Good afternoon,

Ministers and Deputy Ministers

Directors-General and Programme Managers

Members of the media

Ladies and gentlemen

This Report focuses on Outcomes 9 and 12 led by the G&A Cluster which seeks to achieve the following:

• Service delivery quality and access;
• Human resource management and development;
• Business processes, systems, decision rights and accountability;
• Corruption tackled effectively;
• Nation building, national identity and civic empowerment; and
• Public participation and creation of social capital.
• Improved access to free basic services
• Improved co-ordination of intervention impacting on local government.

 

As we pay tribute to those who contributed to the liberation struggle as well as those who laid the foundations for our freedom in 1994, work has already commenced on a statue of our beloved Madiba to be unveiled at the Union Buildings in December 2013.

The DAC has initiated a process to review the White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage that has been the guiding blue-print for the arts since the advent of democracy.

As part of providing access to most of the South Africans, to Government and its facilities, the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) has worked on the Use of Official Languages Act which took effect on the 2nd of May 2013.

This Act enforces Government to provide services in three of the most used Official languages in each of the provinces.

In terms of these regulations, each national government department and its national entities must have a National Language Unit and adopt a language policy within eighteen months of the commencement of the Act.

The DAC has gradually been transforming the heritage landscape of this country with accomplishments that include:

• The 4th Phase of Freedom Park, //Hapo; the 2nd Phase of Ncome Museum, e Matola Memorial and the Interpretation Centre in Maputo, Mozambique which speaks to the raid of the South African regime in 1981 during which they killed South Africans and supportive Mozambicans.
• The Steve Biko Centre‘s huge community resource centre was built in honour of the iconic freedom fighter and leader, Steven Bantu Biko, who was killed 36 years ago by members of the South African regime.

In a few months, South Africa will celebrate 20 Years of Freedom on 27 April 2014. As we celebrate, this is an opportunity for us to reflect on what we have achieved since the dawn of democracy and how best to improve the living conditions of our people in pursuit of the National Development Plan.

Once again, we take this opportunity to call on all South Africans to timeously apply for IDs to enable them to exercise their democratic right to elect a government of their choice.

We call on all our people, particularly the youth of our country, to register to vote this weekend, on 9-10 November 2013, as proclaimed by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). Holders of both the current green-bar coded IDs and the Smart ID card will be eligible to register and vote in the 2014 National Elections.

This afternoon we reflect on the implementation of the Delivery Agreements by the Governance and Administration (G&A) Cluster.

 

When this administration took over we committed ourselves to ensuring that government gets value for money it pays to its public servants. In turn government will provide a conducive working environment to public servants, ensuring that they have all resources required to perform their work at levels expected of them.

In this regard we undertook amongst other things to develop a Service Charter and establish the National School of Government. The successful launch of the National School of Government and the signing of the service charter with labour strengthen our efforts to build an efficient, effective and development-oriented Public Service.

The implementation of the Charter will raise the standard of service delivery experience and further improve on the progress we have made in the first 20 Years of Freedom.

Cabinet recently approved the Public Administration Management Bill for the submission to Parliament. The Bill covers among other things the following:

• Prohibiting public servants from doing business with the state;
• Disclosure of financial interest;
• Establishment of the National School of Government;
• Establishment of the Public Administration Ethics, Integrity and Disciplinary Technical Assistance Unit; and
• Establishment of the Office of Standards and Compliance.

The Public Service Integrity Management Framework was tabled in Cabinet on 16 April 2013 with the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) having developed a set of guidelines to support the implementation of the Framework.

In collaboration with the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), the DPSA has developed the eDisclosure System for the capturing and management of financial disclosure, which will keep a database of disclosures used by the Executive Authority, the DPSA and the Public Service Commission (PSC).

This is to monitor compliance, verify information and determine potential or actual conflict of interest. 

Efforts to improve the effectiveness of the State Information Technology Agency have resulted in 8.4 per cent savings in economies of scale.

On matters of Human Resource Management and Development, the percentage of Senior Management Service (SMS) members Financial Disclosure forms filled with Public Service Commission on time increased from 74 per cent in 2012/13 to 85 per cent in 2013/14.

The average number of days taken to resolve disciplinary cases improved slightly to 108 days as at June 2013 from 113 days in March 2013. Notwithstanding the progress, this output still requires the attention of senior management in government.

The target for the average time to fill vacancies in the public service was set at 4 months for 2014 and it has already been achieved. The target for vacant funded posts in the public service was also set at 10 per cent for 2014 and it has also been achieved. The vacancy rate as at the end of May 2013 was 8.6 per cent.

Progress with regard to the output on Business processes, systems, decision rights and accountability; indicates that Quarterly Strategic Human Resource Performance Reports, for each National and Provincial department, were compiled and disseminated as a mechanism to improve PERSAL functionality.

The Cluster has made major inroads in improving service delivery including:

• A decrease in processing of social grant applications from 30 to 2 days;
• 92% resolution rate for received calls to the Presidential Hotline by June 2013;
• Drop in invoices not paid within 30 days from 82 685 in February 2013 to 69 825 as at the end of May 2013;
• Cases from the National Anti-corruption Hotline closed by departments improved marginally from 39 per cent in February 2013 to 37 per cent as at 15 July 2013.

We envisage the delivery timeframes as set out in the Charter will improve the national average turnaround time to reduce waiting times for renewal of drivers and car licences; and increase the efficiency in the processing of permanent residence permits applications.

In this regard the permanent residents’ backlog project is progressing well since its inception in September 2013. The Department of Home Affairs has adjudicated 10 720 applications out of 23 945 that are in a backlog stage.

The Department of Home Affairs has established a permanent residence project to ensure that all applications which are over eight months are adjudicated within twelve weeks. Additional human resources have been put into the project to clear the backlog by December 2013.

The temporary residence area has stabilized after the clearing of a 46 000 backlog in 2012. Currently there are 54 641 approved but not yet dispatched. This represents a backlog of permits that must be dispatched to offices of application. A plan will be implemented to address this backlog of applications that have been adjudicated.

In an effort to enhance security and productivity, permanent resident permits will in the near future be printed, unlike the present practice of issuing handwritten certificates.

Also temporary permits, including asylum seeker permits and refugee permits will in future be electronically printed.

 

The final Local Government Equitable Share formula (LGES) which caters for a model for financing that is conducive to, and allows recognition of the varied social, economic, technical and administrative contexts of municipalities, was approved by Cabinet, and published in the 2013 Division of Revenue Bill.

Twenty five municipalities with small towns as well as 55 rural municipalities have gained more than 10% (compared to what they were receiving previously) in their 2013/14 LGES allocations. Sixty six of the 70 rural municipalities B4 - and 12 of the 21 water and sanitation  - C2 - municipalities have benefited from the new formula. The project has been concluded.

There are an increasing number of households with access to basic services:

• 89.43% of households now have access to basic electricity, indicating an increase of 8.43%; There is marginal improvement of 1% on access to basic level of sanitation, from 85% recorded in the 4thquarter of 2012/13 to 85% during this quarter.

The Community Work Programme had created 204 494 work opportunities as at 31 March 2013. During this quarter 184 339 participants - 7% over target - enrolled for the Community Work Programme. The current overall participation rate is 175 966 – 2% over target. A site with a target of 500 participants has been introduced. Recruitment and placement will continue to ensure that the programme maintains the targeted 172 000. An additional 9 sites were up-scaled to operate with 1500 participants. In total, formal budgeted up-scaling achieved in 18 sites operates with 1500 participants, 6 sites operate with 2000, 1 site On deepening democracy through a refined ward committee model the Department of Cooperative Governance managed to assist in the establishment of additional 506 ward level operational plans and also facilitated implementation in 40 municipalities across 5 provinces (Western Cape, Limpopo; Northern Cape; Free State and North West).

Administrative and financial capabilities of municipalities are enhanced with the average collection rate on billing of services improved. Government debt owed to municipalities has been recorded at a net reduction of R250 million.

In order to establish evidence based information to support coordination and cross-departmental interventions, the Municipal Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) was finalised. 

 

CONCLUSION

In pursuit of accountable and transparent governance, our objective is to inform the public of the progress made through you, the media.  To assist you, we are available to respond to questions related to our report. 

I thank you

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For Enquiries: David Jacobs, Acting Chief Director: Governance and Administration Cluster Supervisor

083 681 8904, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Issued by: Government Communications (GCIS)

07 November 2013