service and Administration and Minister for Telecommunications and Postal Services engaged the delegates on the need for and the critical role of innovation in improving service delivery.
 
On behalf of South Africa as a United Nations member state, the CPSI continues to serve as an Online Regional Centre for  the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) to strengthen regional integration in line with Outcome 11. In this regard, the CPSI supported the UNPAN Annual Capacity Building Workshop in partnership with the UNDP to enhance the participation of SADC member states in the Network and its activities relating to public sector innovation and the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals.
 
We were humbled by and proud to have successfully coordinated the 2016 (4th) All Africa Public Sector Innovation Awards Programme on behalf of the African Union, as part of the efforts towards achieving Agenda 2063. This culminated in a ceremony held in Addis Ababa in December 2016 to celebrate Africa’s successful public sector innovations that improve service delivery.
 
Honourable Chairperson
 
Across the globe innovation is increasingly regarded as a key that unlocks value to most governments, as this innovation grows from a mindset that is engrossed in finding tangible solutions to the real challenges that exist in our systems.
 
In this regard, our government has ensured a consistency in participating in programmes and platforms that create space for engagement and reflection aimed at finding collective solutions to the continued global challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment.
 
As member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Steering Committee and having handed over the Chairmanship of this global initiative in September 2016 to the Government of France, our responsibility has been to steer the partnership to harness new technologies that offer opportunities for information sharing, public participation and collaboration.
 
We have harnessed new technologies in line with the Open Government Partnership commitment to foster a global culture that empowers and delivers for citizens, and advances the ideals of open and participatory 21st century government.
 
Our work has been premised on the notion that transparency begets access, it is also about sharing and reusing information that is open- freely accessible and useable in various formats. 
 
This recent narrative has given citizens a new voice to participate in government activities that affect their daily lives; and a tool to hold local government, especially their cities, accountable. Moreover, in encouraging the use, reuse and free distribution of data, governments promote problem solving, business creation and innovative, citizen-centric services.
 
Government has made considerable progress in this space. In 2016, we introduced hackathons as part of the open data project which has served as a channel for unearthing impactful innovations from within the community.
 
I wish to highlight our flagship program the #Hack4water challenge, the winners of which were announced at the World Water Day Summit Gala Dinner hosted by the Department of Water Affairs under the auspices of the United Nations in the city of Durban in March 2017.
 
In collaboration with the Department of Water and Sanitation, the Open Government Partnership South Africa launched the #Hack4water, challenging South Africans to innovate to solve South Africa’s water challenges. The launch of this challenge was preceded by an unconference on 1 March 2016 themed “How can we work in partnership to tackle South Africa’s water challenges” to define the problem statement for the #Hack4water challenge.
 
The campaign was launched through a website, www.hack4water.org.za where ordinary South Africans could submit their #Hack4water, be it a low tech home innovation or high tech corporate solution. We even encouraged people to tell water related stories as their #hack4water. The point was to use open data to change mindsets, both internally in government and within communities as a new way of engaging the public.
 
The #Hack4water initiative engaged communities, researchers, entrepreneurs to solve challenges by analysing the data and raise awareness about issues of water management by promoting use of the data. Launched nationally, the campaign challenged South Africans to provide their solutions in categories that include individuals or groups of individuals; youth or schools; enterprise category; researchers and storytellers.
 
Outcomes from this data challenge are expected to contribute to the advancement of Sustainable Development Goal 16 and the World Water Development Report. 
 
Honourable Members
 
The OGP sees itself as a partner better positioned to establish linkages with interlocutors such as local government in order to build bridges between global goals and local communities.
 
Thus Goal 11 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which seeks to “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, resonates well with the role we have envisaged the OGP to play in the South African context.

This is to bring South African cities up to par, with the growing trend of cities across the world opening up public data and getting entrepreneurs and researchers to help solve social and economic challenges.
The OGP in South Africa in partnership with national and international partners hosted the inaugural Responsive Cities Challenge in 2016. The challenge was to solve the following challenges in 4 cities:
Tshwane: How to use open data to reduce cable theft in Tshwane?
E-Thekwini: How can eThekwini Municipality use open data to better connect government to citizens?
Kimberley:  How to use open data to improve water management in Northern Cape cities and towns?
Ekurhuleni: How to we use open data to assist residents that are at risk?
Young people from all these cities responded showing how their solutions had social impact, were sustainable, used open data and were innovative. We intend to continue rolling out these initiatives so as to strengthen our collaboration efforts.
 
Honourable Chairperson
 
Our mandate as the Public Service is guided by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the Public Service Act, 1994 as amended, as well as other statutory and legislative requirements.
 
The Minister spoke earlier about the need to have a professional and ethical public service.  For us to attain this ideal public service, training and development need to be constant partners in the lives of the public servants, hence government made a decision to ensure that the National School of Government (NSG), fulfils this role.
 
The National School of Government is responsible for the training of public servants on Induction, Leadership, Management and Administration programmes. It targets public servants and coordinates education, learning programmes and interventions, both nationally and internationally.
 
The NSG has committed to provide training to 20 000 public servants in areas of Leadership, Management and Administration and 32 600 of the newly appointed public servants on the Compulsory Induction Programme for the financial year 2016/2017. The commitment was exceeded as 55 904 learners were trained through face-to-face and online interaction.
 
The NSG piloted two open online courses whereby public servants take responsibility of their own learning.  The online courses enable the NSG to reach a large number of public servants in a short period of time, reduce costs for delivering training and allow learners to enrol for the course at their own time and pace.  This online platform realised an intake of 18 000 public servants. The NSG is considering rolling out more online courses, focusing on the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and the National Development Plan, among others.
 
Honourable Chairperson
 
The NSG has developed a suite of Ethics and Anti-corruption programmes in collaboration with the Department of Public Service and Administration. These programmes are aimed at creating an ethical organisational ethos in Departments as well as capacitating officials to implement the Public Service National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
 
A total of 295 public servants have been trained for the 2016/2017 financial year, bringing the total trained to 7 056 since inception in 2010. Furthermore, the NSG launched an online course on Ethics in the Public Service in September 2016 to give effect to the constitutional obligation for public service employees to uphold ethics and integrity, as well as to promote the Code of Conduct as contained in the Public Service Regulations, 2016.   Thus far, 1 000 public service employees have enrolled for the course.
 
Professionalisation of the public service is not only limited to lower levels of employees nor new entrants to the system.  Executives and senior managers need to keep abreast with developments around their areas of scope and to this extent, the NSG has developed Executive Induction Programme.
 
Honourable Chairperson
 
As a government training institution, the NSG is directed to design, develop and facilitate a compulsory induction programme for all newly appointed Directors-General and Heads of Department from both National and Provincial spheres.   The Executive Induction Programme (EIP) for salary levels 15 - 16 was piloted in March 2016.
 
We are pleased to report to the house that on 9 March 2017, the NSG held a successful inaugural launch of the Executive Induction Programme (EIP) targeted at Directors-General and Deputy Directors-General.  The goal of the EIP programme is not only to familiarise participants with their specific work environments but also to inspire participants to build a public service which responds effectively and collectively to their task. It is about building a capable and committed Public Service cadre with the necessary knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to do their job effectively. The launch attracted departmental Heads from various provinces. 
 
It ensures a comprehensive understanding of the state machinery and its policies supporting the developmental agenda.   Since its establishment, the National School of Government has focused on ensuring that Public Servants on all levels across the spheres of Government are appropriately inducted in the values and principles of Public Administration enshrined in Chapter 10 of the Constitution.
 
In 2016, we reported to this House that the NSG will commence with the implementation of compulsory development, mandatory training days and minimum entry requirements for Senior Management Service.  We are proud to announce that the NSG has commenced with the roll-out of the Compulsory induction programme for senior managers at salary levels 13 - 14.
 
Honourable Members
 
In August 2016, the NSG entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the South Africa Local Government Association (SALGA) to collaborate on areas of capacity building in local government.  The MOU also provides for collaboration in, inter alia, public lectures and/or leadership platforms for reflection, utilising local and international experts, targeting mayors councillors and top leaders in local government; and induction programmes for councillors and senior managers to promote the narrative of back-to-basics in municipalities.  The collaboration between the NSG and SALGA is currently cementing efforts to professionalise the local government sector. 
 
A total of 312 trainers trained by the NSG inducted the new councillors from August to October 2016. The 312 trainers are now being professionalised by the NSG to receive accredited trainer qualifications at the Education, Training and Development Practice Sector Education Training Authority (ETDP SETA) in preparation for the further training of councillors in portfolio-based training courses as part of the back-to-basics strategy.
 
In a further measure to capacitate training at the NSG, in February 2016, Cabinet approved the use of retired and serving public servants as trainers in the NSG. This initiative will be piloted with the implementation of the CIP for public servants. It enables public servants to add value to the public service. They will impart their experience, expertise, skills and knowledge to mentor, coach and train the public servants. This initiative will further improve in an efficient and cost effective manner the quality of the services we give to the public.
 
The Rutanang Ma Afrika Campaign includes the utilisation of retired and in-service public servants.  Retired public servants refers to those individuals who are no longer employed by the State, but have proven themselves in the delivery of services to the people of South Africa and whose expertise and experience can be utilised.  These individuals will be utilised as independent contractors. 
 
In-service public servants refer to public officials who are currently employed by the State. These officials will enter into an agreement to provide education and learning with the NSG through their releasing department. Currently the NSG has commenced with the recruitment drive for the Rutanang Ma Afrika campaign.
 
Honourable Chairperson
 
We live in global world as such, we need to benchmark and also exchange ideas with other countries on how they capacitate their public servants.    It is against this background that the NSG entered in a five-year partnership with the Chinese Academy of Governance (CAG).   Through this agreement, 29 senior managers have already completed the CAG / NSG programme. For the financial year 2017/2018 senior and middle management will be trained at CAG by both South African and Chinese experts who will develop a common curriculum that will be delivered at the NSG.
 
On the other hand, the European Union (EU) is funding the NSG with an amount of R10 million to support the Public Service Training and Capacity Building Programme. It is a multi-year programme covering the period 2014 - 2020 and is endorsed by the National Treasury.
 
As a country, we are not selfish about the knowledge and systems that we possess and as such, we do share these with fellow African countries.  The NSG has contributed towards the skills development and capacity building in countries such as Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo. 
 
The NSG is also a member and Secretariat of the African Management Development Institutes Network (AMDIN).  The school participates in initiatives championed under the Strategic Technical Committee of the African Union (AU STC). The AMDIN Secretariat is in discussion with the UNDP Independent Evaluation office (IEO) to sponsor a programme on popularisation of the Charter on Principles and Values of Public Administration with its member states. Popularisation of the Charter training will first be conducted for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
 
The School has, in association with the Technology Innovation Agency, partnered with the American University, Washington DC, to offer a Master Instructor Train the Trainer Programme. The Foresight, Innovation, and Leadership Programme: Aligning and Building for South Africa was developed by the Institute for Leadership Development in Africa in collaboration with the American University.
 
The ten-day programme synthesizes theory and experiential learning together with unparalleled program content to develop participants’ insight, team building competencies, influencing capacity, and their ability to engage and empower others. The Program is designed to instill both a mindset and the needed behavioral competencies to enable participants to better address the increasingly complex regional challenges they face. The first training took place in December 2016 with 36 learners trained by American University and NSG.
 
 
Honourable Chairperson
 
As I conclude, I wish to reiterate that we have a mandate and an obligation as the Ministry of Public Service and Administration to ensure that we deliver an efficient, effective and development-oriented public service.
 
This is in line with the vision of an inclusive, united and a democratic South Africa that President Tambo who we honour this year, advanced throughout his political life.
 
History will judge us harshly, should we fail to build on the gains of our hard earned liberation to bring a meaningful change to the lives all citizens of our country. As the public service, we are central in bringing about this change. The trajectory has been set for us, and all we need to do is to thrust in this righteous path that has been directed by our great leaders.
 
I thank you.