SDR Vol5 No3 2006.qxp - DPSA

IPSP CLOSURE

S E N I O RM A N A G E M E N TS E R V I C EC O N F E R E N C E

B A T H O P E L EL E A R N I N GN E T W O R K

K N O W L E D G EM A N A G E M E N TI N D A B A

SKILLSKNOWLEDGELEARNING

Vol. 5 No. 3 2007

9 771681 782004

I S S N 1 6 8 1 - 7 8 2 6

A l e a r n i n g j o u r n a l f o r P u b l i c S e r v i c e M a n a g e r s

S e r v i c e D e l i v e r y

Service Delivery Review is published by theDepartment of Public Service and

Administration

Each of us is a knowledge worker anda learning champion in this knowledge

economy. We all have a role to play in turningthe Public Service into a “Learning Public

Service for Quality Service Delivery”. Let uspursue this ideal by using the Service Delivery

Review as a facility for sharing ourexperiences, successes, mistakes and

methodolgies and for growing ourown intellectual capital

Managing Editor Thuli Radebe

Editor Christian Stephen

PublisherSTE Publishers

on behalf of the Department of Public Service

and Administration

DesignMad Cow Studio

ISSN 1681-7826

Editorial team Nsizwa DlaminiThuli RadebeDudley Moloi

Bongani MatomelaPierre SchoonraadZwelakhe Tshandu

Send all your comments and editorial

correspondence to: [email protected]

Each of us is a knowledge worker and a learning champion in this

knowledge economy. We all have arole to play in turning the Public Service

into a “Learning Public Service forQuality Service Delivery”. Let us pursuethis ideal by using the Service Delivery

Review as a facility for sharing ourexperiences, successes, mistakes andmethodolgies and for growing our

own intellectual capital

We belong,we care,we serve

Printed by Seculo Tri-Web

Volume 5 No. 3 2007

Opinions expressed in this journal are not those of government but

reflect the views of individual writers

ContentsIssuesPioneering the needs of our citizen 12Purpose and objectives of the SMS Conference 20On planning and strategies: The case of eThekwini Municipality 24Repositioning the government machinery for poverty alleviation 30Leadership and professionalism for SMS members 32Investigating the criminal justice system 37Results on basic needs 42Infrastructure investment roll-out challenges 46Is government optimally poised to acheive set objectives and targets in time? 48JIPSA’s role in the broader ASGISA programme 52Social aspects of building a competent, responsive and representative labour force 54The business sector’s role in accelerating growth 56The imperative of Batho Pele in a pot of transitions 59Purpose of the Batho Pele Learning Network 62The “Mystery” of Knowledge Management 80Getting KZN’s arts and culture in order 112Assessing capability in the public sector 114Peer review and the legacy of learning from each other 122The 2006 Public Service Week: A Batho Pele Revitalisation Initiative 126

Case StudiesPoverty alleviation in rural China 17Moving towards the 2015 Millennium Goal Targets to address skills shortages 27Some thoughts on the governance and administration cluster 40Creating a centre for excellence 64The UK Charter Mark system: Lessons for the South African public service 68Kimberley’s Breastfeeding Mother’s Lodge 70The implementation of Batho Pele by the eThekwini Municipality 73Improvement of Filing System at Rob Ferreira Hospital 76“South Africa, alive with possibility” Building national pride 78Knowledge services: The “Why” of Knowledge Management 86Knowledge Management for development 96Establishing a SA National Centre for Informatics and Knowledge Management 99Skills development for growth: A local government perspective 104

ProfileMaking a healthy hospital 108

RegularsFrom the Editor’s Desk 2Letter from Tshwane 4News in Brief 9Book Reviews 131Odds & Ends 132

F r o m t h e E d i t o r ’ s D e s k S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

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It is easy for members of the public to complain about servicedelivery. There are many stories in the media about longqueues at Home Affairs or overcrowding at hospitals and it

is almost habitual for people to join in the general complaintsafter one bad experience, or even without having had a badexperience.

It is harder for members of the public to understand theimmense amount of work that is going in to improving servicedelivery – from the planning to the practical, and making surethat it is all sustainable. This is why for somebody notemployed full-time by the Department of Public Service andAdministration it is fascinating to be involved with this jour-nal. Editing all these articles gives me an “insiders” view of thedepartment’s work. Having access to information that is notnormally readily available to the general public reveals exactlywhat is being done to improve the lives of all South Africans:from the long-term planning for sustainable development andmanagement of knowledge at national level to the nitty-grittyof delivering services at a rural hospital.

Being exposed to all the problems, plans and solutions makesit easier for the public to understand the public service – andhow to become involved in improving the quality of life intheir communities.

So communication is a vital part of service delivery. Publicservants need to communicate with their colleagues: makingplans, finding solutions and sharing experiences. And thenthere is communication with the clients: telling people whatservices are available and how to access them and consultingcommunities about their particular needs.

As this journal is for senior managers, there are plenty ofarticles in each edition about the theory behind the manyaspects of service delivery and the planning that has gone intovarious projects. But often it is the personal profiles and “reallife” case studies that offer the most interesting insights into thepractical side of service delivery.

There is a lot to learn from the everyday experiences of theCEO of the Helen Franz Hospital (page 108). How to use lim-ited resources to provide the best service for the community,and probably most important of all, what to do when only onewashing machine is working or the boiler breaks down.

Another interesting example of innovative problem-solvingis the Breastfeeding Mothers’ Lodge at Kimberley Hospital(Page 70) which provides a place for the mothers of hospi-

talised children to stay nearby. The international case study ofChina’s poverty alleviation programme (page 17) is also a fasci-nating insight into this vast nation.

These down-to-earth case studies provide practical experi-ences that civil servants can apply in their own situations. Theyalso help members of the public understand the real problemsinvolved in service delivery. However, it is also important thatthe articles dealing more with the theory behind aspects ofservice delivery and the planning process involved in variousgovernment initiatives reach as wide an audience as possible.

And it is here that mention must be made of that dreadedword “acronym”: a word formed from the first letters of otherwords. To many it is a convenient and quick way to refer togovernment departments, units, jobs or programmes. But tothose who are not as immersed in this way of communicatingas civil servants are, acronyms are like faulty stop lights. Just asthe driver makes stop-start progress from faulty light to faultylight so the reader of an acronym-filled article makes jerkyprogress, stopping often to work out the meaning of eachacronym. It might be easier to sign up for a decoder.

In an article headlined “SOS from these acronymaniacs” inThe Weekender newspaper recently, journalist Rehana Rossouwwrites about the abundance of acronyms citing a certain organ-isation on whose website there is one document that has “noless than 29 abbreviations and acronyms”.

We can take some slender comfort from the fact that “thispsychosis is not unique to SA”. Rossouw writes: “The PlainEnglish Campaign in the UK, dedicated to ensuring citizensunderstand government officials, reports that after a localauthority found 27 acronyms in four paragraphs, they made aNew Year’s resolution to give it up. “I support the AmericanAssociation Against Acronym Abuse. AAAAA pretty muchsums my reaction to acronymaniacs.”

It might seem shorter and simpler, but this “twelfth” lan-guage of South Africa doesn’t necessarily make communica-tion easier or more efficient. Good communication is just oneof the many skills needed in the public service. And as some ofthe articles in this edition emphasise, a skilled labour force isvital for service delivery. And a skilled labour force is alwaysseeking to find and retain new knowledge and to learn fromthe experiences of others. There can never be enough skills, toomuch knowledge or an end to learning.

Christian Stephen

Communication skills

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An edited version of the speech delivered by Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Minister of Public Service and Administration at the Anti-Corruption Forum on 28 February 2007.

Corruption takes place at the interface between the publicand private sectors. It is essential to recognise this indeveloping a common understanding and approach to

corruption. The corollary of this argument is that effective anti-corruption strategies must be designed to both enhance democ-racy in the political sphere as well as corporate governance inthe private sector.

Corruption has been manifest in all historical epochs. By sit-uating corruption in its historical context and by linking it tothe unregulated and regulated markets of capitalism, national-ly and globally, we are asserting that corruption is more than therelationship between the bribe giver and the bribe taker. It hashistorical roots; it is systemic and goes beyond the individual tothe structural and the institutional levels.

By asserting that corruption is rooted in the unbridled forcesof the market and in the pursuit of profitability we are in factsuggesting that corruption, often seen as “the price of doingbusiness”, must not be viewed as an intrinsic element of thevalue system of democratic capitalism.

Unsettling the North and South discourse

The discourses of both North and South need to be rethoughtin this light. One focuses on the corrupted, the other seeks tofocus on the corrupter, but both ignore the complexity andnuance surrounding the structural relationships which areembedded in the political economic interface.

This is the political economy of corruption, wherein corrup-tion is symptomatic of the current conjuncture of globalisation.It is in this conjuncture that multinational corporations andindividuals can take advantage of vulnerable states, erodingvalue systems and where possessive individualism overrides anysense of the common good.

Corruption engenders perverse political dependencies, lostpolitical opportunities to improve the general well-being of thecitizenry and fosters a climate of mistrust particularly of publicofficials.

The losses that accrue from a culture of permissiveness withrespect to corruption include a loss of revenue, loss of trust, lossof values, loss of credibility and legitimacy and a loss of thedemocratic ethos and impulse within institutions and organisa-tions.

A 2002 World Bank report on corruption puts the financialcosts of corruption at $148 billion a year, and increases the costsof goods by as much as 20%. Certainly the beneficiaries are fewand the victims are the many – and the report notes that thepoor are the hardest hit.

It is critical for us to develop a common understanding of cor-ruption based on a conception of the “common good”. Thisderives from the state’s special obligations rooted in what wecall the “People’s Contract”. This binds the elites to the massesand lays the basis for leadership qualities that require the pro-motion and articulation of values and principles of professionalethics by leaders.

Under conditions of democracy, the state needs to take thelead in combating, preventing, managing and eliminating cor-ruption. The political cost of corruption is that it underminesdemocracy, weakens the developmental state and underminesresponsibility, accountability and legitimacy.

Towards a commonunderstanding of

corruption in Africa

In eroding the “People’s Contract”, corruption alienates citi-zens from the very officials they have elected and also alienatespeople from each other. Corruption weakens democraticprocesses, public order and undermines the ability to fight forreform.

Corruption destroys trust and erodes both the sense of globalcitizenship and the sense of shared responsibility as well asnational citizenship and the sense of social cohesion.

The state has the responsibility for securing the conditionsunder which development takes place and security is ensured.Where states are undemocratic this proposition becomes prob-lematic, as the ruling groupfrequently abuses state powerin the interests of narrow sec-tional concerns. This promotesneither development nor secu-rity but creates the conditionsunder which corruption and socalled predatory states flourish.

We have the opportunity atthis conference to share ourexperiences, our successes andour frustrations in dealing withthe challenges of corruption.The theme of the conference,“Towards a CommonUnderstanding of Corruption”,is also a call for us as Africansthroughout the continent towork together to tackle thisscourge.

Corruption anddevelopment

Developmental states are aboutthe interface between the polit-ical, economic and bureaucrat-ic elites. Democracy keepspoliticians honest and account-able while sound corporategovernance and systems ofaccountability keep the economic and bureaucratic elites hon-est.

Central to the developmental state is the strong interfacebetween key state actors, institutions, business and civil society.As the developmental infrastructure is created, the interfaceintensifies, and there must be requisite levels of trust to ensurethat public goods and resources are well managed and notsquandered. The critical interfaces between politics, economicsand the bureaucracy must be kept clean.

Critical to this is firstly reclaiming a value system that sees theindividual as part of a broader community. In the South Africancontext we talk about ubuntu. In kiSwahili we talk about uja-

maa, the values that relate to neighbourliness and utu, possess-ing the values of a human being, humanity and co-operation.

The word ubuntu comes from the Zulu and Xhosa lan-guages. A rough translation in English could be “humanitytowards others”. Ubuntu also means, “I am what I am becauseof who we all are.”

The Zulu maxim is umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (“a personis a person through other persons”). Ubuntu is “the belief in auniversal bond of sharing that connects all humanity”.

If we take the second meaning of ubuntu we realise that ifone in our community or our society is corrupt, then we are all

affected. If one is in need weare all in need.

So by combining the manycomplementary meanings ofubuntu, we are in fact sayingthat we are human by virtue ofdoing for others and not justourselves. This must be theessence of a value system thatunderpins our commitment toanti-corruption.

This is the spirit we mustcontinue to encourage in allsectors of our society. This isthe spirit that is necessary forthe creation of a socially cohe-sive and inclusive Africa.

Secondly, we need strongrobust democracies where allsectors of society, including themedia and organisations ofcivil society, private sector,trade unions and faith-basedorganisations have a responsi-bility to educate and promotethe values of ubuntu and anti-corruption.

Thirdly, there is the need forthe establishment of a profes-sional meritocratic public serv-ice that is able to uphold the

values and principles of democracy, good governance andubuntu.

Government intervention in the economy to promote devel-opment implies extensive interaction between politicians,bureaucrats and business people. The interaction could take theform of collaboration, collusion and corruption, or all of these.

The experience of developmental states across the globe hasproblematised the close relationship between government andbusiness. It can be seen as benign collaboration or crony capital-ism or corruption.

In pursuing a development agenda the collaboration betweengovernment and business is critical, because information

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Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi


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exchange is a prerequisite for effective policy formation andimplementation. A professional, meritocratic bureaucracy is akey condition for preventing collaboration from degeneratinginto collusion and corruption.

But the bureaucracy itself must also be steeped in a strongcode of conduct and a code of ethics. These codes need to beimplemented and rigorously enforced. Similar codes must beestablished, implemented and rigorously enforced for electedofficials and for the corporate sector.

Corruption undermines growth and development by divert-ing resources away from development programmes thusincreasing poverty, inequality and underdevelopment.Corruption is therefore a critical channel through whichinequality undermines economic growth.

It is important to note, however, that developmentalism andstate intervention do not necessarily lead to increases in corrup-tion, although some forms of state intervention may lead to cor-ruption.

The sale of state properties, extensive ownership by the stateof large corporations, the favouring of big conglomerates, andthe manner in which some huge tenders are awarded to nation-al and or international bidders has led to corruption in somedevelopmental states. Nevertheless, linking the extent of stateintervention or the scale of state participation in the economy tocorruption is highly problematic.

There are objective factors which determine the levels of cor-ruption beyond the simplistic notions that state intervention ineconomic development produces corruption. Corruption ismore likely to be found under conditions where policy failureshave increased redistributive pressures to address inequalitythan where development policies have been successfully imple-mented by a meritocratic bureaucracy, thus decreasing inequal-ity.

The deepening of democratic institutions is likely to reducecorruption due to enhanced monitoring and accountabilitymechanisms. These are critical elements of National Integritysystems that link values and principles of good governance withthe institutional structures and practices that give effect to thesevalues.

Nationality Integrity Systems

Good governance is a prerequisite of preventing and combatingcorruption; while the scourge of corruption undermines goodgovernance. Corruption can therefore be viewed as a gover-nance challenge.

The concept of a National Integrity System is fundamental tothe development of an anti-corruption discourse. It comprisesthe building blocks necessary for the long-term fight againstcorruption and other forms of unethical and anti-social behav-iour. Its core elements are constituted by a society’s value sys-tem.

The National Integrity System’s values must permeate thestructures, practices and principles of the state, the corporate

sector and civil society. These values include accountability,transparency, equity, efficiency, developmentalism, and funda-mental rights and freedoms including freedom of speech, accessto information, democracy and participation.

The successful practice and implementation of a NationalIntegrity System is predicated on strong leadership and the abil-ity of leaders to set a vision, based on the values of the society.Governments can create a National Integrity System infrastruc-ture with laws, systems and structures, but ultimately thereneeds to be on the part of leadership a voluntary submission toa higher code of probity, which goes beyond strictly legal pre-scriptions.

This submission to a moral code ensures that institutions donot become vacuous without direction or purpose. Ethicalbehaviour, while highly desirable, respected and valued, cannotbe assumed. This is why specific measures and institutions tosafeguard integrity and to promote ethics are necessary.

The lack of these measures and institutions, or their ineffec-tive implementation and functioning, opens the way for allmanner of unethical behaviour, including corruption.

The values expressed in the National Integrity System needto permeate all institutions of state, the corporate sector andcivil society, and specific measures or actions relating to anti-corruption need to be identified within particular institutions.

A National Integrity System therefore provides the institu-tional and philosophical basis for both enforcement and preven-tive action against corruption.

Towards a broader definition of corruption

Thus far, corruption has largely been perceived as an Africanand “developing south” phenomenon. Definitions of the prob-lem have often been limited to the abuse or misuse of publicpower or resources for private benefit, thus focussing on thebehaviour of politicians and those in the public service.

Corruption and bribery have also frequently been used inter-changeably and in a manner that conceals that bribery is a two-way transaction involving both bribe givers and bribe takers.There has also been a projection of particular societies or peopleas endemically corrupt, so that an outsider is required to paybribes in order to conduct legitimate business.

There has also been a tendency to propose solutions andstrategies for combating corruption as apolitical, largely legalis-tic and technocratic, devoid of ideology and values, while ignor-ing the value laden definitions and perspectives of those whodefined the problem and prescribed the solutions.

The result of this approach is that the role of the private sec-tor is rarely addressed, and the prevalence of corruption in thedeveloped north, if noticed at all, is perceived as an aberrationor deviation from the norm.

Yet our experience has been that corruption is prevalent inboth developed and developing countries. People occupying thehighest political offices have abused their offices for private gainor to further their own personal or political party’s ambitions.

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Many corruptors have been exposed. Legal action by govern-ments, including that of Lesotho, has led to international corpo-rations being found guilty of paying bribes.

Globally we have witnessed the abuse of political power andresources for personal benefit and for ruling elites, at theexpense of ordinary citizens, including shareholders, privateclients, workers and the poor. We have also seen abuse by therich and militarily strong countries that promote their own ide-ology, and impose leaders on others.

This is done in pursuit of their own national interests at theexpense of the populations of entire countries and regions whilein the process weakening multilateral co-operation and institu-tions.

South Africa understands corruption to be a societal problem,which affects all sectors of society differentially. Over and aboveour common colonial experience, the experience of apartheidexposed us to the reality of systemic corruption, which infusedthe entire society and was usedto sustain those in power.

The collusion of the elitewith the ruling party amountedto a takeover of the state. Thesecurity of the state and protec-tion of the rulers shaped theinstitutions as well as policies ofgovernance and conditionedthe behaviour of politicians,diplomats, business people andthe security services.

Apartheid was a criminalsystem and was maintained bycriminal means, with scantregard for public or privatemorality, or respect for human life. The activities of agents ofthe state were unconstrained, institutions lost their legitimacy,and growing numbers of citizens abandoned previously accept-ed norms of behaviour as they were required to condone, ratio-nalise and legitimise injustice and oppression.

Repositioning the discourse on corruption requires us to gobeyond the simple corrupter-corrupted relationship. Currentdiscourses privilege one or the other and focus on the percep-tions of one or the other. It is far more useful in developing acommon understanding to focus on the interface between poli-tics and economics.

It is the premises identified earlier that provide the basis for afar more rigorous conception of corruption.

As we have argued throughout, a broader conception anddefinition of corruption must recognise that corrupt practicestake place in the interface between the public sector, the privatesector and even the civil society sector.

The African Development Bank (ADB) has gone a long waytowards articulating a common definition of corruption byarguing that corruption is a cross-sectoral and cross-boundaryactivity, and involves practices such as theft, fraud, bribery,

extortion, nepotism, patronage, and laundering of illicit pro-ceeds.

Private sector corruption is as serious as public sector corrup-tion, and the costs are just as great. The ADB also points us tothe reality of Grand Corruption, that stems from the interfacebetween the private and public sectors.

It is also important to acknowledge that corruption is notrestricted to purely commercial transactions but may also bepresent when citizens seek to access social services such ashealth, welfare and education services. A bribe may be demand-ed by a public official in order to deliver the service or grantaccess to the service to which the citizen is entitled, and whichthe public official is obliged to deliver.

The failure to deliver leads to a culture where citizens feelforced to offer bribes in order to receive that to which they areentitled, hence strengthening a climate of corruption.

A more appropriate definition of corruption including theseadditional facets of the problemis proposed to enable Africancountries to individually andcollectively develop targetedstrategies and practices to com-bat corruption as it confronts us.

Such a definition may see cor-ruption as a transaction orattempt to secure illegitimateadvantage for national interestsor private benefit or enrichment,through subverting or suborn-ing a public official or any per-son or entity from performingtheir proper functions with duediligence and probity.

We need to reflect on this definition in order to collectively asAfricans build democracy in our respective countries and pro-mote economic growth and development in order to create abetter life for all our people. We need to understand how cor-ruption flourished under colonialism as well as in the post-colo-nial period.

We are now able to recognise that corruption has implicationsfor the commercial gain and benefit of its protagonists whilesimultaneously undermining democracy. Corruption compro-mises democratic political process and generates apathy and dis-engagement amongst citizens.

In developing an African conception and understanding ofcorruption, we need to recognise the colonial legacy and itsimpact on the coloniser and colonised alike.

The principles of democratic administration, transparency,accountability and the rule of law form the basis of a more com-prehensive understanding of corruption. Within the public sec-tor the South African ethos of Batho Pele, “citizens first”, isbeing progressively entrenched amongst public servants toensure that they become service oriented and understand theirrole in providing essential services to the people of South Africa.

The time has now comefor action and

implementation: we needto focus on practicalaction and share our

hard-won experiences ofbest practice


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Their efficiency and effectiveness in rendering these servicesis critical in giving substance to the expectations of the people,and enabling the state to promote the conditions for develop-ment that will eliminate inequality and alleviate the plight thepoor.

The philosophy of ubuntu as articulated in South Africa findsresonance across the African continent. This philosophy doesnot represent values that are exclusively South African. It con-tributes towards a definition of the common good at a broadercontinental level.

Traditional African society was forged on the basis of com-munal values. This contrasts with the values of rampant freemarket capitalism under globalisation which emphasise indi-vidual wealth acquisition.

This is why we need to reflect on the functioning of ournational, regional and global political economies. In doing so weneed to understand the objective social forces that shape ournation states, our regions and our continent and the materialcontext in which corruption occurs.

The purpose of this analysis is to enable us to design andimplement appropriate structures and strategies to combat cor-ruption, and not to shift the blame for corruption to externalforces.

The market fundamentalism of contemporary global capital-ism and its atomising effect has created the conditions underwhich corruption flourishes. Self-interest has taken precedenceover the collective good. Our people no longer see themselves asan integral part of their communities with the attendantresponsibilities that this entails.

The state has a critical role in counteracting these tendenciesthrough democratic practice. At the core of defining the com-mon good lies the need to bind the elite and the impoverishedthrough the implementation of a People’s Contract. The com-mitment to development, alleviation of poverty and the reduc-tion of economic inequality lies at the heart of a contractbetween the government and its people.

Corruption undermines the ability of the state to meet itsdevelopment objectives. A People’s Contract must thereforecontain effective regulatory frameworks and mechanisms forthe creation of sound National Integrity Systems.

The state plays a central role in binding the political and eco-nomic elites to the masses of the people. This can be achievedthrough the articulation and agreement of a set of commongoals for the common good. By creating the conditions foreffective implementation of a programme of action for the com-mon good, the state must entrench the links between the elitesand the masses.

There is an onus on leadership to articulate and sketch avision based on the values of a society and to design pro-grammes to give meaning and content to this vision. Strongleadership in all sectors - political, economic, administrative andcivil society - must be based on integrity and through examplemust give concrete expression to the codes of good practice con-tained within the National Integrity System.

There has been extensive debate on what needs to be done inorder to tackle corruption and many initiatives have been takenat national, regional and continental levels. Sound frameworksare already in place.

The time has now come for action and implementation: weneed to focus on practical action and share our hard-won expe-riences of best practice.

Our approach needs to be multi-faceted and it is important toput in place anti-corruption strategies that consist of a myriad oftools to fight corruption. The strategies must look at preven-tion, education and awareness as well as detection and theenhancement of capacity of the law enforcement agencies andother institutions fighting corruption.

We need to examine how to counter corruption more effec-tively through co-operation and co-ordination including cross-border support. We need to operationalise our structures andlobby and pressure the countries of the developed world to sup-port our initiatives in order to close the loopholes that may existin their jurisdictions.

We must also take the opportunity of this gathering todevelop a plan of action that will serve as a guide as we con-tinue the fight against corruption. This plan of action mustinclude developing a methodology to measure corruptionmore accurately than simply relying on the “perception”indices that have dominated corruption and anti-corruptiondiscourse.

Once many low and middle income countries have beenlabelled and perceived as corrupt the “perception” is very diffi-cult to dislodge and their efforts at development are significant-ly undermined either by failure to invest or by disinvestment.Surely this cannot be right and “perceptions” ought not to dom-inate the development trajectory of particular countries letalone the development discourse writ large.

Conclusion

We can all agree that corruption undermines democracy andnegatively impacts on sustainable growth and development.The most effective antidote to corruption therefore has to be astrengthened National Integrity System that puts issues of goodgovernance in all the spheres of society (the political sphere, thecorporate sector and in civil society) at the very heart of the anti-corruption project.

The perception discourse that focuses on the corrupted andthe discourse of blame that focuses on the North do little to illu-minate the complexities hidden beneath the surface. They aresimplistic and glib and avoid a more holistic approach that isstructural and systemic and looks at social forces that are con-junctural.

A structural approach to corruption is a far better point ofentry into the debate for it locates corruption precisely at theinterface between the public and private sectors and thus allowsus to focus our attention more sharply on the critical issues thatconfront us in Africa today. •

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Eastern CapeFood Programmeto benefit over 15 000households

The Eastern Cape Government has setaside R69 million for the

Siyakhula/Massive Food ProductionProgramme (MFPP) to benefit morethan 15 000 rural households.

The Agriculture department reportedthat the total budget for the MFPP wasR61million for production and R8 mil-lion for administration for the 2006/07financial year.

Agriculture Department SeniorManager, Kay Yankee, said the fundswere allocated to the five district munic-ipalities in the Eastern Cape by UvimbaAgricultural Bank.

The five district municipalities areUkhahlamba, OR Tambo, Amathole,Chris Hani and Alfred Nzo. “421 MFPPprojects were implemented in the fivedistrict municipalities in an area totaling19 977hectares, for the benefit of 15 099households,” said Mr Yankee.

According to Mr Yankee costs of har-vesting are not provided for in the condi-tional grant, as the entire grant is forinput costs. "Harvesting expenses areprovided for from the proceeds realisedfrom the sale of crops,” he explained.

In terms of marketing their crops, hesaid, the Eastern Cape farmers signedforward contracts that allow for thededuction of harvesting costs. In addi-tion to the signing of forward contractsto traditional buyers of grain in theprovince, an initiative involving theEastern Cape Development Corporation(ECDC) and a commercial bank isunderway.

In her State of the Province address,Eastern Cape Premier NosimoBalindlela acknowledged thatSiyakhlula and Siyazondla FoodSecurity Programmes have benefitedmore than 15 00 households. “We willtarget 5 000 new households this year.Five irrigation schemes have been revi-talised including Ncora, Tyefu, Shilohand Qamata in the province,” said MsBalindlela

The main objective of the Siyakhula isthe production of the most importantgrain foods in the underdeveloped highproduction areas of the Eastern Cape.This is done through appropriate condi-tional investments to overcome chal-lenges that limit the effective use of nat-ural resources for food production.

Siyakhula refers to those individualproject areas that are less than 50ha inextent and are a step-up programme forcrop production that enjoy entry intocommercial cropping with greater con-ditional grant subsidy than for MassiveFood areas.

Based on sound crop rotation, theseareas can potentially and profitably sus-tain crop commodities including maize,sorghum, soya, canola, sunflower, wheatand other major crops such as potatoes,beans, cotton in order of 50 000-150 000ha per year.

This will provide adequate quantitiesof respective commodities for meaning-fully large agricultural commodity-based economy for these less developedareas of the province. "If you have a com-

modity you have an economy. No com-modity means no economy." The MFPPincludes Food Security, Rural EconomicDevelopment as well as ConservationCropping Practices.

Lucky Khumalo, BuaNews

SA’s GDP increases for the33rd successivequarter

South Africa’s real growth domesticproduct (GDP) has continued with

its upswing, registering yet anotherincrease for the 33rd consecutive quartersince 1998.

Figures released by Statistic SouthAfrica (Stats SA) on Tuesday show thatthe real GDP at market prices rose by anannualised 5.6 percent for the fourthquarter of 2006, far exceeding expecta-tions. The figure is up from a 4.7 percentrevised increase of the third quarter ofthe same year.

The corresponding real annualisedeconomic growth rates for the first twoquarters of the year were five percentand 5.5 percent. Economists had predict-ed that the figures were going to come inat only around 4.8 percent.

Stats SA said the increase in economicactivity for the period could be attributedto the manufacturing industry (1.4 per-cent) and the finance, real estate andbusiness industry (one percent).

Also contributing to the increase werethe wholesale and retail trade, hotels andrestaurants industries (0.8 of a percent-age point) and the transport, storage andcommunication industry (0.5 of a per-centage point).

Real value added by non-agriculturalindustries increased by six percent dur-ing the fourth quarter of 2006 while theyear-on-year GDP at market prices roseby 6.1 percent during the same period.

ABSA economist Chris Hart said the

N e w s i n B r i e f S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

10

real GDP figure came in higher than heexpected.

”We had expected a 4.8 percentincrease but this rise (5.6 percent) is goodfor growth going forward. It reflects thatthe manufacturing sector responds wellto the supply needs of the economy.”

Managing Director of SMM FinancialServices, Simon Mohapi, also expected a4.8 percent increase. “This shows thatthere is a good support level. It is a prom-ise for people to get good jobs,” he said.

Oupa Segalwe, BuaNews

Women’s empowermentkey to eliminatingpoverty – UN

Empowering the world’s women is akey factor that could help in the fight

against poverty, the United Nations hassaid.

The Secretary General's SpecialAdvisor on Gender Issues and theAdvancement of Women RachelMayanja said women’s empowermentcould also help fight discrimination,close educational gaps, decrease highmaternal mortality and alleviate othersocial ills. “Continued discriminationagainst the girl child, violence againstwomen, and low representation ofwomen in decision-making still posemajor problems in our societies,” she saidat the 51st Session Commission on theStatus of Women at UN headquarters inNew York.

"Despite several promising steps,including increased provision of micro-credit and the accession of several Statesto the Convention on the Elimination ofAll Forms of Discrimination againstWomen (CEDAW), challenges remain.”She also urged the commission to exam-ine the plight of women widowed byHIV and Aids, conflicts and natural dis-asters.

Many of these women, she said, didnot remarry, were unemployed and iso-lated from society, resulting in povertydisproportionately affecting them.

Among the almost 50 speakers at themeetings was the Executive Director ofthe UN Development Fund for Women,Noeleen Heyzer, who called for theimplementation and monitoring of pro-visions of treaties targeted at empower-ing women.

Another speaker, Carmen Moreno,Director of the UN InternationalResearch and Training Institute ofWomen, asserted that women must havegreater decision-making power at alllevels. “It can happen in the household orin politics to allow both governmentsand societies to be more responsive totheir needs,” said Ms Moreno.

This year, the commission is introduc-ing new work methods by focusing onone key theme, the elimination of allforms of discrimination against girls,during this session, which will last from2007 to 2009.

BuaNews

Treasury DGpaints a pictureof ‘fiscal space’while outlininggrowth challenges

Growth challenges for the SouthAfrican economy are to increase

exports, produce more unskilled jobs,raise levels of productivity and minimisebureaucratic red tape around businessdevelopment, Director-General inNational Treasury, Lesetja Kganyagotold MPs recently.

Along with Finance Minister TrevorManuel and South African RevenueService Commissioner Pravin Gordhan,Mr Kganyago was briefing the PortfolioCommittee on Finance on the 2007Budget presented by Mr Manuel.

Describing the growth challenges as“straightforward”, Mr Kganyago addedthat these measures would be the onlyway of ensuring that South Africa meetsthe Millennium Development Goals ofhalving poverty and unemployment by2014.

Increasing exports required an appro-priate strengthening of industrial policy,he said, while adding that a regulatoryimpact assessment unit was being estab-lished in the Presidency to look at waysof reducing the regulatory burden onbusinesses.

The performance of the public sectoralso needs to be strengthened, he said,adding that the underlying strength ofthe economy and the “solid fiscal posi-tion that we find ourselves in” hasenabled government to continue to growexpenditure at nine percent in real terms.

“Revenue has grown even faster inrecent years, hence a fiscal position thatproposes a surplus for forthcoming fiscalyears [of R5.3 billion – 0.3 percent ofGDP in the 2006-2007 financial year –and 0.6 per cent in 2007/08],” he said.

Generally, households and govern-ment have been in “a laager” in terms of

11

their contribution to national savings,Mr Kganyago said. But in the first quar-ter of last year government had begun to“turn the corner”, becoming a net saver,adding that government's net savingswould continue over the medium term.

Increases in capital expenditure rela-tive to current expenditure and a broad-ly balance budget would continue toimprove national savings, he said,adding that state debt costs would con-tinue to decline, to just about 2.1 per centof GDP by 2009-2010.

Now that this “fiscal space” had beencreated as a result of the solid macro-eco-nomic and fiscal management policiespractised by government over the pastyears, the question now was: “How dowe utilise this space?”

One of the first “fruits” of this positionwas net tax relief of over R12 billion –with R8.4 billion of this provided to indi-viduals – and the reduction in theSecondary Tax on Companies with itsreplacement tax on dividends bringingthis down to 10 percent from 12,5 per-cent.

“In the main here, the biggest benefitfor the relief has actually been incometax given to individuals,” he said.

With other beneficiaries of this fiscalspace being investment in the 2010 FifaWorld Cup, the government was “begin-ning to strike the balances right” becausenow spending on supporting infrastruc-ture is larger than that actually beingspent on stadiums.

Cost of stadiums have been containedto the R8,4 billion previously set aside forthis, while an extra R2,3 billion has beenadded to the spending on public trans-port infrastructure, boosting this fromR6,7 billion to R9 billion. Overall, the2007 budget adds R89,5 billion to the for-ward estimates, Mr Kganyago said, withR544,6 billion being provided for in2007-2008.

And growth in investment across theeconomy continues to grow. It increasedby 11,7 percent in the first nine monthsof 2006, and as a percentage of GrossDomestic Product it rose to 18,4 percent,keeping investment growth well withindouble-digit figures.

Growth in non-agricultural sectors ofthe domestic economy has remainedstrong, with fast-growing sectors includ-ing the construction, financial and trans-port sectors. If one strips out the agricul-tural and mining figures from the over-all domestic picture, “you will actuallyfind out that the economy is alreadygrowing at a rate that is faster than 6 per-cent which is what we are targeting from2010”, Mr Kganyago said.

In the meantime, inflation expecta-tions remain within the targeted band ofbetween 3 and 6 per cent throughout thecurrent focus period ending in 2009/10.

Shaun Benton, BuaNews.

North West toimplement poverty alleviation strategy

The North West provincial govern-ment is to implement its newly draft-

ed poverty alleviation strategy thisfinancial year.

Delivering her fourth State of theProvince Address, Premier EdnaMolewa confirmed that the strategy,which was drafted last year, would alsobe incorporated into the ProvincialGrowth and Development Strategy.“This is largely aimed at benefitingrural community-based projects andalso helping emerging cooperatives,”said Premier Molewa.

The strategy forms part of the govern-ment's mission of helping communitiesbecome independent, self-sufficient andsustainable. Implementing the povertyalleviation strategy will require theestablishment of a Poverty AlleviationFund, in an effort to improve the quali-ty of life for rural communities.

The fund will assist in creating mar-

ket access for products and servicesoffered by small, medium and microenterprises and create business linkages.Ms Molewa said that in line with theAccelerated and Shared GrowthInitiative of South Africa, the provincialgovernment had expanded EarlyChildhood Develop-ment servicesaround the province.

To date, 105 new ECD centres, orcreches, have been built and 23 morehave been approved for subsidisation inline with Expanded Public WorksProgramme's mandate. “This pro-gramme takes a developmentalapproach and focusses on how toaddress the needs of children accordingto specific ages,” said Premier Molewa.This is part of the programmes outlinedby President Thabo Mbeki in his ninthState of the Nation Address in February.

The ECD, Mr Mbeki said, is one ofthe social sector programmes for thisyear, whose expansion as part of theEPWP is geared towards improvingaccess to the general education system.Reviewing progress made last year, MsMolewa commended the major contri-bution made by the interdepartmentalEPWP projects in Modimolla andModimong towards eradicating povertyand creating jobs.

A total of 7 441 job opportunities havebeen created by the two projects sincethey began two years ago. “These twoprojects bear the necessary fruits byequipping our people with skills whilstgiving them some employment,” saidthe premier.

The R22 million Modimolla agricul-ture an road construction project recent-ly won two Impumelelo nationalawards. “Given the exceptional per-formance of these two projects weintend to extend similar projects inTosca area in this 2007/2008 financialyear,” said Ms Molewa.

Future projects will include road con-struction, road maintenance, villageaccess roads, agricultural initiatives,ensuring household food security andbuilding community halls.

Lehuma Ntuane, BuaNews

N e w s i n B r i e fS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

12

Civil servants have a

crucial role to play in

turning the Age of

Hope into a time of

real achievements for

the people of South

Africa, writes Deputy

President Phumzile

Mlambo-Ngcuka

Pioneering theneeds of our

citizens

Sen ior Management Serv i ce Confe rence

In any country, the civil servants as themachinery of the state provide thecapacity for the state to fulfill its man-

date to the citizens. This governmenthas promised “a better life for all”,which implies incremental and tangibleimproved circumstances at a very per-sonal level for citizens. We have prom-ised that we will accelerate delivery,which implies that we have to adopt afaster delivery model. We have alsoadmitted that we have room to improveon the pace at which we deliver services.

In his 2006 State of the NationAddress, our President outlined the pro-gramme of action for the year, for all ofus, saying, “Clearly the masses of ourpeople are convinced that our countryhas entered into its Age of Hope. Theybelieve that the country they love, theironly homeland, will not disappoint their

expectation of an accelerated advancetowards the day when they will be liber-ated from the suffocating tentacles of thelegacy of colonialism and apartheid.”

We are referring to the hope and trustthat the people of South Africa have putin us because they know what we candeliver. Their trust and hopes are allpinned upon us. As the Methodists sayin one of their popular sung prayers,“Siyakudumisa – Nkosi ngithembelekuwe mandingaze ndidaniswe.”

There is indeed a price to pay indashed hopes, our legitimacy and theimpact of our past successes are min-imised. Our people have always seen usas bearers of good news. It is a threadthat runs through the complex garmentof our country’s history.

When the legions of freedom fighterswent through the dark valleys of injus-

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

13

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

14

tice and oppression, the penetratinglight of hope carried them through andshowed them the way to the promisedland of freedom, which South Africahas become.

Theirs was hope born out of a belief inthe justness of their cause, born from therealisation that their power lies in themobilisation of the collective moralityand energies of ordinary South Africans– black and white. There has alwaysbeen hope and trust in the inherentgoodness of most South Africans.

Our history is full of examples ofwhen collective hopes were expressed attimes when there were so many oddsagainst us. Statements of hope and unityin action were demonstrated at greatcost. People proceeded to work hard torealise these dreams such as theFreedom Charter in 1955, the women in1956 and the youth in 1976.

It is this same audacity of hope and ayearning for justice which led thelegions of our women to march toPretoria 50 years ago and warned, “Youtouch a women, you touch the rock, youwill be crushed”. That has enabled somany of our people to continue to puttheir hopes on us and on you.“Bathembele kithi mabangadaniswa!'”

In the bitter winter of June 1976 thesame audacious hope propelled theschoolchildren of Soweto to face downthe barrel of the gun in pursuit of free-dom and human dignity. They hopedthat freedom would deliver a new socie-ty for them even if they had to die tomake their point. We are the State theyfought for and we carry their hope andtrust.

It is this triumphant march of hopeover despair, which – amid predictionsof doom and gloom – ushered SouthAfrica into a country alive with possibil-ity in April of 1994. Now our peopleneed to enjoy the fruit, our youth neednot die but need to have their genuineand reasonable needs addressed.

All the sacrifices that made 1994 pos-sible now fall on us to turn into realachievements. Hopes in 2006 cannot belike the hopes and sacrifices of 1955,1956 and 1976 because now the cries are

not falling on deaf ears. It is the hope we refer to when we say

our country has entered into the Age ofHope. You are the hope. Our people arenot pinning their hopes on market out-look but on a government that cares forthem and has the will and a lot of meansto help them.

History has entrusted us with aresponsibility to ensure that their hopefor a better life is realised and we darenot disappoint them in that regard. Ifwe fail them, ithemba labo liyobaphi?

Unprecedented successes andchallenges facing the state

The senior managers in governmenthave a significant role to play in ourattempts to improve the delivery of serv-ices. When addressing this very gather-ing of senior civil servants, Minister ofFinance, Trevor Manuel, said: “You (assenior managers gathered here) carrythe hopes and dreams of a nation. Youstand at the coalface of a struggle that isimmense, challenging and fraught withdifficulties. For this reason, the respon-sibility you bear goes far beyond whatsenior civil servants in most countrieshave to contend with.:

For we are at a crossroads, either toascend to be a winning nation and fulfillthe aspirations of our people; or if wefail to rise to the challenge, our countrywill deteriorate into the state of under-development and we will lose our com-petitive advantage.

Let us remember that every decisioncommitted or omitted helps to con-tribute to or compromise the attainmentof our collective goals. Indeed, we oughtto be proud of the strides we have collec-tively made since the dawn of freedom12 years ago.

For instance, beneficiaries of socialgrants increased from 2,6 million in1994 to 9,7 million in June 2005; housingbeneficiaries increased from 325 086between 1994 and 1998 to 1,6 millionbeneficiaries in 2005.

In addition, as of March 2004, 42,7million people out of an estimated 47,1million population (or 91% of the popu-

lation) had access to basic water supplyinfrastructure or a higher level of servicesuch as water in-house or in a yard.

The electrification programme mustrate as one of the most significantachievements by this country andunprecedented internationally, as 3,5million homes have been electrifiedsince 1994. This translates into over 435 000 homes per annum. By May 2005,access to electricity was estimated at71%.

These are record achievements by anystandards, which are unparalleled in thehistory of this nation and many develop-ing nations in the world. It is theseachievements that have given rise to theAge of Hope. People know we can do it.However, those who still wait for theirturn are impatient and desperate; forsome our delivery, may already be toolittle too late.

In that regard, universal access tobasic services has to be achieved in tar-geted time. The first decade of freedomwas about breaking the back of massaccess to services; the second decade hasto be about universal access to these crit-ical services.

Universal access must mean all SouthAfricans must access basic predictableand reliable service levels in the keyareas we have already committed to:universal access to water, sanitation andenergy. This country can close this samegap for all of our people.

Let us remember this is the least wecan do to share the benefits of democra-cy in a growing economy. For peoplewithout water, sanitation and reliableenergy sources are those who have noone to turn to but us. What use isgrowth to these people? They need anddeserve, “Dignity! Life! Oppor-tunities!” Sanitation is dignity, water islife and energy brings opportunities.

We know that despite many positivechanges too many of our people aretrapped in gripping poverty, in a pros-pering society. Our response has been toprovide a safety net – through free basicservices and grants, which are govern-ment’s biggest poverty alleviation initia-tive although it is not sustainable.

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

15In the context of a developmental stateas against a welfare state, we need tofind a concrete path to make grantrecipients who are healthy and of eco-nomically active age convert grants to“starter packs” for self-development, tomove on to a guided and enforced pathof skills acquisition, self-improvementand self-reliance.

In every family that has been classifiedas extremely poor we need to see if it ispossible to invest in at least one familymember who can redefine the socio-eco-nomic path of that family throughmeaningful work or education.

Developmental state

The Accelerated and Shared GrowthInitiative for South Africa (ASGISA)has to be seen in that context of buildinga developmental state – a state that isfoscussed on redistributing the benefitsof growth. ASGISA is also about: paceof delivery; size of intervention, i.e. massdelivery as against pilots; taking advan-

tage of low hanging fruits/easy but sus-tainable victories; efficiency and opti-mising use of state machinery; and part-nerships.

ASGISA is meant to take correctiveactions in those areas where we havestopped or slowed down the countryfrom realising higher levels of growth. Ina do-nothing scenario and at the pace atwhich we currently work, and at the levelof leakage of value from the state anduneven degrees of dedication to service,the age of hope could be a fantasy.

As the state, our contribution togrowth was 15% of the GDP in 2004/05.Can we improve it? Through ASGISAwe must practically increase our contri-bution to GDP and reduce leakage.

We have chosen the interventions thatwe will make through ASGISA torespond to the identified constraints toshared growth. I must also restate thatASGISA is not about new policies butabout implementing existing policiesbetter. ASGISA interventions are in thefollowing areas:

• infrastructure; • delivery and governance; • impact of the second economy; • skills development; • sectoral development; • provincial interventions; and• macro-economics.

We now face challenges of imple-menting these responses to the bindingconstraints; as public servants we have todeal with responses that speak to usdirectly as members of the SeniorManagement Service and as public rep-resentatives: • on the Macro Economic-Budget

Planning and Financial Management(skills);

• on infrastructure – processing of con-tracts, on time and within the budgetand with jobs and the management ofconsultants (skills);

• delivery and governance – corruptionand dedication to service (skills);

• second economy – policy vacuum,dedication to servicing the poor, ourinterventions are still very limited;

• skills development through JointInitiative for Priority SkillsAcquisition (JIPSA), South AfricanManagement Development Institute(SAMDI) and other means whichimpact on potential for sustainable jobcreation; and

• sectoral development and the implica-tions for jobs. Other challenges which are inhibiting

greater success, and that need us in gov-ernment to be honest about, include:lack of a sense of sense of urgency, abusiness as usual approach vs accelera-tion; resistance to integration and co-ordination; disregard for Batho Peleprinciples in pockets of the service; lim-ited interventions which lack massiveimpact; greater need to target especiallyyouth and women; and effective moni-toring and evaluation and working inagreed timeframes.

If we do not overcome these chal-lenges we become a binding constraintto ASGISA, but I am hopeful thattogether we will overcome. This gov-ernment has set a core objective of halv-ing poverty and unemployment by 2014.We can create more opportunities also inthe public service, especially for youngpeople. In our internship and learner-ship programme, we can do more

Does performance evaluation ask theright questions? As senior managers youhave to take performance managementand evaluation seriously and ask theright questions so as to intervene andtake corrective action or the challenge tohalve unemployment and poverty by2014 will not be achieved – not withouteffective socio-economic leadership.

We also need effective partnershipsbetween government and other keystakeholders such as organised labourand business. A lot of groundwork hasbeen done for the needed partnerships.

Building a skills reservoir

Further, we must address the skills chal-lenge in society and within the state.While there are many skills require-ments, some have been identified as pri-orities for economic growth and devel-

opment in the short to medium term. They include the acquisition of inter-

mediate artisan and technical skills forthe infrastructure development pro-gramme; the development of informa-tion and communications technology(ICT) skills, which is a cross-cuttingneed in ASGISA but also for theBusiness Process Outsourcing (BPO);the recruitment, training and employ-ment of unemployed graduates for someof these shortages and training at higherlevels; and the skills needed for the sec-

tor e.g. tourism, BPO, bio-fuels, agrometals and chemicals as well as small,medium and micro enterprises (SMME)development.

In the short to medium term, we alsoseek high-level, world-class engineeringand planning skills for the transport,communications and energy industries;city, urban and regional planning andengineering skills; management capaci-ty in education and health; teachers ofmathematics, science, technology andlanguage competence all in the publicschooling system.

SMME development as a componentof the second economy is a make orbreak factor for ASGISA, includingaccess to finance and building produc-

tive capacity of the SMMEs. How weuse preferential procurement and howwe pay SMMEs are all sharing issues forus. If we get it right we will be betterpositioned to challenge the private sectorwhen they underperform.

Senior management in the publicservice together with educational insti-tutions have an important contributionto make to achieving the goals ofASGISA, for instance contributing crit-ically in guiding and steering skillsacquisition in the country; and ensuringthat the educational institutions arecapable of effectively carrying out theirduties in order to promote the nationalstrategic objectives of the country – pro-ducing people with the ability to be pro-ductive beyond being educated.

While actual growth may not be ourbiggest challenge, “sharing and acceler-ating” it is.

I would like to highlight some of thepotential high impact government-ledinitiatives that can make a big differencewhile upholding a developmental state.They are the Extended Public Works;universal access; human resource devel-opment; Small, Medium and MicroEnterprises; national youth servicedevelopment; support for the growthsectors; and targeted support to women.

We should, however, always keep inmind that there is no substitute formobilising our people to work togetherto meet these challenges. The best placeto start with this mobilisation is in moti-vating at our own work places and pro-moting Batho Pele. Let us make surethat people who work with us come towork on time, do their work diligently,and treat the public with respect andhumility.

Conclusion

Let all of us pledge that from now on wewill never tolerate the abuse of resourcesand office for private gain. Our people’shope must not be shattered. If we dothat, we will have taken our collectiveeffort to halve poverty and employmentby 2014 a great leap forward in our rightas a state. •

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

16

Let us make sure

that people who

work with us come

to work on time,

do their work

diligently, and

treat the public

with respect

and humility

I n t e r n a t i o n a l C a s e S t u d yS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

17

Mr Wang Shi-Ting,

Councillor of the

Chinese Embassy,

outlines lessons to

be learned from the

successful poverty

alleviation

programme in

China

Poverty alleviationin rural China:

Capacity-building and development strategy


Iintroduce this paper by offering itsstructure so you get an indication ofwhere it is heading. I will start with a

general poverty alleviation backgroundand situation in China. This will be fol-lowed by a discussion on major policiesand measures taken to alleviate poverty,mainly through capacity building. I willthen offer a case study which is based onthe Agriculture Technology ExtensionSystems (ATES) in China. I will thenmove on to a discussion on lessonslearned from poverty reduction prac-tices in rural China. The last section ofthe paper will focus on challenges facingrural poverty alleviation.

Background to povertyalleviation in China

In the past China has had the highestpoverty stricken population in theworld, which in 1975 stood at 250 mil-

lion. However, in the past two decadesChina created what can be termed the“anti-poverty miracle” where in 2004the number people subjected to povertywas reduced to 26 million. During theperiod from 1978 to 2004 China, there-fore, saw its share of the population liv-ing under conditions of poverty fallingfrom 30% to 2.8% of the total popula-tion.

This is incredible and means thatChina has achieved the first MillenniumDevelopment Goal of halving povertyahead of the scheduled 2015.

Major poverty alleviation policies

There were about four critical stages inpolicy development with regard topoverty alleviation in China. The firstpolicy was the Structural ReformPromotes Poverty Relief which guidedinitiatives from 1978 to 1985.

I n t e r n a t i o n a l C a s e S t u d y S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

18

In 1978, the population subjected toconditions of poverty numbered 250million which was 30.7% of the totalpopulation. The main cause for this wasthat the operation system in agriculturedid not suit the needs of the develop-ment of productive forces. In 1978,therefore, the reform replaced the col-lective management system of the peo-ple’s commune with the household con-tract responsibility system which liberat-ed the productive forces. From 1978 to1985 the number of poor peopledecreased from 250 million to 125 mil-lion.

The second stage involved the passingof the Large-scale Development-orient-ed Poverty Relief Drive policy whichoperated from 1986 to 1993. China wasmarked by uneven development.Moreover, a number of low-income peo-ple could not meet their basic needs.

In 1986, important measures weretaken including the establishment ofspecial help-the-poor work units, allo-cating special funds, formulating specialfavorable policies, reforming traditionalrelief-type poverty reduction approachand putting forward the development-orientated policy.

As a result of these, numbers of poorpeople in China dropped from 125 mil-lion to 80 million with an annualdecrease rate of 6.4 million on average.The number of poor people in ruralareas decreased from 14.8% to 8.7%.

The third stage involved tackling keypoverty challenges through develop-ment-oriented measures during theperiod 1994 t0 2000. It also involvedrural China poverty reduction anddevelopment of the programme whichstarted in 2001. Its completion is sched-uled for 2010.

After the great achievements of theLarge-scale Development-orientedPoverty Relief Drive, there were stillabout 80 million people subjected toconditions of poverty. The third stageprogramme was therefore designed toassist those people to escape povertythrough mobilising the forces of allwalks of life in society.

The fourth stage was in 2006, where it

was once again an all-round transforma-tion in the area of poverty reduction inChina. As a result of the above develop-ments the overall wealth grew rapidly asdid the disparity between rural andurban areas.

As a result, the Chinese government isfocussing on the new strategy which isto obtain a balanced developmentbetween the cities and countryside.Government therefore allocated 13.4billion Yuan (US$1.675 billion) to pover-ty reduction in 2006 alone and theamount will increase in subsequentyears.

The Agriculture TechnologyExtension System case study in rural China

The ATES was established in the early1950s by the Chinese government. Theirpurpose is to assist peasants to fightpoverty through capacity building inrural areas. During the initiative 185 000extension agencies and over 1.3 millionpeople were employed.

There is an extension agency at eachlevel from central government to thetownships. There are also 180 484 vil-lages with technology service teamsmade up of 700 000 technicians. In addi-tion, there are almost 150 000 specialistassociates with five million memberhouseholds with 2% of all rural house-holds in the countryside.

ATES is managed by the Chinesegovernment. Most of its employees aregraduates from professional trainingschools, colleges and universities thatoffer agriculture as a major course. Ithas three funding sources: government,project funds and income generated byenterprises set up by ATES agencies.

The approaches and methods used byATES can be divided into individualapproaches, group methods and massextension methods. Individualapproaches include interviewing peas-ants, consulting, working with modelhouseholds.

Group methods include trainingclasses and workshops, experienceexchange, on-site meetings, field visits,

competitions, technology contracting,project-based extensions, townshipgroup meetings and village technologymeetings.

Mass extension includes radio and tel-evision broadcasts, movies, videos, slideshows, magazines, technical informa-tion dissemination, newspapers, books,issuing instruction cards or booklets,advertisements and exhibitions.

Achievements of ATES

In the four years of Northwest ChinaAgricultural Development Project,ATES has introduced and developedalmost 100 agricultural technologiessuited to arid lands, provided agricul-tural training to almost 80% of the peas-ants in the project area and 100 000farming households received direct ben-efits.

The use of soil moisture increased by24%, whilst infestation of arable land bypests decreased by between 20 to 40%.

There are still some other impressiveachievements such as the increase ofproductivity and economic value of agri-culture products. Also the income ofpeasants has been significantlyimproved.

Lessons from the Chinaexperience

The first lesson is that there has to bebroad participation on matters regard-ing rural poverty reduction in China.Government took a leadership role inthis initiative through the LeadingGroup Office of Poverty Alleviation andDevelopment with a hierarchical struc-ture at national, provincial, prefectureand county government levels.

Poverty alleviation is therefore animportant part of the overall economicand social strategies of different levels ofgovernment. This has resulted inincreased investment in poverty allevia-tion initiatives. For example, between1986 and 2004 total budget support topoverty alleviation reached 112.6 billionYuan.

There also has to be social participa-


19

tion and international cooperation. Forexample, in China 15 eastern provincesand cities support 11 poor provinces inthe west. Furthermore, 116 nationalorgan and 156 state firms support 481key poor counties.

There are projects that have become

very famous like the GloriousEnterprises Programme, Hope Project,Happiness Project and the Women-ori-ented Poverty Alleviation Programme.

The third lesson is that our povertyalleviation initiative has encouragedself-reliance and orientation towards

economic development. We instilled thisidea in order to overcome the “wait,depend on and ask” phenomenon. Wetherefore encourage and establish a spir-it of self-reliance and hard work.

To cement this, the state council certi-fied 30 state-level training bases to helpthe labour from agriculture to non-agri-culture sectors. As a result, more than90% of peasants trained so far havefound non-agriculture employment.

The fourth lesson is that there has tobe an integrated development approachtowards capacity building. Poverty alle-viation has to be integrated with devel-opment of science, education, health andculture to improve the capability of thepoor.

Nine-year compulsory education hasto be universalised and illiteracy has tobe eradicated among middle-aged andyoung people.

The fifth lesson is that in order toreduce poverty faster, you need to beginwith agricultural reforms. The sixth les-son is that science and technology shouldbe sent directly to the rural poor. Onevillage should at least have college grad-uates and youth volunteers to serve inrural education which is aimed at pro-moting knowledge levels in rural areasand enhancing their self-reliance andself-development capabilities.

Conclusion

The experience and practice of povertyalleviation through capacity building inrural China conforms to the special con-ditions of China. The theory of Chineseexperience perhaps could be learned byother countries. However, it is not agood idea to simply copy the Chinesemodel. China would like to share theexperience with any other countries tofight against poverty and would like tomake a contribution in assisting otherdeveloping countries, especially Africanfriends, to realise the MillenniumDevelopment Goals.

We believe that the Summit of China-Africa will strengthen the Sino-Africarelations, especially in the areas ofpoverty alleviation. •

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

20Professor Richard M Levin: Director-General, Department

of Public Service and Administration, said the SMS

conference was as an opportunity to build broader

understanding among the SMS of the organisational

capacity needs of the developmental state

Purpose and objectives of the SMS Conference


Iwish to focus on some of the chal-lenges facing our senior managementservice in the current epoch.

Particular emphasis will be placed onthe capacity challenges facing the SMSto manage the delivery of quality servic-es to the public and the leadership qual-ities required to achieve this.

We also need to ensure that we areable to meet the capacity requirementsfor the implementation of theAccelerated and Shared GrowthInitiative of South Africa (ASGISA).

The role of the SeniorManagement Services

The SMS was created six years ago inresponse to the challenges facing thepublic service. The creation of the SMSwas a huge milestone in the history ofour public service which was intended inparticular to solve the problem of attract-ing and retaining effective leaders.

There is no question about the impor-tant role of SMS members as championsof service delivery who must ensure effi-

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

21

cient implementation of government’sprogramme of action.

Nevertheless, in spite of the tremen-dous progress that has been made overthe years there are still a number of chal-lenges that confront our SeniorManagement Service. Some of theseinclude: • Lack of relevant skills for the post in

which one is incumbent. (For exam-ple, a manager with a professionaldegree but in a largely administrativejob, which has no or limited links

with their professional skills and com-petence. This reflects a problem of anabsence of a professional service,which forces professionals to becomemanagers in order to secure careerprogression. In many cases we lose aprofessional and gain a poor manag-er.)

• Lack of skills to recruit and selectproper personnel.

• Lack of proper training and develop-ment to enhance performance. Oncethe manager is in the position often

they don’t undertake training to fur-ther sharpen their skills. Indeed thequestion of management develop-ment is far from settled and hopefullywill be discussed extensively duringthe course of this conference.

• Non-compliance with policy. Non-adherence to performance agreementsand proper utilisation of performancemanagement tools to enhance per-formance in the workplace.

The SMS conference offers the opportu-nity to focus our attention on importantchallenges that we face and exchangesome lessons and good practice on howto deal with these challenges. It alsooffers an important platform to recon-firm our role in meeting governmentobjectives; the implementation of whichrests squarely on us as senior managers.

It also offers us the opportunity aspublic service leaders to look at our-selves critically and ask whether wehave the necessary leadership skills andcapacity to drive the public servicetowards attaining the goals of the devel-opmental state.

Writing in 1978, Burns distinguishedbetween transactional and transforma-tional leadership. He argued that trans-actional leadership is characterised byinteractions where valued things areexchanged without any mutual pursuitof a higher goal. In contrast, transforma-tional leadership is characterised byengagements where “leaders and fol-lowers raise one another to higher levelsof understanding and morality”.1 Bassand Avolio argued in 1994 that transfor-mational leaders achieve superior resultsthrough: • being role models for their followers; • motivating and inspiring followers by

providing meaning and challenge totheir work;

• stimulating intellect by instillinginnovation and creativity; and

• focusing on individual needs forachievement and growth.2

One of the major aims of the SMS con-ferences must be to develop transforma-tional and inspired leadership that isable to innovate and think “out of thebox” in order to lead the delivery of

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

22

quality services that will contributetowards the achievement of the objec-tives of the developmental state.

This year’s conference deals with theneed to enhance capacity in order tostrengthen and accelerate service deliv-ery. This happens against the backdropof increasing pressure to improve gov-ernment services and modernise ouroperations.

This conference therefore shouldserve as an opportunity to build broaderunderstanding among the SMS of theorganisational capacity needs of thedevelopmental state. It should also leadto a direct improvement in govern-ment’s capacity to deliver on its objec-tives.

Building capacity for acceleratedservice delivery

There is acknowledgement that thecapacity of the public service to deliveron its objectives is seriously underdevel-oped and constrained by a range of fac-tors including: human resource manage-ment, planning and development, wide-spread gaps in quality and relevance oftraining and institutions, poor linkagesand partnerships between governmentand training providers and an inade-quate focus on norms, values attitudesand orientation of public officials.

Addressing the issue of training in thepublic service in March 2006, PresidentMbeki said, “In the coming year, theGovernance and Administration clusterwill focus on addressing those factorsthat are militating against successfulskills formation and elimination of skillsshortages in the public sector. Trainingis very often of doubtful relevance,rarely focused on carry-through impact,rarely accompanied by post-course sup-port and implementation; and oftenfacilitated or taught by people who havea very limited understanding of the pub-lic sector.”3

Building effective implementationrequires an appropriate and sensitivepublic sector Human Resource andDevelopment strategy. This shouldrefine and accelerate implementation of

government’s comprehensive, credibleand outcomes-focused programme forcapacity development within the frame-work of the public sector HRD strategy.

It should also improve the coherence,co-ordination and efficacy of all govern-ment’s policies, institutions and mecha-nisms involved in training and capacitydevelopment of the public sector.

While the emphasis in building capac-ity is largely focused on skills develop-ment, we need to remember that capac-ity is not only about skills. There areother key factors that can contributepositively to the dream of a more effec-tive public service.

One of these factors is putting in placesound regulatory frameworks thatensure stability and efficiency in the pub-lic service without creating unnecessary

red tape and service process blockages. For example, one of our original pub-

lic service reforms involved the decen-tralisation of the HR framework asarticulated in the White Paper onHuman Resource Management in thePublic Service, 1997. This move wasseen as a progressive step away from thecentralised control of the apartheid stateand was intended to empower managersto take the critical decisions that wouldlead to efficiency and effectiveness byunlocking rule-bound bureaucratic cul-ture we inherited.

However, with the benefit of hind-sight we discovered that decentralisationin, for example, determining sectoral jobgrading results in discrepancies andunnecessary internal competition as wellas inconsistencies in salary determina-tion for similar jobs so that the principleof “equal pay for equal work” is under-mined.

These problems occurred not onlydue to lack of proper regulatory frame-work but also due to the absence ofenforcement tools or punitive measuresfor non-compliance.

The absence of proper norms andstandards across the public servicewhich has arisen out of the decentralisedHuman Resource Management func-tion, including a decentralised job grad-ing system, has led to problems. Forexample, it has promoted job-hoppingand internal competition betweendepartments and provinces in therecruitment and retention of staff per-forming the same job functions.

The creation of and adherence tonorms and standards in areas like thejob grading system will undoubtedlyadd to the stabilisation of the publicservice and enhance our capacity todeliver.

The regulatory framework is oftencited as a reason for slow service deliv-ery, as red tape and bureaucracy slowdown implementation processes. Supplychain management has been identifiedas a delaying factor in the implementa-tion framework, either because the reg-ulations themselves are not fully under-stood, or because they are in themselves

Clearly, if we

want to deliver

efficiently and

effectively we

need to manage

our organisational

structures more

rigorously and

continue to

ensure maximum

alignment

between

structures, people

and development

goals

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

23

too cumbersome. Environmental Impact Assessments

were also seen as slowing down andcompromising local economic develop-ment projects and processes, but theDepartment of Environment andTourism has streamlined the regulationsin order to speed up developmentprocesses.

Another constraint on our capacity todeliver lies in inappropriate organisa-tional structures. Structures are oftencreated on the basis of the need to per-form certain functions without sufficientattention being paid to service deliveryprocesses. Many departments have notdesigned and documented their servicedelivery models, which should informtheir organisational structures.

In addition to this, organisationalstructures are not well maintained orrigorously managed. Vacancies arise,new posts are created without the aboli-tion of old posts and departments endup having numerous so-called unfundedvacancies. Personnel budgets are fullyexpended, but the Auditor General’sreports identify high vacancy levels aris-ing out of these so-called unfundedvacancies.

Clearly, if we want to deliver efficient-ly and effectively we need to manageour organisational structures more rig-orously and continue to ensure maxi-mum alignment between structures,people and development goals.

Another important factor that canconstrain or enhance the capacity of thestate to deliver is integration and co-ordination. The fragmentation of serv-ice processes has long been recognised asan impediment to effective and efficientservice delivery. Hence government hasseen the need to develop Multi-purposeCommunity Centres (MPCCs) in orderto ensure that a basket of governmentservices are concentrated in a singlelocation, and that location be as close tothe people as possible.

However, at an interdepartmentallevel more work needs to be done toensure that not only do we synergise butwe also create cooperative and inter-organisational networks that will

improve service delivery. The Single Public Service initiative is

aimed at improving service integrationthrough a comprehensive access strategythat aims at bringing service closer to thepeople in a coordinated way throughback and front office coordination. Weneed to ensure that we make optimal useof technologies in order to accelerate the

delivery of services to our people. Indeed, improving systems must be

seen as critical in the development ofcapacity to achieve our objectives. Whensystems are sound, efficient and stream-lined human capacity, whether skilledor with skills limitation, will in mostinstances become effective. This under-lines the importance of developing amultifaceted approach towards publicservice capacitation.

Conclusion

There is an old African proverbwhich says: “When the sun comes up,the gazelle wakes up knowing that itmust outrun the fastest lion or it will beeaten. The lion knows that it must out-run the slowest gazelle or it will starve todeath. So it doesn’t matter if you are agazelle or a lion when the sun comes up,you had better be running.”

This proverb might be used to describethe public service. The increased demandfor efficiency and the swift delivery ofservices to our people demands that assenior managers every day “when the suncomes up we had better be running”.

Even though acquiring speed in thecontext of the public service is not asstraightforward as the Serengeti, thegoals we set for ourselves in terms ofmeeting government objectives requireus to move faster.

We also need to take responsibility asleaders of the public service for embrac-ing a transformational culture thatencourages innovation and motivatesworkers. Above all, we need to remem-ber who it is that we serve.

One of our key strategic objectives forthe decade is to halve unemployment andpoverty by 2014. As mangers and leadersin the public service we are uniquelyplaced to make this ideal a reality.

As public service leaders, we need tolearn to serve with pride and humility.In the last six years we have travelled along way trying to change and improvethe way we do our work and the way weconduct ourselves when carrying outour duties. The challenge we are facingnow is to work better and faster so thatwe can succeed in developing our coun-try. We should work with pride, humil-ity and honesty. •

Endnotes:1 JM Burns, Leadership, Harper and Row, New

York, 1978. 2 BM Bass and BJ Avolio, Improving

Organisational Effectiveness throughTransformational Leadership, Sage, ThousandOaks, Canada, 1994.

3 ANC Today, Volume 6, No 10, 17-23 March2006.

One of our

key strategic

objectives for the

decade is to halve

unemployment

and poverty by

2014. As mangers

and leaders in the

public service we

are uniquely

placed to make

this ideal a reality

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

24

Dr Michael Sutcliffe,

City Manager of

eThekwini, outlines the

various strategies

involved in planning for

eThekwini: for now,

for 2010 and for the

long-term future

On planning and strategies

The case of eThekwini Municipality


Ihave divided this paper into two sec-tions. The first section deals with theIntegrated Development Plan (IDP).

As municipalities, our challenge is to fitour IDPs into provincial and nationalpriorities. The second section will touchon some of the strategic issues that arefacing us in our municipality.

Long term developmentframework

The work that we have been doing assenior managers in our city is reallyplanning within our terms of office. Wehave five-year contracts, so we say wehave a five-year plan and we build thatplan around ourselves. This is a wrongway to do planning.

What we have been doing over thelast 18 months are studies into long-termissues.

We posed the question: What will thecity be dealing with the in the year 2100?And then from that point we workbackwards and try to understand howwe deal with the big picture issues.Certainly in 2100 there will be three orfour issues, that if we do not startaddressing them now, a city manager in2100 will struggle.

The first of these issues is the issue offood security. This is because there is anincreasing number of people in ourcountry and southern Africa who do nothave enough food.

The second issue is clearly around cli-mate change. We are seeing that hap-pening already. Rain patterns are goingto be much more intense in our city withother parts of the country getting drywhich means we will have more peoplecoming to the eThekwini as well as oneor two other cities in our country.

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

25The whole urban infrastructure has to

change because of peak flows. Thosepeak flows will change dramatically aswe get intensive rainfall over shorterperiods and much wetter climates in thecity. The rise in the see level is going toimpact in the next 60 to 70 years alongour coastline.

The third issue has to do with thegrowing gap between the rich and thepoor. This is a worldwide trend. Thoseof us who have jobs are lucky enough tohave jobs. We know that there are anumber of people outside of that regularjob.

The fourth dimension of the 2100 per-spective is the issue of energy. We live ina world where almost 60% of the energysource comes from oil. In the next fewyears we have got to shift to energy sys-tems that are not dependant on oil.

These four issues, in the big picture,

are matters that we have to begin deal-ing with now. We have started sayingthat our service delivery programmesmust be thinking about the issue of foodsecurity, climate change, the growinggap between the rich and poor, and theissue of energy. We have thereforerealised that there are eight issues thatwe must confront.

Municipal strategic issues to be confronted

The first issue is what we see as the keyprogramme of sustainability. Ourapproach to housing development overthe last 10 years on the one hand hasbeen very successful (more than a mil-lion houses built) but on the other handit has been unsuccessful because we haveconflicts at a public transport level. Taxisput up prices because housing is located

too far away from the city, violenceerupts and the communities turnaround to the city and say we want rail,buses and we do not want taxis in ourneighbourhood.

So a densification strategy is veryimportant. For sustainability, we alsoneed to have a bulk infrastructure plan.Unless we deal with that densification,public transport and bulk infrastruc-tures holistically, we will not have a sus-tainable city.

In our city we have identified about 16areas including the Central BusinessDistrict where we are saying anythingfrom 200 000 to 300 000 householdsmust be housed in dense settlements ininner-city areas.

Of course conflict will emerge becausethere will be more black and poor peo-ple living places such as Umhlanga.Before 1994 black and poor people lived

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

26

in Umhlanga as servants, but now noneof them live there anymore. We have tostart creating, in such neighbourhoods,much more integrated housing. Wehave identified about 16 parts of the citywhere we have to densify.

The second strategy is the economicstrategy where we are focusing on sixareas. First, the port of eThekwini con-tributes 63% of the imports and exportscoming into southern Africa. So it ishugely important to the southernAfrican economy.

But there are all sorts of conflictsaround it. Trucks are always found inthe wrong places of our city. So how dowe get a better port/city plan going?

The second area is the promotion ofan eco-friendly tourism strategy. Howdo we make sure that our tourism is eco-logically sustainable, and not the kind oftourism that we promote today which isunsustainable?

Thirdly, the 2012 soccer World Cup isthe biggest event Africa will have with-in our lifetime. About 30 to 40 billionpeople with be watching South Africafor six weeks in three years’ time. It isthe biggest thing that all of us will befaced with delivering on.

In KwaZulu-Natal, about R10 billionadditional public funds will be spent oninfrastructure because of the WorldCup. This raises the whole level of whatwe have to do and we need service deliv-ery plans around that.

The fourth strategy is around indus-trial land which is hugely important.eThekwini is one of the few cities in thecountry where manufacturing hasincreased in employment terms over thepast 10 years. This has been declining inother parts of the country. Since we donot have enough industrial land avail-able, we need to develop strategies todeal with this.

The fifth strategy focusses on the issueof renewable energies. How do we shiftpeople from reliance on oil to a relianceon other forms of energy?

The last strategy under the economicstrategy is the logistics plans. The 2010World Cup will expose South Africa tomillions of people who will come to the

country during and after the event. Thisneeds a lot of infrastructure develop-ment in the city, in stadiums, heritageparks, heroes’ acres, all will be part ofthe up-scaling of public transport, portsfacilities, ICT development in andaround the city.

The third strategy is about improvingliving environments. This includesstreet naming which gives people anidentity. Today many of our formertownship areas are still named in the oldapartheid system. This will also assist usin Batho Pele when we know wherepeople in our city live.

It also includes the greening strategywhere we want to make sure that wehave a city that is much greener. We alsohave a housing strategy where we needat least another 220 000 houses to bebuilt for the true poor, let alone theyoung professionals who are earningbetween R3 500 and R10 000 a monthwhere there is no housing stock avail-able for them. The living environmentsstrategy also includes backlogs strategy.

Safety and health is the fourth of thesestrategies. We deal with HIV and Aidsand TB in particular which have a hugeimpact on our citizens. We are also keenon how we can use CCTV, not to catchcriminals, but to manage our city in abetter way by using them, for example,to identify if lights are going out and

when municipal workers are not work-ing.

Lastly, disaster management is a criti-cal part of what we do in all of our cities.

The fifth strategy involves empower-ing citizens. We have set three criticalfocal points in order to empower our cit-izens.

The first is to create what we call a“learning city”. Most of our relation-ships now are geared towards skillsdevelopment. It is also about turning thecity into a centre of learning. On a dailybasis we have delegates coming fromcities and countries around the worldwho talk to us about a range of issuesand experiences.

Most important here is how we bridgethe digital divide. In our city, for exam-ple, we want poor people to have accessto Internet connections. This willimprove the skills base.

The sixth issue is around governanceand there are two critical areas to focuson here. They include building a munic-ipal court so that we start having a dif-ferent kind of punitive system in ourcountry so that it is not about jailingpetty offenders, but getting correctivebehaviour going.

The governance strategy also includesthe creation of systems to deal with mal-administration and corruption. This isbecause we know that this continues.We need to be sure that we are monitor-ing what is happening.

The seventh is the finance strategy.This includes the valuation of propertiesand dealing with what is called “greenprocurement”. We are much more con-scious of procuring in a way that doesnot destroy the environment.

Conclusion

Clearly there is still a long way to go foreThekwini. However, we hope that withthe plans and strategies that we have putin place we will be able to confront issuesthat are facing us and make sure that,come 2100, eThekwini will be in a posi-tion to effectively deal with challengesthat will emerge during this period. Thissaid, the present is also very important. •

How do we makesure that our

tourism isecologically

sustainable, andnot the kind oftourism that wepromote today

which isunsustainable?

S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

27

C a s e S t u d y

Duncan Hindle,

Director-General of the

Department of

Education, examines

that much-used phrase

“skills shortage” and

steps that are being

taken to address this

Moving towards the 2015Millennium Goal Targets to

address skills shortage


In India they have a very large publicservice, but have a particular categoryof the public service called the

Covenanted Public Servants. It is anelite group, more like the SeniorManagement Services (SMS). In fact youhave to write an examination in order tobecome a Covenanted Public Servant.

The notion of “covenanted” is veryimportant as most of us know the termfrom a religious sense of a real, solidcompact with a higher authority in someway. The key question in the examina-tion to become a member of theCovenanted Public Service is simply,“Do you enjoy the exercise of power?” Ifyou answer yes to this question, then youare out of contention. They said, “Wedon’t want people who enjoy the exer-cise of power. We want people whoexercise power because of obligation,duty and sacrifices.”

It is an extraordinary thing and I amnot sure if we want to go that route inSouth Africa. With this as an introduc-tion, we need to ask, what is the nature

of our senior management? Who are weserving and how are we doing it? Weneed to ask ourselves if we do enjoy theexercise of power, and if we do, whetherwe are in the right place in our SMS.

Targeting goals under our control

Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) are important targets we haveset and agreed to. We should note thatMDGs can mean different things to dif-ferent people and are certainly open tointerpretation. I am therefore not surethat they provide us with the focus theywe need at this stage as a country.

One of the goals is halving poverty.This usually triggers debates aboutpoverty, its meaning etc. How will wemeasure if we have halved poverty? It isa very difficult thing to try to do.

It is a lesson that we learned frommanaging the Human ResourcesDevelopment Strategy (HRDS) for thecountry which was launched in 2003. Inthat HRDS we set two overarching

C a s e S t u d y S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

28

goals – to improve the HumanDevelopment Index (HDI) and to striveto decrease the Gross Domestic coeffi-cient within South Africa which is par-ticularly high. The difficulty of course isthat these two things are dependant on arange of variables. Many of these vari-ables are not necessarily under our con-trol.

As a result, in a particular year wethought we had made some advances –we anticipated that South Africa’s rank-ing in the HDI would improve dramat-ically, but were disappointed. This wasbecause although there were incrediblegains that we had made, there wereother factors such as the prevalence ofHIV and Aids in the country whichdrew us down a couple of positions inthat HDI.

We realised then that setting high tar-gets which are in a sense not in your ownhands to either achieve or not achieve isa good thing but it is not sufficient. Werecognise this and the review of theHRDS is now focused on targeted goalswhere we can make a differencetowards achieving or not achieving, andcan be held accountable when thosegoals are measured.

What I want to do now is pick up twophrases from the title of this paper anddiscuss them. The first one is the phrase“moving towards” and the issue of skillsshortage which is the responsibility ofthe Department of Education in partic-ular.

Unpacking “moving towards”

The issue of “moving forward” is onethat we acknowledge as a critical issue inall our planning processesw. We need tobe able to measure whether or not weare moving forward and the paceinvolved. We do need to have focus, anidea of where we want to go and as Isaid the MDGs keep us pointed in theright direction. That is a good startingpoint, but certainly not enough.

The MDGs give us direction and makeus know where we are going, but we alsoneed a much more systematic approachin how we move towards the targeted

goals rather than leaving it to 2015. Over the last 10 years we as govern-

ment have learnt a lot about strategicplanning and I believe we need to usethese lessons to ensure that we continuewith that movement in the right direc-tion using mechanisms such asProgrammes of Action, government-wide monitoring and evaluation systemas well as our own departmental moni-toring and evaluation exercises.

At the Department of Education weare doing our work with the MDGs inmind. However, we are doing so at avery detailed sector level. In our sectorwe had the advantage of the declarationsand commitments that were made inDakar in the year 2000. This committedus to a number of specific items withineducation that would contributetowards the achievement of the MDGswhich included universal primary edu-cation and gender parity in schools.

On most of these issues South Africahas advanced indeed. We certainly haveuniversal primary enrolment. We alsohave 85% enrolment in our secondaryschools and gender parity is addressed.These are helping us to translate the bigvision of the MDGs into something spe-cific.

In a quantitative sense we have beenable to address many of the issues thatare confronting us. However, there is ashift, not just here in South Africa butuniversally in the education domain, tolook at issues of quality.

Critical here is what is the quality ofthe schooling system? What we need is adifferent understanding of how we canachieve these goals.

So let us not just look at the numbersof enrolments, the participation offemales in schools, but let us examinewhat is happening within these schools– the issue of skills development morespecifically.

Confronting the issue of skills development

In the area of skills development thereare also very important interpretive,qualitative and quality issues around the

understanding of what this issue is allabout. It is particularly relevant tounderstand quality not only in terms ofstandards, but also relevance.

A critical question here is what is thecontext in which such skills are beingdeveloped and how relevant are they inaddressing that particular context?

We need to deliberate on this becausethis thing called skills shortage is a verypopular term at the moment with every-one throwing it around every time thereis a constraint anywhere. The worryingthing is that it has become too easy tounderstand skills shortage in a very nar-row sense.

People in the streets tend to think ofskills shortage as a shortage of, forexample, welders, electricians,plumbers, etc. If you ask senior man-agers in the public service, they will tellyou about the shortage of skilled man-agers, skilled administrators, and eventhe need for skilled typists.

This starts to broaden our under-standing of this thing called a skillsshortage because we start to understandthat it covers the entire scope of theemployment sector.

More recently, the DoE has beentalking to big business and trying tounderstand what they see as skillsshortage. We have also had the oppor-tunity at the President’s InternationalAdvisory Committee on ICTs to talk tointernational businesses about theirunderstanding of the issue of skillsshortage.

One common thread that comesthrough all these consultations is anemphasis on fundamentals. There aretwo things that are needed from anemployee: good communication skillsand good problem solving skills.

If an employee has these two funda-mental skills, they say, you do not haveto teach them the rest – laying a brick,typing, even managing.

I just want to share a brief vignetteabout bricklayers in South Africa. Theworld average for laying brinks is about 2000 bricks a day. In South Africa thenational average is about 500 bricks a day.Clearly there is a productivity problem.

C a s e S t u d yS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

29

There are, however, some bricklayerswho are laying 2 000 bricks a day. Thebricklaying industry decided to establishwhat makes someone lay 2 000 bricks asopposed to 500. The assumption was theones that do more are the ones that hadbeen laying bricks for a number of yearsand have gained enough experience.

The results of this investigation wereshocking. They showed that the onlything that made the difference was thelevel of education. The bricklayer withmatric level is likely to lay more bricksthan the one who does not have thislevel of education. The issue here hadnothing to do with bricklaying, butproblem solving.

It is a very important story that helpsus to understand that the only skillsSouth Africa needs is more and bettereducation.

This is not a new idea. If you recall theHRDS conceptualisation was thathuman resource development is depen-dant on the foundational stages of edu-cation. In any house if the foundation isnot solid, the house simply will notstand.

As a result the DoE paid attention toearly childhood development pro-grammes. I am happy to say that 70% ofour five-year-olds are attending GradeR. All the international evidence statesthat this has enormous benefits. As gov-ernment we have developed a plan forintegrated childhood developmentwhere we want to ensure that childrenin age nought to four are getting mentalstimulation, physical activity etc.

That is what they need in order todevelop later in life. It might seem lowon skills development, but there iswhere the actual skills developmenttakes place particularly the conceptualand language skills.

Schools, of course, continue this par-ticular process through a lot of pro-grammes that we are trying to getschools into. One of the big programmesis the Improvement and DevelopmentStrategy which is an affirmative pro-gramme for schools. It is an investmentinto the quality levers in our schools. Itfocusses on things that make a differ-

ence to quality. It might include a photo-copier, administrative staff, secretary – itis different things in different schoolsthat make that difference.

We want to work with schools inorder to establish what things they needin order to make that difference.

The crucial difference that we havelearnt is that it is not about puttingmoney into schools, but also demandingsomething back from schools. It is a con-tract with schools where we offerresources but demand improved per-formance in return. We are building anotion of accountability that goes handin hand with resources that we provide.

The most dramatic area that high-lights the whole question of the narrowskills notion versus the bigger funda-mentals notion is in our FurtherEducation and Training (FET) sector, ingrades 10 to 11 in schools as well as ourFET colleges.

In schools we have introduced thenew Curriculum Statement which ismuch tougher with two crucial elementsin it. The first one is that Maths Literacyis a compulsory subject. Every childemerging from the schooling system by2008 will have either Maths or MathsLiteracy as a compulsory subject.

Maths Literacy is about taking simpleMaths and applying it to complexhuman situations and that is a difficultprocess.

The other compulsory subject is LifeOrientation which takes the form ofcareer guidance. So every learner inthese grades is coming out with a fullpackage of two languages, Maths orMaths Literacy and a good sense of themarket and career guidance.

Beyond this there are three other sub-jects which are not compulsory. This isto ensure children are not already start-ing to specialise into narrow directionsbut are keeping a broad notion of thefundamentals at this stage.

We have done the same thing in ourFET colleges which involve a hugeinvestment. We have developed 13scarce skills programmes. Colleges willselect from a number of these pro-grammes.

Each of the programmes has a set offundamentals which are non-negotiable.Even if a student is in construction,he/she must learn Maths and language.

We have invested very heavily in thetargeted recapitalisation of FET col-leges. I am happy to say that the privatesector has come to the party. Our goalfor these colleges is that we move fromthe current involvement of 400 000 up toone million students.

We also want colleges to operate atnight and not just during the day. If theycan do this, they will be able to absorbone million students.

Higher education is part of the skillsdevelopment. The DoE has allocatedR48 million to engineering faculties infour institutions. These are faculties thathave been chosen precisely they are pro-ducing black and women engineers.

Conclusion

What I have been discussing is certainlyapplicable to other sectors in govern-ment. I used the DoE here just as anexample. What we can possibly say isthree things. Each of the initiatives Ihave spoken about in the DoE is firstbacked by a plan which was not there 10years ago.

Secondly, these initiatives with Headsof Department are supported by institu-tions that are much stronger than theywere 10 years ago. Institutionally, ourcapacity assessment has demonstratedthat we have made significant progressin building the institutions of state thatconduct these initiatives.

Lastly, I believe we have built a muchstronger social consensus about whatneeds to be done in this country. Wewere heavily contested as government inthe last 10 years. Today, the focus on jobsand poverty are things that the popula-tion as a whole is supporting us on.

I therefore believe that the conditionsare a lot more favourable for us to moveforward towards the achievement of theMDGs in 2015 and also our own goals ofgrowing the economy and sharing thebenefits of this growth throughout thecountry. •

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

30

Dr Iraj Abedian, of

Pan-African Investment

and Research Services,

looks at the challenge

of operational

efficiency in meeting

service demands

Repositioning thegovernment machinery for

poverty alleviation andunemployment relief


Iwant to start this paper by indicatingthe important role of the public serv-ice in the broader economy. In South

Africa, the public service, includingparastals, contributes 40% to our econo-my. If we want to economically competewith other countries, the public servicehas to contributes 40% to our competi-tiveness.

What if the economy wants to growand the 40% does not play its part? Thiswill cause problems for the economy. Itis very important to see the role of thepublic service in this context. If the pub-lic sector fails to play its part, the privatesector gets over-stretched and has to domore.

Growing the economy is a collectivechallenge that we all have to deal withand play our parts effectively by deliver-ing the necessary services to our citizensso that we can attract foreign investmentand effectively compete with othercountries.

There are two major strategic chal-

lenges facing governments: getting fiscal“allocative efficiency” right and ensur-ing operational efficiency in public serv-ice delivery. In terms of allocative effi-ciency, we are close to the best countries.For example, we have a social develop-ment share which is at around 36%. Wealso have protection services whichremain high at 29% in 2005 compared to37% in 2004.

Furthermore, economic services andinfrastructure gets the residual. SouthAfrica, indeed, has become a destinationfor foreign investment as a result of pos-itive macro-policies which have resultedin such allocations.

What is important to note is that theseallocations indicate that the allocativeefficiency is pro-poor, hence funds toalleviate poverty are available – sowhere does the problem lie as povertystill persists?

Despite the successes at macro level,South Africa remains trapped in vari-eties of poverty. These include the

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

31poverty of health, poverty of education,poverty of safety, poverty of jobs, pover-ty of public administration, and povertyof local governance.

Unemployment remains inextricablylinked to the skills profile and the edu-cation system. Notably, none of thesetraps can self-correct. All require politi-cal will, funding, effective systems, andexperienced management. The lattertwo have been missing and continue tobe a problem.

Our major strategic challengeremains operational efficiency. I willdevelop this paper around this chal-lenge. I therefore want to look at somecritical examples and remaining fault-lines.

Some critical examples andremaining fault-lines

One of the areas of concern is safety andsecurity, which to me is a prerequisitefor poverty alleviation. Currently the

police are not as effective as they shouldbe in dealing with issues of safety andsecurity. This is because basic elementsof policing are missing.

This is further compounded by thefact that the general public’s confidencein the policing system is lacking. Therehas been too much talk and too littleaction with regard to microeconomicfoundations of combating crime as itaffects the ordinary citizens.

We need to ensure that the culture ofviolence does not become the norm likein Brazil or Latin America in general.

The other area of concern is local gov-ernance. Our local government remainsour weakest link. We are witnessing aninadequate infrastructure. Generallyour cities have a tired and decayinginfrastructure with low operational effi-ciency. This deprives the urban pooraccess to areas of business activities withincome generating prospects.

Of major concern is that the country’sglobal competitiveness is bound to suffer

if our cities are not rescued soon. Maybemore depressing is the fact that the poorand unemployed bear the brunt of oururban malfunctioning.

Possible interventions andconcluding remarks

Generally, the policy framework is fine.Only implementation remains a chal-lenge. Funds are available to meet socialneeds, but the problem lies with institu-tional efficiency in delivering such serv-ices.

I must also state that some constraintsin service delivery cannot be overcomein the short term, as skill acquisition andmanagement efficiency may take time.Looking back, much has been achieved,but more still needs to be done to see aremarkable change in employment andpoverty situation.

The business of service delivery is notrun like a business. It is managed morelike a policy process, or public adminis-tration. This needs to be addressedurgently. Furthermore, the manage-ment structures in government depart-ments lack consistency and operationalfocus. Policy and delivery functionsneed to be separated, with a ising focuson delivery.

In order to achieve this, criteria forkey position selection should emphasiseexperience in service delivery. Couplingwith this, performance emphasis shouldshift to delivery capability rather thanadministration skills, process manage-ment skills, policy and networking.

We need to be careful that the cultureof public service inefficiency does notbecome the norm. Inefficiency should bediscouraged whenever it manifests itself.Over the past decade, focus on macro-policy, and policy modernisation havetaken attention away from operationalefficiency.

We also need a sustained drive to refo-cus government departments on “quali-ty service delivery”. At the same time,we need to refocus the AuditorGeneral’s office to place emphasis on“non-financial performance”as much asit does on financial indicators. •

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

32

Collette Clark,

Deputy Director-

General, DPSA,

explains what it

takes to be a good

leader

Leadership andprofessionalism for

SMS members


Part of this paper is to try and get usto come up with the definition ofthe public service. We have largely

relied on the Max Weberian theory fromthe aspect of state administration in rela-tion to what constitutes a bureaucracywhich is extremely Eurocentric.

For an African context within thedevelopmental state we need to startredefining what kind of issues we aredealing with within the South Africanand African context. How can we bor-row best practices within the Weberiancontext? And how can we redefineorganically our own brand of leadershipwithin our development context?

Background

Professionalism is subjective becauseour socialisation will determine what

that professionalism is all about. We allcome from a very textured history; haveour own value systems, cultures andnorms. As a result, the way in which wehave been schooled affects us – and veryfew were schooled to become leadersand managers. This is in the context ofour current bureaucracy.

Post-1994 we have relied on howorganically we have evolved as thoseparticular managers and leaders. It istime that we look back and examine ourmistakes in relation to that type of lead-ership and find out if there is somethingthat we are missing with regard to ourrecruitment process, how we deal withpromotions, and how we validate cer-tain types of leadership.

This might lead to other organisationsgetting dysfunctional. We need to exam-ine how many of our departments and

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

33

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

34

units that we are in charge of are show-ing signs of dysfunctionality because ofsome sort of dysfunctional group effectin that particular organisation?

One thing I want us to start looking atwhich we have not been looking at care-fully in the public service, is that allorganisations have got life cycles. Theselife cycles need different types of man-agers.

Big companies such as IBM whichhave a policy that as a manager you willnot spend more than 1 000 days (equiva-lent to three working years) in a man-agement position because thereafter youstop adding value, become dysfunction-al and might actually start being a prob-lem when you have not taken care ofyour own growth process or believe thatthe organisation is not giving you theopportunity to grow.

As human beings we all have our owndevelopmental cycles. As managers weneed to be in touch with our develop-mental cycles. If we have not dealt withthis, we can actually be damagers ratherthan managers in the positions that weare in, in a sense that we have not dealtwith our own ghosts.

Life cycle phases need a different skills set

In terms of the life cycles analogy that Iwant to use, which I do not attribute toanybody because it was something thatorganically developed over the years inorganisations that I was in, you can actu-ally see organisations that are in theembryonic phase, developmental phase,mature phase and those that are indeclining phase.

You then start to realise that we needdifferent types of leaders for differenttypes of phases that your organisation isin. Hence you need to have clear indica-tors that determine the phase in whichthe organisation is in.

For example, in the embryonic phaseyou need managers that are going todirty their hands by going into interven-tions and working on the ashes whichare a result of the previous declinephase.

Embryonic phase is also suitable forplanners, architects and structural engi-neers. These managers, however, mightnot be the right people to lead the organ-isation during its developmental stage.

In the developmental phase, we arelooking for builders that are going tointerpret the plan. Here you need spe-cialists as plumbers and electricians, tocontinue with the analogy. They willmake sure that the building is builtaccording to specification and are able todetermine what those specifications are.

In the mature phase, you want abuilding that is going to last for 100years for our generation and the nextgeneration. The phase needs mainte-nance managers. These maintenancemanagers, unfortunately, somewhere intheir previous life cycles should havebeen a planner and builder, in order tounderstand what it means to be a main-tenance manager.

It will help the manager in makingparticular decisions that are going toassist in terms of maintaining the build-ing.

In the decline phase managers need adifferent type of skill. You need a man-ager who is an assessor or evaluator. Youalso need a quantity surveyor that isgoing to assist you in making competentdecisions with regard to that particularbuilding, whether it needs to be demol-ished.

If you look at this analogy for yourown organisation it is extremely impor-tant because there is a specific type ofleadership skill that is needed to be ableto make those competent decisions interms of changing organisations andmaintaining them within specific phasesin their life cycle.

Organisational types within bureaucracies

Generally, there are three types of cate-gories in organisations. There are man-agers that love to belong to the organisa-tion. They enjoy being part of thatorganisation. You do not see them orhear them. They have been with theorganisation for years.

There are also managers who areachievers. They are the ones who do thedirty work. They are always the oneswho are part of task teams and alwaysgive direction without knowing it.

There are also managers who arepower-mongers. These are hugelyresponsible for the dysfunctionality ofour organisations. The power-mongersare further divided into three categories.There are those who have the acumenand disposition to carry through theposition of power with a mandate andgenerally know what the agenda of gov-ernment is and deliver on that.

Then there is a second category with-in the power-mongers which is able toappropriate the discourse and get pro-moted along the way. This does not nec-essarily assist in the leadership and man-agement because if managers have notgone through the developmental cycle interms of understanding the rules ofmanagement, then there will be risks inthe perpetuation of the dysfunctionalgroup thing within the managementechelon of the organisation.

The last group of power-mongers arethe sociopaths who, unfortunately, wantto have that position because they enjoyexercising power just for the need toexercise it. Such individuals can lead anorganisation into dysfunctionalitybecause individuals will identify withthe dysfunctional group thing just inorder to survive.

The problem is that smart people willleave the organisation because of thisdysfunctionality.

Understanding leadership

Let us go back to the generic under-standing of leadership, particularly theword “leading”. What is leading?Leading is a process of influencing peo-ple so that they will remain contributingand productive employees for the organ-isation and group goals and objectives.

Effective managers draw from vari-ous theories and experiences in theirefforts to harmonise individual andorganisational objectives, which is thekey to leading. Go to the people, learn

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

35

from them, value them, start with whatthey know, and build on what they have.

But, of the best leaders, when thework is done, and the task is accom-plished, the people will say “we did itourselves because we have been empow-ered”.

This particular generic definition ofleading assists in getting us to under-stand our role in terms of defining theleadership that we are moving towards.The role of leading is part of a manag-er’s generic function, parallel to plan-ning, controlling and organising.

Within that leading role, you are actu-ally directing processes and influencingtask-related activities of group mem-bers. You also have the prerogative toexercise legitimate power. It involvesother people, mainly the subordinates.

But, what makes a good leader? It isthe ability to use power effectively andin a responsible manner. It is the abilityto comprehend that human beings havediffering motivation forces at differenttimes and in different situations.

The leader must have the ability toinspire people. The leader must act in amanner that will develop a climate thatis conducive to responding to and arous-ing motivations.

There are a range of influences oneffective leadership. These include thesuperior’s expectations and behaviour;leader’s personality, past experiences,and expectations; organisational cultureand policies; subordinate’s characteris-tics, expectations and behaviour; taskrequirements; and peers’ expectationsand behaviour.

There is a need to balance elements ofleadership. These elements includeauthority which is the right to do some-thing; power which is the ability to dosomething; responsibility which is theobligation to do something; andaccountability which requires a personto answer for his/her actions. All this iswithin the context of empowerment andthis has to be balanced.

If you look at managerial skills fromthe lower level in the organisation rightup to the top level, you find that theneed for technical skills gets less. The

need for interpersonal skills and inter-group skills become more necessary.

At the lower levels intra-group skillsare more in demand as one is engagingwithin the sub-directorate. With con-ceptual abilities – meaning the ability tocope with uncertainty, contingencyviews and strategic decisions – their

importance increases the higher up yougo in leadership levels.

The behaviour of the leader isextremely important for effective lead-ership. In terms of the value chain, theeffective organisation and the customerfocus is reliant on the behaviour of theleader.

But the leadership styles are also veryimportant. How do you use the amountof authority that you have versus the

amount of freedom that you are givingto subordinates? This determineswhether you are going towards a subor-dinates-centred leadership or manage-ment-centred leadership.

Will you rely on your power andinfluence (which is not sufficient)? Youneed to be clear on how you will effectthe balance in terms of the degree offreedom that you are giving versus theuse of authority that you have.

Challenges of leadership

Leadership style is normally accordingto organisational life cycle. You have todiagnose the leadership style accordingto the lifestyle of the organisation. Thisis because the focus cannot be on person-alities, it has to be on principles that youare looking for in relation to differentroles for particular positions.

As a result, ethically challenged lead-ers do not deal with principles. Theycannot understand others’ values andcultures. They undermine others andhave their own ghosts to exorcise.

You have to start by knowing your-self. You cannot manage other people ifyou cannot manage yourself. There alsohas to be a level of appropriatenesswhich has to be in accordance with yourmaturation level.

How do we move from the self-cen-tredness? I am asking because self-cen-tredness, according to Carl Jung, is theroot of all our problems when we aredealing with people and having to man-age them.

But how do we evolve into what canbe seen as an acceptable person in orderto be the desired person to hold thatposition? This is what can be describedas a maturation process. The whole issueof positional power is how your subordi-nates see you in that particular positionand they confer on you the actual leader-ship.

Within the maturation process you gothrough the “athlete phase” where it isall about you, your self-centredness,physical appearance and attention seek-ing – you need the best and must havewhat you want at all costs.

Effective

managers draw

from various

theories and

experiences in

their efforts to

harmonise

individual and

organisational

objectives,

which is the key

to leading

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

36

Everything is about you at all costs. Inthe meetings you must have your sayand your opinion matters to you.

When you move on, you move to theadventurer phase where you start realis-ing it is no longer about you. You startwanting to acquire new skills whetherpractical or academic. You meditate andmay want to climb Kilimanjaro moun-tain or start playing golf. You may alsostart searching for higher meaning inwork and life.

The desired stage is the statesmanstage. Here you have acquired wisdomused for the good of others and not foryourself. Here you start doing things forothers rather than yourself.

You display gravitas and gravitas isthe seriousness of your position. Youbecome a natural social leader. In com-munities you are the one that addressesweddings and funerals. You are the onethat gets invited to play the role whenthe community starts realising that youhave that particular gravitas.

At this particular stage you also haveconsidered opinion. You know how tomediate and sanitise.

The last stage of the maturationprocess which a few of us reach is thespiritualist phase. In this stage, you dis-play reverence and serenity. You exudecalmness and presence. You are likenedto the Dalai Lama, Mahatma Ghandi,Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela.

One hopes that all Directors-Generalwithin the public service have reachedthis particular phase in their maturationprocess.

In order to go through this matura-tion process, you have to go through achange process. Most managers willlook back on their years as managersand know the defining moment whenthey experienced a meltdown process.The meltdown process has to happen inorder for you to realise where you comefrom and where you are heading.

The caterpillar phase involves notknowing where one is going even whenaware of the purpose. It is a very longroad and a struggle. The caterpillarphase gives way to the imago phasewhich gives way to the butterfly.

This is extremely important becausesome of you may have had nasty experi-ences in the work life. When you lookback you will realise that this was theturning point in your development asleaders.

Types of leadership

We have two kinds of leaders – transac-tional and transformational. Theessence of a transformational leader isvery important in terms of the directionwe want to take. As public managers wehave to look at another way as of think-ing within the developmental stateframework.

We have to quit playing God in thepublic service. We need to look at trans-actional leader before we explore thisdevelopmental state framework and therelevance of transformational leadershipin it.

The transactional leader looks atexchange valued goods. It allows for awooden, positivistic, parochial and dic-tatorial paradigm. It is based on onedimensional thinking based on results.

It also allows us to display a lot ofshenpa. Shenpa characteristics involvebeing a chief critic. In shenpa, the opin-ions are ours, the committee and nobodyelse’s because we are the manager orleader.

People who do not hold our opinionsare isolated. Shenpa is a desire to beright, have an opinion, a desire to showthat you are in charge and in control.When we go into service delivery pointswithin the public service, there is a lot ofshenpa displayed by our staff.

I decided to raise this because I havenot found any equivalent English wordto describe the aspect of shenpa.

Transformational leadership is morewithin the constructivist paradigm. It isdevelopmental and has a humanisticapproach. It allows thinking outside thecubicle. It displays prashna, which is spir-itual leadership where there is a higherconsciousness of what you want to do.

Here you cannot do things alone; youhave to rely on other people to assist you.It is the direct opposite of shenpa.

Transformational leaders become rolemodels for their followers. They moti-vate and inspire followers by providingmeaning and challenge to their work.They stimulate intellect by instillinginnovation and creativity.

Lastly, they focus on individual needsfor achievement and growth.

Conclusion

The reason why I am putting this for-ward is that when we define what aquintessential public servant should be,we need to start looking for answerswithin the transformational leadershipparadigm. I think it is where we shouldbe going as a country in the way we aremanaging our staff.

We should therefore start definingwhat a “quintessential Afrocrat”(“Afro” – from Africa, “crat” – anyonethat serves the public). The challenge forus is to start determining the leadershipwithin the context of the quintessentialAfrocrat because we cannot keep onrelying on the Max Weberian definitionof what a bureaucrat is because it maynot fit our context.

We have to start thinking about thiswithin our own developmental state.

Our home-grown definition of aquintessential Afrocrat should be con-tributing and productive practicing aca-demic within a potjiekos organisation.A potjiekos organisation is a home-grown organisation in the SouthAfrican context.

We have been doing things different-ly and not according to the rules. If youcook food in a stove, there are rules thatyou will not mix meat with the fish. Ifyou cook potjiekos you throw every-thing in and everything is served togeth-er.

You save on time, energy and increasesocialisation time. That is a potjiekosorganisation where you are thinkingoutside the cubicle in the way youachieve your goals. In so doing you aregoing to take the good in what alreadyexists and let go of things that you weretied to and were not helping in yourdelivery of goals. •

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37

From crime to court and

correctional services,

Advocate Menzi Simelane,

Director-General of Justice

and Constitutional

Development, identifies

challenges facing the

criminal justice system

Investigating the criminal

justice system


The criminal justice process beginswhen a crime is committed. This isfollowed by an intervention by the

South African Police Services (SAPS)through an investigation into a crimecommitted. This is followed by theinvolvement of the DO and CD whichinvolves the court process through pros-ecution and judiciary. This is followedby the intervention of the Departmentof Correctional Services (DCS) throughdetention during and post trial.

During this phase, the roles of theDepartment of Health (DoH),Department of Social Development(DSD) and Department of Education(DoE) are important. In between theSAPS intervention and DCS, processescan run concurrently, they don’t have tofollow the neat sequence outlined above.

The objective of the Justice and

Constitutional Development Cluster isto reduce crime and the transformationof all the departments involved in thecriminal justice process, including theway they operate and process cases.Transformation, for me, is about ques-tioning the status quo. It is about assess-ing whether our current operations,abilities and processes assist or hinderour delivery of services. It is, therefore,beyond issues of race.

Capacity requirements foreffective and efficient delivery

There is a need for an identification ofrelevant processes at each stage of thecriminal justice system chain outlinedabove. We need to establish how effi-cient the processes in the chain are. Ifyou look at the relativity of crimes com-

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

38mitted to the number of detectives whoinvestigate those crimes, you will noticethat there are problems in the system.The number of crimes to be investigatedoutnumbers the available number ofinvestigators to carry out such investiga-tions.

Similarly with justice, prosecutors getoverworked because of the number ofcases they work on. As a result the sys-tem is not as effective as intended. Thisopens up holes which might lead toimproper prosecution of criminals.

We must think about getting moreprosecutors into the system. Essentiallywhat is required is the identification ofrequired capacity. In the process weneed to identify where capacity isrequired. This might not necessarilyinclude bringing in new officials.

We also need to set performancemeasurements and targets for eachcriminal justice process. We need to con-front questions such as keeping juve-niles in prison. We need to ask ourselves

(especially since they should not bethere) who is responsible for taking careof juvenile offenders? We need to figureout who is responsible for this within thesystem.

Organised aggravated robberies:The case of the Oliver TamboInternational Airport heist

One of the major challenges facing thecriminal justice system is dealing appro-priately with organised aggravated rob-beries. In recent years we have witnessedorganised robberies in casinos, banksand cash in transit vehicles. Widely pub-licised was the heist carried out at theOliver Tambo International Airport inMarch 2006.

Before I highlight aspects of this heist,I want to offer a brief description of thenature of these organised crime activi-ties. These activities tend to be wellplanned and well executed. Theyinvolve long-term planning which

involves various intense planning ses-sions by perpetrators in order to finaliserecruitment and execution of robberies.Members are handpicked for specificskills/knowledge. Some members areused by more than one grouping andthis recruiting takes place country-wide.

In short, like us, they explore theircapacity needs. So it is not uncommonthat police take longer to investigatebecause these criminals tend to leave notrace. Some of these criminals work likeconsultants because they change syndi-cates.

Coming back to the airport heist,armed robbers seized at least $16.5 mil-lion as the money was offloaded from anaircraft. Four men and one woman,including three employees of manage-ment firm Airports Company SouthAfrica, were arrested in connection withthe robbery.

During the investigation of this case itwas discovered that safe houses andsecret meeting places were used, with key

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

39

role players having separate meetings. The investigation also uncovered that

the operation displayed knowledge ofthe SAPS working procedures. Duringthe robbery, SAPS radio frequencieswere utilised.

Clearly these criminals are organisedin that they also employ the on-the-jobtraining strategy. They do dummy runs.What further concerns us is that experi-enced suspects bear knowledge of evi-dence gathering and leave little physicalclues. This makes it difficult for us toprosecute them.

Linking processes to PoA

In the light of the above discussion, weneed to ask ourselves if the stated exist-ing processes result in the desired out-comes in the PoA. We need to ask whatneeds to be done in order to improve thesituation. My immediate thoughts hereare that we must link all the processes tothe cluster’s programme of action. Someof the criminal cases have been thrownout because of holes in the process. Forexample, some cases depend on DNAsamples for conclusion. When this is thecase, there are immediate doubts as theprosecutor usually cannot go forwardwith the case.

For the police, the handling of evi-dence is an important step therefore theyneed to be properly trained in this as evi-dence usually decides the strength of thecase. Furthermore, in district courtsprosecutors rarely have more than twoyears’ experience. This poses questionsabout the prosecution of cases.

In addition, prosecutors usually leavethe profession because they are under-paid. They earn less than what a deputydirector earns in our governmentdepartments. As a result, in their searchfor greener pastures, they become man-agers with the National ProsecutingAuthority (NPA).

We are also having problems in thejudiciary. Magistrates throw out caseswhich they feel are not strong enough.This has implications for the wholecriminal justice system. To add salt tothe wound, correctional services is fac-

ing the problem of awaiting trialdetainees. Correctional services officialsare not trained to deal with this group ofdetainees which is distinct from othergroups of detainees in that they have allthe rights that we all have. The differ-ence is that they are in an institution.Their only limitation is the freedom ofmovement.

Conclusion

Immediately we can see a problem in thecriminal justice system. Let us look atthe people that are awaiting trial and askwhy are they there? Some of them havecommitted petty crimes such as urinat-ing in a public place. Does it make senseto put someone who urinated in publicin a correctional services institution?Usually they cannot afford to pay bailfees.

The problem with this is that they getrecruited by more experienced criminalsduring their time in the holding cells.

We might blame poverty for producingcriminals as people go there for pettyoffences and come out worse. If theirbail is reviewed and they are taken outthe public will complain.

I think we need to move beyond theo-rising as it does not solve problems thatare faced by correctional services. Whycan’t we use the system of “admission ofguilt” the way we do it in the traffic sys-tem. This will save us from accommo-dating people who committed pettycrimes which is costly for the state.

The 2006 July Cabinet Lekgotla dealtwith juvenile detainees. What can wecome up with that will give the Cabineta solution to the problem? We may alsoask to what extent we are using thecapacity that we have. I am certain thereare answers to these questions. Forexample, the police should also be tak-ing bail. People do not necessarily haveto pay bail only in court. This can solvean aspect of the capacity problem in thecriminal justice system. •


40

Derek Powell, Deputy Director-General,

Department of Local Government, examines issues

affecting the Governance and Administration Cluster

Some thoughts on the governanceand administration cluster


This paper does not intend to provideanswers to a range of questions thatconfront the cluster. Rather, it seeks

to stimulate discussion by providing aperspective on some of the key issuesand some suggestions. This is becausethe more I think about government, themore I realise that I understand govern-ment more shallowly and have morequestions than answers. I do not offerready made answers to critical ques-tions.

Let us put this in context of our mainnational debates. Our target of halvingpoverty and unemployment by 2014 isthe main national context that I want tohighlight here. President Thabo Mbeki,during the Budget Vote of thePresidency in 2000, said, “The system ofgovernance we are working to create …is targeted at helping us meet the provi-sion laid down in our Constitution of‘improving the quality of life of all citi-zens and freeing the potential of eachperson’. Accordingly ours must be atruly developmental state.”

He further stated that “one of themost important challenges this throwsup is the need for us sharply to improveprofessional competence of members ofthe public service and otherwise increasethis capacity within the public service”.

If you look at this quotation by the

President when the cluster system wasfirst introduced in 2000 you will noticethat even then he was talking about theimportance of a capable public serviceand its role in the developmental state.

Last year, during the launch of JIPSA,Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka articulated the many challengesfacing us as a country, particularly scarceskills in our economy. She stated that“nothing short of a skills revolution by anation united will extricate us from thecrisis we face. We are addressing log-jams, some of which are systemic andtherefore entrenched even in post-apartheid South Africa. The systemicnature of some of our challenges under-mines our excellent new policies, at leastin the short term, hence the need forinterventions such as JIPSA to enhanceimplementation of our policies.” Thisframes the context of the rest of thepaper but at an institutional level.

It is always useful when dealing witha government institution to go back andlook at some of the original objectivesand decisions that have been made – inthis case, it is more the history of thecluster. Also, the two main roles of thecluster which are to support cabinetdecision-making and coordinate imple-mentation of the Programme of Action.

What is the role of the cluster relative

to departments and spheres? Is the clus-ter organised to meet its priorities?What core skills/capacities are needed inthe system to improve service delivery?These are questions that we should beconstantly asking ourselves within thecluster. They have considerable strategicimportance.

Purpose of cluster integration 1999-2006

The cluster system, as I have stated,seeks to improve cabinet decision-mak-ing processes relating to strategy andfundamental policy. It also seeks toimprove interdepartmental coordina-tion of implementation of policy. It isabout improving better cooperative gov-ernance between the three spheres ofgovernment.

Ultimately the aim is to have effectivedemocracy which means “listening andthen responding with appropriate actionto what the people are saying” – in short,responsive government.

Functioning, priorities and processes

The practical work of the cluster breaksdown into three key strategic priorities:capability needs for the developmental


41

state; macro-organisation of the state;and planning, implementation, moni-toring and evaluation under which wehave included local government in thenational cluster.

There are 57 programmes in the clus-ter and there are a variety of joint taskteams (for joint programmes) that giveeffect to these programmes. The clusteris not about managing bureaucracy. It isabout putting government and thecountry on the fast track.

I mentioned integration as one of theobjectives of the cluster. I would like tostate that integration in practice is a verycomplex issue. The Constitution createda series of concurrent and exclusivefunctions between the three spheres ofgovernment. These functions are allo-cated to particular organs of state andthe whole budget system is structuredaround that and public accountability isstructured around that. It is the natureof democratic accountability.

On the other side of the equationthere are modern policy (development)issues that cut across mandates, portfo-lios and spheres of government. This isthe basis of integration.

There are risks to both. The risk withdemocratic accountability is that becausefunctions are allocated to organs of state,silos usually get created and you get ahigh degree of fragmentation. On theother hand, if you take integration to itsultimate conclusion you are going tohave decision paralysis because every-body is responsible for everything. It isreally about balancing these two systemsthrough effective and efficient adminis-tration mechanisms.

In terms of priorities and processes ofthe cluster, we have cluster POA whichfocuses on the three strategic priorities,cluster programmes and joint task teamswhich are the machinery of the G&Acluster.

Some of the outcomes for integrationthat we are looking for include jointwork and appraisal, coordination ofimplementation, greater efficiency, andeconomies of scale. We also need totake into account some of the risksinvolved. Once you start talking about

programmes (and report on them), thecluster tends to take on an operationalfocus.

You also need to look at the linkbetween cluster priorities and spherefunctions and accountabilities. Forexample, most of the functions of localand provincial government do not focuson G&A functions, in fact they are in thesocial and economic sectors.

So when you ask the province toreport on the G&A cluster, you need tothink about what kind of discriminationyou are making in terms of actual func-tional responsibilities. The G&A is actu-ally a regulatory type of cluster so weneed to take note of that.

There is also the risk of informationoverload. Instead of achieving integra-tion, the Cabinet gets too much infor-mation which is not properly analysed.There is also information asymmetrywhich is a key challenge that we face atthe Department of Local Government.

Task teams are a useful way of bring-ing people together, but they may notcontain the forces that shape policy.Policy does not sit between nice cyclesand does not contain itself to key deci-sion makers that are within the taskteam. There are multiple influences onpolicy and they need to be engaged.

Task teams and reporting cycles maynot contain complexity and timesequences that are involved in policymanagement. I think that is why tradi-tionally we have been doing whitepapers so that a maximum number ofstakeholders are brought in to the table.

The cluster system is also a weak filterfor intergovernmental policy and long-term planning. That is because not everypolicy goes through the cluster. So howdo we deal with the problem of unfund-ed mandates? These are some of therisks we need to look at and somethingthat we need to be conscious of when wemove forward.

Suggested G&A cluster core competences

The core cluster mandates includeenvisioning and managing public sec-

tor change and culture which is basical-ly Batho Pele. The cluster also assessesintergovernmental implications of poli-cy. It monitors and assesses perform-ance of the public sector across govern-ment.

It is mandated to boost capability andperformance of public service and publicsector professionals and managers. Thecluster proposes policy and other inter-ventions such as Single Public Service,alignment of spatial plans, and decon-centration.

The last core cluster mandate is build-ing public confidence in governmentand public service.

Since G&A is a regulatory and over-sight cluster, the skills (core cluster com-petencies) required are:• strategic, policy and finance expertise;• sound data (statistically), information,

knowledge;• problem solving;• monitoring and evaluation specialists;• negotiation and process management;

and• communicators.

Recommendations and suggestions

Cluster processes should focus on strate-gic areas where coherence requires inte-gration, as distinguished from whatshould be left to departments. Theprocesses that set POA should be refinedand should be tailored to provincial andlocal functions.

There also has to be a realistic moni-toring and evaluation system for gov-ernment as a whole, and informationflows linked to streamline reporting.Medium Term Strategic Frameworksneed to be complied for the cluster.

Cluster processes have to provide anappropriate institutional filter for policyand legislation impacting on intergov-ernmental relations. Focus groups withexternal role players need to be held.

Finally, cluster processes have to drivea practical de-concentrated approach foraligning national and provincial depart-ments with local government. •

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

42

Ms Nandi Sishuba,

Deputy Director-General,

Eastern Cape, highlights

the role of Information

Communication Technology

in addressing poverty,

unemployment and job

creation

Results on basic needs


Information and CommunicationTechnology (ICT) is fast becomingthe basis for economic development.

Those countries which fail to participatein such developments risk increasingmarginalisation.

In order to address this problem gov-ernments have increasingly incorporat-ed ICT policies and initiatives into theireconomic development strategies.

While public policy and academic lit-erature frequently tout substantialprogress in bridging the digital divide,over half of the world’s population doesnot presently have access to even a pub-lic telephone, let alone the Internet.

Even within the United States there issubstantial disparity in access to infor-mation and communication technolo-gies. For example, within the US, thoseliving in families with lower income,

with less education, are substantially lesslikely to have access to the basic infor-mation and communication technolo-gies than others.

The uneven availability of access toinformation and communication tech-nologies among the world’s populationhas great importance to public policyand the well-being of nations and indi-viduals worldwide.

Of particular importance, from aglobal “public welfare” perspective, isunrealised potential economic andhuman development that could beachieved through information commu-nication technologies.

On an individual basis, this foregonedevelopment activity translates intohigher rates of poverty, poorer health,and lower literacy and quality life thanis necessary.

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43

With these important implications, itis not surprising that the connectionbetween the expansion of ICTs and eco-nomic development is currently receiv-ing considerable attention by practition-ers, policy makers, researchers andfunding organisations.

ICT can be framed and applied as apotent tool in reducing poverty, extend-ing health services, expanding educa-tional opportunities and generallyimproving the quality of life for many ofthe world’s disadvantaged populations.

However, it is critical that such fram-ing recognises that desired outcomes areonly plausible when ICT deployment isaccompanied by concurrent public poli-cies supporting equitable access to socialinstitutions such as health care, educa-tion, government, and other benefitspotentially available through the appli-

cation of digital tools and telecommuni-cations. ICT is an important tool but nota solution in itself for social and eco-nomic problems.

Defining ICT

The term ICT refers to the followingthree broad categories: Information,Communication and Technology. Interms of unpacking these terms ICT isthus comprised of the following compo-nents: hardware, software and telecom-munications.

The importance of ICT is containedin the information part of the broadterm.

It comprises technologies that canprocess different kinds of information(voice, video, text and data) and facili-tate different forms of communication

among human agents and informationsystems.

ICTs such as radio, television, tele-phones, computers and the Internet canprovide access to knowledge in sectorssuch as agriculture, micro enterprise,education and human rights, offering anew realm of choices that enable thepoor to improve their quality of life.

ICT and economic growthopportunities

There is evidence that proves the posi-tive impact of ICT on economic growthand productivity in a number of devel-oped countries in the 1990s. There arefew studies which estimate the contribu-tion of ICT to growth and productivityin post-communist, transitional anddeveloping economies.

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44

Aside from the US, the use of ICT hascontributed to an increase in the rate ofproductivity and economic growth inAustralia, Sweden, Finland, Poland.Among the developing countries,Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, SouthKorea and Taiwan benefited from theproduction of ICT (IMF 2001).

The world has evolved to a power-rich information society where dailydecisions are made based on the bestavailable information. It is precisely thisdemand for information that benefitssome industries more than others.

The big question, however, is howICT can provide opportunities for eco-nomic growth. Research indicates thatthe use of ICT as an enabler has signifi-cantly changed or totally transformedthe economic growth of some countries.However, evidence differs from countryto country.

In Poland, for instance ICT, invest-ment contributed on average 0.47 of apercentage point or 8.9% of GDPgrowth and 12.7% or 0.65 of a percent-age point contribution to labour produc-tivity between 1995 and 2000 accordingto a study by Coleccia and Schreyer(2001) cited by Kanamori et al (2004).

The obvious answer to the question isthe fact that developed countries are in abetter position to provide evidence of thepositive impact on the economic growthof ICT than in less developed or devel-oping countries.

ICT provides opportunities for coun-tries to develop goods and services atfaster rates through computerisedprocesses and procedures. Evidence ofthis is the fact that things such as build-ing a motor car can be done efficientlythrough the use of robot technology cou-pled with computer programming.

ICT is associated with major costimplications. However, technologiessuch as cellphones, telephones, comput-ers and network connectivity arebecoming cheaper. Still, this phenome-non is more accurate for developedcountries than developing countries.

Data evaluation of GrameenCellphone programme have shown thatwhile the non-poor users in rural

Bangladesh use cellphones to keep intouch with loved ones (a luxury motive),the poor typically use cellphone access asa production input (to keep with real-time market developments).

Also, evaluations have shown that thepoor users of cellphones register agreater effect on their producers’ surplusdue to the cellphone access, than do non-poor users (Bayes, Von Brawn andAkhtar, 1999). This means that a pover-ty targeted provision of informationalinfrastructure in Bangladesh will have agreater aggregate return across theboard.

Poverty reduction should be a centralcomponent of any ICT strategy.Increasing equal access to, control of and

the ability to derive benefits from socio-political and economic information cancontribute to the reduction of poverty,giving individuals and communities theopportunity to expand their choices andimprove their livelihoods.

The information may range fromfinancially viable markets and incomegeneration opportunities to the avail-ability of government services and issuesof governance to information on healthcare and delivery, HIV and Aids careand prevention, education and skilldevelopment programmes.

New and powerful technologies canalso promote efficiency of enterprisescompeting in the global economy andpublic sector service delivery. While theimpact of ICT investments on produc-tivity remains a subject of debate, ICT isnow a standard operating tool in today’sinformation society and the information

ICTs carry is increasingly becoming animportant factor in production.

In adopting the African InformationSociety Initiative (AISI) in 1996 theobjective was to have an African infor-mation infrastructure through access toglobal information infrastructure fordevelopment needs and to build nation-al information and communicationinfrastructures.

Other opportunities provided by ICTto support the achievement of theMillenium Development Goals of devel-oping a global partnership for develop-ment include: • to enable less developed landlocked

countries and islands to link up withglobal markets to accelerate their fullintegration into the global economy;

• distance work facilitated by ICTopens up opportunities to create serv-ice sector jobs in developing countriessuch as call centres, data entry andprocessing and software development;

• telecentres open access to telecommu-nications and create direct employ-ment for men and women;

• improve youth learning skills,employability to meet the challengesof the knowledge-based economy ofthe 21st century; and

• develop a critical mass of knowledgeworkers with the technical abilities toprovide and maintain the infrastruc-ture.

Recommendations

The most effective roles for the privatesector are to support investments tobuild ICT infrastructure (which tendsto be capital intensive), operate ICT net-works and deliver ICT services.Therefore a fair and transparent regula-tory and policy framework is necessaryto secure and promote private sectorinvolvement.

The most effective role of governmentis to establish well regulated and compet-itive environments conducive to privateinvestment and innovation. The elabora-tion of a policy is a major determiningfactor in setting up the underlying sup-porting infrastructure and enhancing the

ICT is an important tool butnot a solution initself for socialand economic

problems

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

45

optimal use of technology. Once established it should embrace

strategies and action programmes whichwill ensure the building of information,knowledge and decision support systemto enhance the country’s socio-economicgrowth and policy formulation utilisinginformation, and communication tech-nologies (Griffiths, 1998).

The ASGISA broad plans to beimplemented in electronic communica-tion demonstrate the commitment of theSouth African government to facilitatethe contribution of ICT in growing theeconomy and sharing that growth.These are: • implementation of a strategy to rapid-

ly grow South Africa’s broadband net-work;

• implementation of the plan to reducetelephony costs more rapidly;

• completion of the submarine cableproject that will provide competitiveand reliable international access espe-cially Africa and Asia; and

• provision of telecommunications andlabour intensive businesses in poorareas.

Human resources

Whereas technological infrastructurehas traditionally been regarded as themost critical component, humanresources have been seen as a constraintin the effective deployment if ICT.

Preparing Africa for the informationage primarily necessitates appropriateinvestment in its human resources.Training, education and promotion willbe the cornerstone of Africa’s new socie-ty.

Development of human resources alsorequires having a new profile of man-agement/labour forces; the ability toadapt, adopt and exploit new technolo-gies and to manage the change; and cre-ating new job markets where skills andknowledge learned can be applied.

Capacity building programmesshould be developed and tailored to theneeds of each user. AISI, in its humanresources development programme, hasidentified the following main users:

decision makers, businesses community,researchers and students, skilled work-ers, the general public, information sys-tems specialists, information serviceproviders, telecommunication and net-working specialists.

Each of the above users needs a specif-ic programme to be able to benefit fromthe information society.

Appropriate technologies

ICTs can serve as a tool for sharingknowledge and promoting develop-ment. While they are an important driv-er of economic growth, they should notbe used as a panacea. It is equally neces-sary to assess which type of technology isthe most effective and appropriate toachieve specific objectives.

Various countries and regions havedifferent goals and needs regardingICT. For example, in reaching ruralpopulations simple technology such asradio may perform the task more effec-tively than more complicated high tech-nology solutions requiring large capitalcosts.

Sustainable ICT projects are thosethat are locally owned and accompaniedby human capacity development toensure the ability of individuals andcommunities to use, maintain and bene-fit fully from ICTs.

The role of the Eastern CapeProvincial Government (ECPA)

The Eastern Cape adopted a coordinat-ed approach in the acquisition of ICTinfrastructure to ensure value-for-money, efficiency and cost effectiveness.To this end the province has ensuredthat costs of ICT infrastructure are cen-trally negotiated.

This has led to a lot of savings in tech-nology costs and released funds to bespent on other important projects.

The metropolitan area networkallows for connecting all governmentbuildings under the leadership of theOffice of the Premier with direct benefitof cost reduction due to economies ofscale.

This also provides easy access to stan-dardised technologies like virus protec-tion, network security etc. The ECPAspends approximately R10 million onICT investment. The province is cur-rently exploring having an East AfricaSubmarine System (EASSY dock) toconnect east coast of Africa to the rest ofthe world.

This is linked to the province-wideICT strategy underway. Some of theICT opportunities as revealed by theEastern Cape Information TechnologyIncubator (ECITI) project include: • two IDZs in the region;• local call centres have spare capacity –

and want to use it;• ECDC will be driving the call centre

initiative;• assistance to equip the province’s 6 000

schools with IT hardware, softwareand support services;

• the province is encouraging opensourcing;

• Eastern Cape is a haven for manufac-turing and agricultural SMMEs;

• only a handful (literally) of black,women-owned ICT businesses;

• alter the profile of South Africa’s ICTindustry to encourage more black andwomen practitioners;

• supply SADC with hardware, soft-ware and related ICT services;

• tourism industry is gearing up togrow; and

• provincial and local government needmore applications and more supportas they deliver more services.

Conclusion

ICT does provide the potential for eco-nomic growth. The success of economicgrowth is determined by those indus-tries or governments who possess theboldness to invest in ICT.

There should be a distinct plan inplace so that ICT is not just implement-ed out of context. ICT has to be contex-tualised for it to be sustainable. Thisshould be coupled with human capacitydevelopment. This should be done toensure that people are able to use andmaintain such infrastructure. •

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46

Maintaining and

expanding infrastructure

was neglected in the past,

but now it is an important

component in achieving

the aims of ASGISA, writes

Gwede Mantashe,

Executive Manager:

Strategic Projects DBSA

Towards accelerated growth and development:

Infrastructure investmentroll-out challenges


For a few decades the South Africangovernment did not invest enoughin infrastructure maintenance and

expansion. The Nationalist governmentspent valuable resources in propping upa collapsing system of apartheid, partic-ularly the Bantustan system. Resourceswere channeled to consumption spend-ing.

As a result of this ugly and difficultpast the new democratic governmentinherited an economy that was not per-forming, an infrastructure network thatwas in a state of decay and a huge budg-et deficit. Over the first decade ofdemocracy we did not see any invest-ment in infrastructure. Withoutexpressing a view I must highlight thatthe emphasis shifted to the reduction ofbudget deficit and the broader stabilisa-tion of the economy.

The government, in the AcceleratedShared Growth Initiative for SouthAfrica (ASGISA) framework, isunashamedly accepting that this was amistake that needs urgent attention.Two of the six inhibiting constraints tothe country achieving the set objectivesare infrastructure focused, those of 6%

plus economic growth between 2010 and2014, and halving unemployment andpoverty by 2014.

These constraints are stated inASGISA framework as cost and effi-ciency of national logistics system andsome infrastructure; and deficiencies instate capacity and strategic leadershipimpacting on delivery. This confirmsthat the aging infrastructure has becomea bottleneck to delivery.

The disaster in waiting is the aginglocal government infrastructure. Theelectricity blackouts in some cities areearly signals. When this trend spills overto sewerage and water reticulation net-works the cities will have to deal with amassive disaster that nobody bothers totalk about.

What do we mean byinfrastructure?

The infrastructure can be divided intothree categories – economic infrastruc-ture, social infrastructure and institu-tional infrastructure. Economic infra-structure can be characterised as physi-cal stock that facilitates economic pro-

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

47duction and services, serves as input toproduction and is consumed by house-holds.

The social infrastructure can be char-acterised as the network that impactsdirectly and indirectly on the quality oflife, provides universal access to socialservices, improves productivity in theeconomy and increases economic activi-ty, job creation and reduction of poverty.

Institutional infrastructure is criticalfor the overall performance of the econ-omy. It entails efficient and effectivemanagement of both the economic andsocial infrastructure. It is the institution-al failure that makes it expensive to dobusiness in South Africa. It is central tothe failure to spend in areas where thereis a desperate need for the delivery ofbasic services.

Towards accelerated growth

To achieve the set growth objectives,infrastructure development, expansionand maintenance must be seen as part ofan integrated programme. There mustbe a link to other interventions like theindustrial strategy, the skills and educa-

tion strategy, interventions in the secondeconomy and reviewing macroeconomicframework from time to time.

Infrastructure roll-out should facili-tate effective implementation of theseinterventions. We have a rare opportu-nity of validating the theoretical frame-work of government investment spend-ing growing-in private sector invest-ment. In five year’s time we can be citedas another example of successful state-led economic growth. Let us look at afew examples of mega projects under-way.

Many South Africans think of stadi-ums when they think of World Cup2010. The biggest legacy World Cup2010 can leave behind is an efficientinfrastructure network ranging from anefficient public transport system todependable sewerage networks rightthrough to the development of econom-ic corridors and nodes.

The second major project is the build-ing of new electricity capacity. The proj-ect is not only about new power stations,it is also about broad infrastructure roll-out. It is not only about Eskom’s capaci-ty and ability to build new power sta-

tions, it is about transport networks,new water and sewer networks and neweconomic infrastructure.

There is also a project that focuses oninvestment in the South African rail sys-tem which is about lowering the cost ofdoing business. It is about unblockingthe bottlenecks in taking bulk com-modities to the ports for export.

Lastly, our involvement in NEPADmust include investing in the much-needed infrastructure to unleash thepotential of the continent.

Role of development finance institutions

Of the about R370 billion governmentinfrastructure spending, the envisagedspending by development finance insti-tutions is about 3%-5%, compared to50% by the three tiers of government,40% state-owned enterprises and about5% through public-private partnership.This reflects the negative view about therole of the DFIs in South Africa.

DFIs must be reaffirmed as develop-ment tools in the hands of the state.They must be used more effectively inareas such as research and knowledgemanagement, disbursement on behalf ofgovernment, development of smartpartnerships, funding specific projects;the contribution can be much higherthan 5%.

Conclusion

Government must take an active inter-est in the development and improve-ment of this capacity. It must investresources and time in this importantresource base. They must be partners ofgovernment as first choice. If there areweaknesses and gaps identified theymust not be whispered, the DFIs mustbe informed and be directed to imple-ment corrective actions.

The combined capacity of DFI’s canbe used more effectively to mitigate therisk that the private sector would notordinarily have an appetite for. Thisrequires dynamic engagement betweenDFIs and government. •

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48

Dr Vusi Gumede,

Chief Policy Analyst in

the Presidency’s Policy

Coordination and

Advisory Services, says

boldness and urgency

are needed to seize

the moment to provide

a better life for all

Is governmentoptimally poised to

achieve set objectivesand targets in time?


The World Development Report of2007 describes state capacity as “theability of the state to undertake col-

lective actions at least costs to society”.This is broader than administrative ortechnical capacities of civil servants. Itentails, also, “institutional mechanismsthat give politicians and civil servantsthe flexibility, rules, and restraints toenable them to act in the collective inter-est”.

This resonates with some researchers’conceptualisation of state capacity alongfour dimensions: ideational, political,technical and implementational. SallyCummings and Ole Norgaard (Journalof Political Studies Vol 52, 2004) defineideational state capacity as the degree towhich the state – its actors, role and poli-cies – is legitimated and embedded instate institutions.

Political state capacity refers to effec-tiveness of state institutions in terms of

governance structures and technical andimplementational state capacities referto administrative capacity.

Key planning mechanisms

It is unquestionable that the Presidencyand its Policy Co-ordination andAdvisory Services (PCAS), the NationalTreasury (NT), the Department ofProvincial and Local Government(DPLG) and the Department of PublicService and Administration (DPSA), aswell as other relevant organs of the state,are playing important roles in establish-ing an institutional base in governmentto drive and co-ordinate long-term eco-nomic growth and development.

Largely, prioritising within the con-text of long-term developmental plan-ning implies that civil servants mustthink differently about challenges facingour society; that implementation plans

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

49must be conceptualised differently andthat intensity of implementing is han-dled differently.

This is easier said than done. Evencomparable countries with developmen-tal plans, such as India, Brazil, SouthKorea, Malaysia and Chile, remain chal-lenged.

I am deliberately avoiding elaboratingspecific functions pertaining to plan-ning, by PCAS, DPLG, NT and DPSA(and other relevant institutions), lest Irepeat the obvious. Suffice to say thatthese departments have various plan-ning instruments and tools mainlyfocussed on medium-term planning, notlong-term developmental planning.

The PCAS is presently consideringlong-term developmental planning. Itshould be acknowledge that PCAS,DPLG, NT and DPSA (and other rele-vant institutions) are addressing respec-tive capacity constraints in order to

strengthen requisite state capacities fordriving and coordinating long-term eco-nomic growth and development.

The role of the PCAS

For the benefit of those not familiarwith the PCAS, it provides research,analytical, advisory, policy, project/pro-gramme and strategic support to thePresidency and government as a wholeon matters of socio-economic develop-ment, justice, governance and interna-tional affairs.

It is comprised of five sectors: theEconomic Sector; the Social Sector;Justice, Crime Prevention and Security;International Relations; andGovernance and Administration. Thereare three additional directorates:Monitoring and Evaluation; Planningand Programmes (which deal withissues related to Gender, Disability and

Children’s Rights).There is also a Youth Desk, housed

within the Social Sector. Lastly, there isalso a Forum of South AfricanDirectors-General (FOSAD) Secre-tariat. We are also in the process ofestablishing a Programme CoordinationUnit (mainly dealing with socio-eco-nomic research to inform evidence-based policy making) to be located with-in the Social Sector.

The PCAS works very closely withthe Directors-General Clusters and actsas a link between the CabinetCommittees and the appropriate DGsClusters. Over and above analytical andadvisory activities, ensuring effectiveimplementation of the planning frame-work, integrated policy and programmeformulation and implementation facili-tation and coordination as well as moni-toring and evaluation, the PCAS sup-ports and facilitates key (analytical and

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

50 institutional) projects of the Presidency.Let me now dwell on the subject of

this think piece. That is, whether gov-ernment is appropriately poised to dowhat is expected of it. Tackling thisquestion is undoubtedly a tall order. Ihave had to draw some strength andcourage, from my brief experience as apublic servant, to wrestle with this mat-ter.

Probing the abilities of the state machinery

Our Minister of Finance, addressing the2004 SMS conference, argued that seniormanagers are “custodians of a value sys-tem that defines our objective as demon-strating every single day that we are acaring democracy”. The key issue in theMinister’s address, in my reading andinterpretation, is whether, as AmartyaSen (1999) puts it, are we enhancing andexpanding human capabilities?

As Sen teaches us, human capabilitiesrefer to a set of valued things that it is

feasible for a person to do – fromdependable access to adequate nourish-ment to having the possibility of being arespected participant in community life.Human capabilities define the extent towhich people can lead the kind of livesthey value – and have reason to value.

In my view, this is what RichardLevin, writing in SDR Vol. 3 in 2004,argued when he said, “A fundamentalfeature of the South African develop-mental state is that it must be people-centred and capable of addressing thesocio-economic needs of its entire popu-lation.”

In relation to “addressing socio-eco-nomic needs”, it may be useful to juxta-pose this captivating question with themain conclusion of the Ten YearReview.

The review concluded, among otherthings, that if government continueddelivering services at the same pace,weaknesses could precipitate a viciouscircle that ultimately sets back the gainsof the first decade of democracy.

The Macro-Social Report (A Nationin the Making Discussion Document)takes the review conclusions further anddelves deeply into the society we arebecoming. The report also points outthat although there is an improvingsense of an overarching national identi-ty, inherited fault lines have been slowerto heal than hoped.

In a nutshell, the challenge of eradi-cating poverty and other social ills iscompounded by societal dynamics set inmotion in part by the transition itself.Some of the negative trends exacerbatethe challenges for government as awhole.

Furthermore, as President Mbekiargued in his recent Nelson MandelaLecture, there is a need to mediate orrather negotiate the tension between amarket-based economic systempremised on competition and the desireto build a caring society based on humansolidarity.

Peter Evans, Professor of Sociology atthe University of California (Berkeley),

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

51

addressing a seminar in South Africarecently, argued that the main structuralcharacteristic of the 20th century devel-opmental state was “embedded-autono-my”.

Evans contends that the 21st centurysyllogism, however, calls for greaterdemands on the state: “demands for acapable, coherent state apparatus areeven greater, and the need for embeded-ness is accentuated”. As such, maintain-ing the contradictory amalgam of auton-omy and embededness is a serious chal-lenge to managers of the 21st centurydevelopmental state.

As suggested in Elhanan Helpman’sMystery of Economic Growth, there aremany tasks that rest on the shoulders ofa (developmental) state. The same lineof thinking can be discerned in JefferySach’s End of Poverty.

In our context, for example, it isincontrovertible that the development ofthe second economy and the eradicationof poverty have to be carried out almostexclusively by the democratic (develop-mental) state.

As argued elsewhere, the level ofunderdevelopment of the second econo-my and the small size of its marketmakes it an unattractive target for thefirst economy. In a sense, the existence ofthe second economy is a reflection ofboth the legacy of apartheid colonialismand market failures which render thefirst economy incapable, on its own voli-tion, of contributing to the eliminationof the “two economies” divide.

It has been estimated that about onethird of South Africans are trapped inthe second economy. As most wouldhave read, some researchers argue thatapproximately two-thirds of our peopleare trapped in poverty (using headcountmoney-metric measures).

In addition, although governmenthas made significant progress in better-ing the lives of many, because of hugehistorical backlogs there is still a lotmore to be done if we are to make anotable dent in poverty and underde-velopment. There are many com-pounding factors, in relation to ournation building agenda broadly. For

instance, we are also dealing with twointerrelated intricate factors: deep-seat-ed psychosocial pathologies and accu-mulated disadvantages which jointlystrain our social fabric resulting tosocial distress that we see and experi-ence as a society.

So, given the magnitude of the myriadchallenges that we face as a country, canwe confidently say that our civil service,especially its managers, is well placed totackle them head-on?

This is obviously an intriguing ques-tion, which can take books to sufficient-ly address. It has been argued thatdespite major challenges that the gov-ernment still needs to overcome in thedelivery of services, one can confidentlyconclude that South Africa is well oncourse to achieve targets set in theMillennium Declaration.

For those remaining, the necessaryfoundation has been firmly put in placefor their attainment. However, givenother factors that compound the chal-lenge of addressing challenges con-fronting speedy service delivery, do wefully believe that we are on course?

For instance, the social distress,referred to above, ravaging our commu-nities, families and compatriots couldwork against the noble programmesthat government tirelessly and rigor-ously pursues. Addressing a Parlia-mentary question on the provision ofbasic services recently the Presidentemphasised that improving servicedelivery, to realise a better life for all, isnot only about improved access to basicservices, it is also about the soul of ournation. The social disintegration(including fragmentation taking placein our communities) manifesting itselfin various ways such as reportedincreases in levels of domestic violence,levels of criminality, teenage pregnancy,observed decline in social values ofmutual respect and common decency,declining levels of social solidarity andother behaviors that reflect a spirit ofcommunity could set back the unparal-leled gains of our encouraging youngdemocracy. Within this context,President Mbeki in his February 2007

State of the Nation address has restatedthe urgency to “finalise the strategy andprogrammes to address matters of socialcohesion, including the comprehensiveintegrated anti-poverty strategy…”.Such should culminate us as a nation toa “rallying point”, what Montesquieucalled vertu – the substantive common-ality between people in a democraticstate.

We have to finally heed and succumbto the plea to “seize the time to definefor ourselves what we want to make ofour shared destiny”, as called upon bythe first President of a DemocraticSouth Africa.

Conclusion

I conclude by reiterating a well-knownquotation of Julius Nyerere that “to planis to choose”. Our medium-term plan-ning instruments such as the Medium-Term Strategic Framework and othersare about choices.

A long-term developmental planwould equally be about choices. Suchchoices, accompanied by commensurateeffort, would result in a particularnation. Perhaps we need to answer forourselves: What is South Africa really acase of?

President Mbeki said, at the sunset ofour first decade of democracy, that “wemust advance the struggle againstpoverty, while we continue to transformour country into a non-racial, non-sexistand prosperous democracy”.

As the current business of govern-ment and its social partners demon-strates, the struggle against poverty con-tinues and it is intensifying further as weenter the last two years of the currentgovernment term. We remain chal-lenged to speedily ameliorate materialconditions of the many and also expeditenation building.

This moment, rare opportunity in ourhistory, calls for resolution, boldness,courage and urgency. Otherwise, theimmense and imminent possibilities ofthis great land of ours cannot, sadly andpainfully, be realised. •

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52

Masabatha Mthwecu of

the IDT explains how

because skills

development and the

harnessing of existing but

unused skills is central to

economic growth, the Joint

Initiative for Priority Skills

Acquisition (JIPSA) is such

an important pillar of the

ASGISA programme

JIPSA’s role in thebroader ASGISA

programme


The main objective of ASGISA is theelimination of the second economy.This will be achieved through the

expansion of the Expanded PublicWorks Programme through biggerrural road projects, a focus on mainte-nance and a roll-out of the EarlyChildhood Development component.

The second economy will also beeliminated through the strengthening ofmicrofinance initiatives, especially loansbetween R10 000 and R250 000. It willfurther be eliminated through targetedinitiatives for women and youths, reali-sation of “dead” assets, improving theregulatory environment for SMMEs andinstilling developmental elements in allsector strategies.

JIPSA and its strategies

JIPSA was established in March 2006. Itconsists of a Technical Team with a rep-resentation from business, academia andgovernment. Its objective is to coordi-

nate and ensure that South Africa hasthe needed skills for accelerated growthin the country.

An arm of JIPSA is the SkillsAcquisition and Placement Programme(SAPP) which is the implementationarm of JIPSA Technical Team. It seeksto address problems facing the unem-ployed, focusing on graduates, ungradu-ated technikon “graduates”, inexperi-enced professionals and matriculants.

SAPP also seeks to address gapsbetween institutions of higher learningand corporates.

JIPSA’s SAPP programme strategyinvolves placement of candidates withcorporates in thi country and abroad. Italso seeks to eliminate the unemployeddatabase hosted by the UmsobomvuYouth Fund.

It also coordinates governmentdepartments’ training efforts, coordi-nates donor funding nationally and pro-vides input towards JIPSA research.

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53JIPSA-SAPP progress highlights

With regard to placement of candidateswith corporates in the country andabroad, there has been placement ofwomen and youth with multinationals ona cost sharing basis. There are also skillstraining sessions for the above-mentionedgroups that last from six to 12 months.Some candidates have had employmentopportunities due to the initiative.

On the coordination of governmentdepartments training efforts, there arescholarship programmes for this training.There was also a workshop with all gov-ernment International Liaison Directors.

With regard to the elimination of theunemployed in the Umsobomvu data-base, some graduates have already beenplaced with corporates. The databasesfor the unemployed will be interfacedinto a melting pot. A Job Search hub forgraduates is being explored.

There was a national workshop to dis-cuss the coordination of donor funding

nationally for placement programmes.However, more important is the need todetermine how the funds are spread andan exploration of the ways to maximisevalue.

Lastly, there is input towards JIPSAresearch on: the types of institutions anddegrees obtained and demand fromcoorporates; the impact of unaccreditedinstitutions to unemployment; jobmobility for placed candidates; andtrends of corporate sector demands.

Conclusion

The ASGISA programme seeks tomake sure that there are effective part-nerships between government, labourand business. As a national sharedgrowth strategy, the whole ASGISA ini-tiative is not about government, it isabout us as a nation sharing our effortsso that we can make sure that weaddress our concerns together. Therehas to be that coordinated effort. •

JIPSA’s SAPPprogramme

strategy involvesplacement of

candidates withcorporates in this

country andabroad. It also

seeks to eliminatethe unemployed

database hosted bythe Umsobomvu

Youth Fund

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

54The rights of women

and those with

disabilities are just two

of the important factors

in laws relating to the

rights of workers, writes

Steve Kekana, Gauteng

Sports and Recreation

Social aspects of building acompetent, responsive andrepresentative labour force


The purpose of this paper is to con-tribute to the on-going dialoguearound building a competent,

responsive and representative publicservice labour force and to explore theequitability, practicability and imple-mentability of these Employment Acts asthey purport to protect the rights of pub-lic service employees.

The thrust of the argument followsthat non-compliance with these Acts,(ignorantly or purposefully) does notonly result in people finding themselveson the wrong side of the law, but alsoleaves employees unduly prejudiced andtheir rights infringed. In this paper, bothlabour relations practitioners and schol-ars are challenged to revisit those Actsand to popularise the matter of a compe-tent, responsive and representativelabour force in the public service in vari-ous ways so that all employees should besensitised and made aware of what isauthentically within their rights when itcomes to employment policy frame-works and guidelines.

Addressing key questions

In order to actively and meaningfullyengage this matter, maybe five simple

questions need to be asked: Do we reallyneed labour laws in the public service?Why do we need them? Who are sup-posed to be the implementers of suchlaws? Is there any methodology ofimplementation that we can suggest?What is it that impedes compliance withsuch laws?

A lawless society in our era would def-initely not be feasible. Imagine a publicservice without laws, in particular labourlaws. Yes, we do need labour laws in thepublic service. Contrary to what manyperceive the purpose of law to be, the pri-mary focus of law is to regulate relation-ships, and secondly to serve as a deter-rent in the event that non-compliancerears its ugly head.

Managers are central to the implemen-tation of laws in the public service andhave to play a pivotal role in seeing thatlaws are complied with by employees.

There is, however, no commonmethodology that managers can rely onin their task of seeing to the implementa-tion and monitoring of legislation, poli-cies and strategic plans. We will eitherhave a positivistic or a naturalistic man-ager.

A positivistic manager believes in theletter of the law. It does not matter how

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55

unfair or wrong the law may be, he willapply it as it is. He believes in the Latinmaxim: “Dicere non facere.”. A natura-listic manager believes not in the letter ofthe law, but in what the law should be.They believe in the higher law (the lawof God)

It is the existence of these two groupsof managers that is the reason why thepublic service looks mosaic-like, incon-sistent and somewhat confusing.

The uncertainty with which man-agers in the public service find them-selves having to deal with the multifari-ous legislative frameworks leads to turn-around problems due to dubious ordelayed decision-making, low morale ofstaff and fear which either culminates innon-compliance with policy frame-works or the excision of the previouslydisadvantaged groups.

When fear creeps in, rationale wearsthin. What causes fear? Fear is causedby uncertainty. Uncertainty itself iscaused by many things, e.g. tradition,religion, cultural practices, law, andabove all, insecurity.

When the apartheid regime promul-gated laws that restricted people’s move-ments, association and gathering,including loving each other, it was

because of the insecurity in the whiteminority which made them uncertain oftheir future with their black compatri-ots. The same applies to men. Today,when gender issues are raised, somemen want to stand against the wall anddefend to death that which is not worthdefending.

The Beijing conference has nowbecome a thorn wherewith women aresubjected to daily torture by men. Somemen are so scared of gender issues thatthey see themselves as an endangeredspecies. Just like the apartheid regimefelt insecure when black people gath-ered or moved into urban areas in bignumbers, men today are scared ofwomen gathering. Some even suggestthat if women have “a woman’s day”they also must have “a man’s day”.

The disability of the conscience

Unfortunately, all of the above are notan exception to people with disabilities.The plight of people with disabilities isaggravated by communities in whichthey live. They are viewed as peoplewho lack aspirations to lead fulfillinglives with dignity like everybody else.They are viewed as people who lack tal-

ents and skills, incapable of taking fullresponsibility for their livelihood.

One clever speaker addressing anHIV and Aids awareness conferencestunned her audience when she said:“We are all HIV in this house. The dif-ference is that some are HIV positiveand some are HIV negative.” Allow meto use her phrase and say: “Let us notforget that we are all disabled in thishouse. The difference is the type anddegree of the disability. Some of usmight be physically disabled while someare consciously disabled.”

It is this disability of the consciencewhich causes people with physical dis-abilities to suffer neglect and prejudice.This disability of the conscience has suc-ceeded at all material times to sow inse-curity, uncertainty and fear of the physi-cally disabled people in the human race.That is why we hear of this saying, “fearof the unknown”.

Society must be reminded that it has aresponsibility imposed on itself by thedictates of social justice to acknowledgethe rights of people with disabilities asfellow citizens and to integrate them inall developmental processes whereinsociety is involved.

Remember, real empowerment is thatwhich starts from the bottom up, i.e. itmust start from the previously disadvan-taged. My warning today is that:an atti-tude towards people with disabilities isboth our biggest barrier, in fact it is aclass suicide”.

Conclusion

I want to conclude by quoting MsBerenice de Lily who asked, “If you failto see a person, but only the disability,who is blind? If you cannot hear yourbrother’s cry for justice, who is deaf? Ifyou do not communicate with your sis-ter, but separate her from yourself, whois disabled? If your heart or mind can-not reach out to your neighbour, who isintellectually disabled? If you do notstand up for the rights of all people, whois physically disabled? •

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56

Improving the lives of all South Africans is everybody’s

business, and reataining and developing a skilled labour

force is vital to this, writes Sanlam’s Temba Mvusi

The business sector’s rolein accelerating growth


The private sector has made it clearthat it will not leave the socialresponsibility of building “a better

South Africa for all” to governmentalone, but would contribute by playingan active role in reforming the economyof South Africa.

There is no doubt that the private andpublic sectors, given their relative sizes,are significant and the one simply can-not ignore the other. This is why we asbusiness generally do not object to beingregulated by the state (in fact, we oftenneed the certainty of a sound regulatoryenvironment to proceed with our busi-ness), but effectiveness, efficiency andconsistency in implementation is of theutmost importance.

However, we do know, as we havequickly learned in the financial sector,that economic change comes with anelevated demand on the level and quali-ty of skills operating in the economy. Wesimply have to develop a sound labourforce that is highly skilled.

Broader public sector challenges

Challenges that face the economy arenumerous, but a critical one that weneed to jointly deal with is the ability ofthe state to retain skills. While we haveexperiences of massive skills migrationfrom the South African economy to therest of the world, of equal concern is themigration of skills from the public to theprivate sector.

Noting that government is the nerve-centre of any economy, any loss of effi-ciency and productivity in the publicsector will necessarily have a rippleeffect across the rest of the economy.

However, herein lies a challenge. Asthe economy continues to grow, as it hasbeen doing uninterruptedly since 1993,and as the financial sector grows to meetnew demands arising from this per-formance, it will suck in more skilledindividuals. This will of course increasethe internal competition for these finiteskills.

As the private sector sucks in moreskilled labour, the challenge facing us asan economy is how to preserve thecapacity of the state by retaining themuch-needed skilled manpower withingovernment? As a sector, we cannotpurport to have an answer to this diffi-cult and daunting question.

Some of us may already be saying,“What is the point?” The point is sim-ple: until we, together as a country,develop seamless institutions that willallow for a balanced flow of skillsbetween the public and private sector,we will forever experience a weakeningof the public sector during economic up-swings. This is clearly not sustainable.

How do we convince private sectorexperts to join government periodically.Instead of people taking their sabbaticalleave in London or New York, how canwe get them to want to spend this timedoing productive work in government?And how do we conscientise publicemployees joining the private sector

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

57

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

58

with no long-term desire to stay in theprivate sector?

We need to find answers to these dif-ficult questions as they are crucial to thehealth of both the economy and ourbusinesses.

Business in the “Age of Hope”

Although indirectly, the business sectoris just as dependent on all levels of gov-ernment being effective in deliveringservices to the public at large. The gen-eral public after all forms our client base,and business can only thrive if its clientsare in a sound position.

The “Age of Hope”, as articulated byPresident Thabo Mbeki, can be givenconcrete content by the active supportand involvement of the private sector. Ina business context, hope is synonymouswith growth – any business that stag-nates will eventually die. This alsoapplies to every individual, with growthbeing much more than physical growth.

We especially owe it to the poor ofSouth Africa to give them a real oppor-tunity of growing out of their presentpredicament.

The current emphasis on raising serv-ice delivery to the poor is of particularrelevance because of the priority thataccess to financial services enjoys.Financial institutions generally view theentry-level market, consisting of peoplewho have never before used financialservices, as potentially the biggestgrowth market of the future.

Sanlam is itself targeting the entrylevel of the market, and it stands to rea-son that improved service delivery to thissection of our population will expandour potential client base and ease ouraccess to them. We of course recognisethat we together with the state are part-ners in this endeavour, and we are there-fore committed to enhancing access toour products and services, and improv-ing the financial literacy of the popula-tion through education and training.

The full spectrum of governmentactivity presently takes place within thecontext of the Accelerated and SharedGrowth Initiative, ASGISA. Although

ASGISA is limited in nature, and gov-ernment has gone out of its way to statethat it should not be regarded as a newset of comprehensive policies (GEAR II,so to speak), it has come the closest yet todefining a national vision for SouthAfrica with which all sections of societycan identify.

The ideals of halving unemploymentand poverty by 2014 will continue tofocus our minds, as challenging as theseideals may be.

The business sector has certainlyaccepted the framework spelled out inASGISA as an anchor for its own plansand deliberations. For example, the sim-plicity of the 6% growth target makes iteasy to identify with. By setting thisgoal, government has created a frame-work within which business can developtheir expansion plans.

The aim of ASGISA is to identify keyconstraints that are holding economicgrowth and development back, and thatare preventing the benefits of growthfrom being shared by all our citizens. Asa starting point for a growth and devel-opment strategy, this approach cannotbe faulted.

Among the six binding constraintslisted by ASGISA, two stand out asbeing of particular relevance to this con-ference: firstly, a shortage of skilledlabour in the South African economy inthe public as well as the private sectors,including at a managerial level; and, sec-ondly, deficiencies in state organisation,capacity and leadership.

Without the removal of these twoconstraints, the other constraints listedwill be extremely difficult to address, forexample the dire need to expand ourinfrastructure over a broad spectrum.

It can generally be said that SouthAfrica is served by a good set of policies.If we compare ourselves to countriesfaced with challenges that are similar toour own, for example in the rest of Africaand in South America, we can rightfullyclaim to be leaders in policy making.

In fact, it is striking that those coun-tries that have been able to improve theirpositions meaningfully in recent years(for example, Brazil), have by and large

put in place the package of policiesSouth Africa had implemented in thelatter half of the 1990s.

While good policies are a necessarycondition for economic development,they can only be as good as their imple-mentation. Indeed, successful countriesdistinguish themselves from the packthrough good implementation of theirpolicies. A crucial component of policyimplementation is capacity building.

The way I see it, capacity building isabout the following: • ensuring that the right man or woman

is in the right job; • ensuring that everybody is heading in

the right direction, viz. that there isconsensus on what the national proj-ect entails;

• ensuring that the necessary resourcesare available throughout the organi-zation;

• creating the right incentives for allcivil servants to perform to the best oftheir abilities;

• being dynamic and adaptable, learn-ing as we go along;

• being transparent and accountable; • being dedicated and prepared to make

sacrifices; and • being incorruptible, committed to the

general welfare and not one’s ownwelfare, something to whichPresident Mbeki alluded recently.

I am convinced that if we concentrateon the right things service delivery canbe improved to such an extent that wewill truly achieve accelerated and sharedgrowth like never before.

Conclusion

Sanlam would like to commit itself tosupporting the Senior ManagementService conference, organised by theDepartment of Public Service andAdministration, for the next three years.We trust that this long-term commit-ment, reflecting Sanlam’s faith in thevalue of this initiative, will go some waytowards helping to ensure the success ofJIPSA, ASGISA and other similar gov-ernment initiatives. •

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59

Ebrahim Rassool,

Premier of the Western

Cape, explains the

socio-economic impact

of “putting people first”

The imperative of Batho Pele in a pot

of transitions

Batho Pe le Learn ing Network

It was not by accident that the nationalCabinet endorsed the eight Batho Peleprinciples in 2004. I think it was a

deliberative strategy following the TenYear Review about what was workingand not working.

The Ten Year Review was a momentof growing introspection for all SouthAfricans, particularly government ofSouth Africa. We asked ourselves whatdid we do right in the first ten years andwhere did we fall short.

If we had the opportunity to improvethings, where would we improve them?If we had the opportunity to make fur-ther transitions in South African societyand its governance, then where wouldwe make those transitions?

I think the endorsement by Cabinet in2004 was deliberative decision becausethe idea of “putting people first” was one

of those things that we may not havealways perfectied in the first ten years offreedom and democracy.

It was not because we were malicious,out of touch and did not care about ourpeople. It was because we sometimes gotpre-occupied and prioritised so manydifferent things in such a way that “car-ing for people” and “putting peoplefirst” was such a taken-for-grantednotion. We thought we were doing it yetin the experience of people this was notwhat we were doing. Moving to BathoPele was, therefore, one of the manytransitions that were made in 2004.

Shifting to the socio-economic

One of the transitions we made after2004 as a result of the Ten Year Reviewwas a shift from an emphasis (in the first

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

60ten years) on the socio-political to thesocio-economic.

In the first ten years we understoodthat we simply had to deal with the per-vasive poverty that our people faced as aresult of apartheid. We needed to makesure that services such as water reachour people because the overwhelmingmajority had no access to running water.

Electricity was also expanded becauseunder apartheid the majority of our peo-ple did not have access to it. There wasalso a focus on building as many housingstructures as was possible because hous-ing was one of the major services whereour people were denied access.

We also had to consolidate ourdemocracy. We had the Constitution butwe had to consolidate it so that peopleunderstood their rights and saw them-selves as free. The first ten years, there-fore, was largely about the social – get-ting in place things that our peoplerequired to move away from poverty.

It was also about the political whichmainly meant consolidating the politicalprocess, making sure that there is nocounter-revolution and the rights way ofculture took root even in the face of

great provocation by criminals who tryto push us away from the human rightsorientation by making it tempting for usto hang them.

In the first ten years we also had toensure that our economy did notimplode. We were not even at a spacewhere we wanted to expand our econo-my. We had to maintain what we hadbefore we could begin to expand oureconomy. So the first transition wasfrom the socio-political now to the socio-economic.

On the socio-economic, we speakabout those things that we must contin-ue to do particularly in housing, water,electricity and other basic services.Where we make the major transition istowards the economic.

For the first time we have a Growthand Development Strategy. We have gotASGISA that is meant to kick-start eco-nomic growth. We also have possibilitiesof creating more jobs than ever before,and are training skilled people throughchanges in the education system.

So the transition I want to emphasisehere is a transition from the socio-politi-cal in the first ten years, to the socio-eco-

nomic in the second ten years. BathoPele starts with you recognising that youare part of this transition that is beingmade in society. If our public servicedoes not understand this, it does notunderstand its goal.

The value of quality

The second transition that I think spillsoff the first transition is the transitionfrom the quantitative to the qualitative.In the first ten years we chased numbers.We needed to give five million peopleaccess to running water, two millionpeople access to electricity, six millionpeople access to telephones, one millionpeople houses (in the first five years),etc.

In the first ten years, we were in asense concerned with the figures that wehad put into the public arena about whatwe would achieve. We were all domi-nated by the need to chase these num-bers to ensure the quantification ofchange that we needed to make.

It was important for the credibility ofgovernment and the public service thatwe delivered on these numbers. It was

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61

also important for the patience of ourpeople that we delivered on these num-bers.

The second transition meant that weneeded to move from the obsession withnumbers. We soon realised that wemight have reached our quantitativetargets, for example, with regard tohousing, but we realised that the housesbuilt were very small and were not ofthe kind of quality that we wanted.

So we did reach our quantitative tar-gets, but did we get quality that wewanted out of it?

This second transition from quantityto quality has a direct bearing on BathoPele because it was in the human inter-action that we understood that qualitywas assured. It was what happenedbetween a teacher and a learner, doctorand a patient that was important forquality. This was a key informant to theissue of Batho Pele.

Obsessing with the public

The third transition is the transitionfrom government being internallyfocused, to government being externallyfocused. There was a shift from obses-sion with ourselves to a care and focuson our clients.

The first ten years was all about thethree ‘r’s after our transformation:rationalisation, restructuring and repre-sentativity. These were the three ‘r’s thatdominated government life in the firstten years of democracy.

The public service changed its facedramatically. It was necessary becauseyou cannot be a representative state ifyou are not representative of the people.You cannot assume that theorganograms that worked underapartheid should continue to do goodthings under democracy. They had to bechanged.

The point that I am making is that weneeded to shift, not because it waswrong, but because we had succeeded inour internal focus and in 2004 we need-ed to make a shift towards a focus on thecommunity – hence the idea of “peoplefirst”.

In the second decade of freedom anddemocracy we were going to “put peoplefirst” and were going to change ourfocus from internal to external caring.

These were the three major transitionsthat we made in 2004. As a result, theapproval of Batho Pele in 2004 was notan accident. It was a result of a big intro-spection about what we needed to do.

If there is any other lesson that wehave learnt, it is that our public serviceacross the country is a microcosm of oursociety. To a large extent, what we do inthe public service will be reflected tosociety. What we experience in the pub-lic service will easily be experienced insociety.

In the spirit of “charity begins athome”, we needed to get things rightamongst ourselves in order to get it rightin society. We therefore need to under-stand that Batho Pele is not simply anattempt to get public servants to care.Batho Pele is an attempt to genuinelytreat the public service as the sample ofsociety. We need to inculcate caringbehaviours amongst us in order thatthey can naturally exude from you asyou go about doing your work.

Other mini-transitions

We needed within the public service, tomake a mini-transition from differenceto diversity. The first ten years was apublic service of different people – thosethat were inherited from apartheid andthose that came in during democracy.

There were different languages, races,and cultural groups. They just worked,continued being different whilst sharingthe same space. The transition we need-ed to make after the first ten years wasto change the “difference” into “diversi-ty”.

What diversity says is that we are allunited by one or sets of umbilical cordsof the South African nation and thepublic service, but at the same time wecould be proud of the things that makeus diverse. This takes us away frommanaging difference to utilising diversi-ty because when we come together inour diversity, the diversity becomes the

engine of creativity, new ideas and inno-vation.

Batho Pele premised itself on how youinteract with those that are different toyou within the public service and if it iseasy in the public service when a differ-ent person comes to you as a client toserve them with care.

The second mini-transition that hadto be made is a transition from coopera-tion to trust. We did not simply want thepublic service to follow instructions andcooperate with each other. We wantedpublic servants to reciprocate with eachother. We needed public servants tounderstand that they are interdependentof each other. Trust should be as a resultof recognition of each other’s compe-tence and expertise which when joinedtogether produces positive results.

We want to extend this between thespheres of government through the ideaof the Single Public Service (SPS). TheSPS will ensure the existence of trustbetween the three spheres of govern-ment.

We should avoid passing responsibili-ty and blaming each other if things donot go as planned. Unfortunately, this iscurrently the norm especially in the rela-tionship between the spheres of govern-ment.

Batho Pele is therefore first about ustrusting each other so that we canengender trust with the public. We tendto badmouth each other in front of thepublic. This is because we do not recog-nise each other’s competence and try topass the buck so that when blame points,it does not point at us.

Conclusion

The last of these mini-transitions, as away of conclusion, is also to move fromefficiency to caring and empathy. Wehave got to continue to be efficient, butat the same time we have got to be ableto be empathetic in the way that we doour work.

This is so that when people come to usfor services, they must not only judge uson our efficiency but the dignity withwhich the service is provided. •

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62

Dr Zwelakhe Tshandu,

Deputy Director-General,

DPSA, discusses the

benefits of the Single

Public Service and

stresses the importance

of Service Delivery

Improvement Plans

Value of the Batho Pele

Learning Network


The Batho Pele Learning Network,which has been in existence for thepast few years, is one of our many

platforms that provide space for rigor-ous and robust debate and discussionson the best practices, lessons and experi-ences gathered as we grapple with ourmandate of delivering quality services tothe citizens of our country.

This year’s Learning Network hasbeen more inclusive as we have man-aged to draw in some of our colleaguesfrom Local Government. We acknowl-edge with deep appreciation the pres-ence of different Municipal Managerswho under difficult circumstances haveleft their highly demanding schedules tocome and attend this occasion. This, Ibelieve is in response to the invitationextended to them.

It is a great achievement as we movetowards a Single Public Service (SPS),which seeks to truly integrate our manydifferent systems of delivering services.

The Single Public Service and Batho Pele

For some of you, this will be the firsttime that you hear about what we callthe “Single Public Service initiative”.The main aim of the SPS initiative is tointegrate the delivery of public servicesacross all spheres of government. Thisinitiative has been approved by Cabinetand we are preparing the relevant leg-islative framework to enable its smoothimplementation.

A number of work-streams have beenidentified, ranging from the harmonisa-tion of conditions of service across allthree spheres of government, HRD,ICT, to the creation of enabling legisla-tion to ensure the realisation of the SPS,and the overarching access strategy forcitizens.

Remember there is a general percep-tion that Batho Pele is non-existent atLocal Government, a perception onewould caution against. The case study

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63from the Ethekwini Municipality andmunicipalities within the Western Capeand other provinces bear testimony tothe reality of a gradual and consistentcascading of Batho Pele to LocalGovernment.

Continuity in the use of case studies

The two-day programme reflects astrong continuation to some of the casestudies presented in the previous occa-sions of a similar nature. This type ofcontinuity needs to be maintained toensure that the public service is a learn-ing organisation where learning leads totangible results.

We cannot afford to have case studyafter case study and nothing happensthereafter. We need to ensure visibletracking of issues debated and resolveduntil we are satisfied that we have takena step forward towards better servicedelivery for all.

Nor can we have a situation whereevery case study constitutes a baselinewithout a cumulative building on whatalready exists.

Service Delivery Improvement Plans

Anther milestone we have achieved todate is to set in motion wheels gearedtowards the actual development ofService Delivery Improvement Plans(SDIP). As you are aware, the imple-mentation of the Batho Pele pro-gramme occupies centre stage in gov-ernment. This became even clearerduring the President’s State of theNation Address delivered in February2006.

The Minister for Public Service andAdministration (MPSA) furtherstressed the importance of the BathoPele programme in her Budget VoteSpeech of May 2006.

In line with this Cabinet has endorseda strategy to revitalise Batho Pele, thecentral focus of which is the improve-ment of service delivery. The develop-ment of SDIPs as required by the PublicService Regulations (1999) should beprioritised in the public service.

In view of this, the Minister for thePublic Service and Administration hasset a target for the development of SDIP

for implementation by all departmentsin 1 April 2007. To ensure that this hap-pens, the DPSA has established a teamto assist departments.

Many departments have already madeuse of the DPSA’s offer of assistance.Those who have not done so yet, andrequire assistance, should contact theDPSA team as soon as possible toarrange an appointment.

Once the SDIPs are in place and func-tional, the implementation of variousBatho Pele initiatives will be strength-ened. You will agree with me that unlesswe have credible and functioningSDIPs, there is no way in which we willbe able to deliver improved services tothe citizen.

The notion behind SDIPs is that youcannot improve what you cannot meas-ure. An SDIP identifies areas ofimprovement. The next step will be theannual assessment of performanceagainst standards stipulated in theSDIPs.

As we engage in our daily activities,we should remember the challengeslying ahead of us as public servants. Tomention just a few, the 2010 World Cupand next year’s Anti-CorruptionSummit (Global Forum V) come toSouth Africa as a test, in particular to usas public servants.

They are a test for our capability tosustain our record of successfully host-ing international events. I want to urgeyou to prepare thoroughly for these andother challenges. I do not doubt thecapacity that prevails among us.

This preparation also entails changingour mindset and becoming brand cham-pions for selling South Africa as a desti-nation of choice because South Africa is“Alive with Possibilities”.

Conclusion

The culture of learning, sharing and col-laboration takes centre stage within ourservice delivery value chain. This cannotbe over emphasized as I am convincedthat colleagues will agree with me thatonly collective efforts will take us wherewe want to find ourselves. •


64

The Centre for

Excellence is on track

to provide service

excellence to the

transport industry,

writes Andries Jordaan,

Office of the Premier,

Western Cape

Creating a centrefor excellence


“Creating a centre for excel-lence!” was a statement thatwas made by the Director of

Safety and Compliance, NomagcisaTsipa-Sipoyo, at a meeting that we hadwith the Head of Department. Thisbecame a slogan with which we try toachieve our service delivery goals.

The purpose of the Public TransportCentre is to create a transformed centrewhere the public will have access to effi-cient information services, that adheresto service standards and thereforeaddresses the creation of the centre forexcellence.

At the end of a day we try to achievethe implementation of client-focusedbusiness processes and procedures inalignment with legislation. The importthing her is to manage the process from

start to end, and not to see the process aslittle silos. We look at what the clientwants and not at what the organisationwants.

We are also looking at the enhance-ment of the workplace – that it shouldbe aligned with and promote the servicedelivery that we want to achieve. Thethird important part is addressing lowstaff morale. At least you can expectthat, especially since people have beengoing through a four-year-long processof change which had resulted in verylow staff morale.

Background

Our problem statement was that thePublic Transport Centre operated with-in a business environment which did not


65


66promote service delivery and thereforeled to low staff morale and poor servicedelivery.

The centre operates within the threemajor functions. Firstly, the registrationof all taxi routes, associations, members,drivers and vehicles. This was done bythe Provincial Operating Registrar.

The second function is the administra-tion of applications (in the back office) fortaxi operating licenses and licenses for allmodes of transport. This takes placethrough a close committee process.

The third function is the execution ofspecial projects. This includes the cur-rent conversion and recapitalisationprocess. Currently, this is supported by afull back office administration in thethree contact centres (Cape Town,George and Piketberg).

The major clients within the publictransport industry in the centre are asso-ciations, operators, drivers, local author-ities, taxi councils, meter taxis and thepublic itself. The basic business processis the administration of all the applica-tions.

For each mode of motor transport

there are at least 11 applications whichvary from long distance licenses, licensesfor special occasions, the bus licensing(e.g. for school buses), mini buses andtourism transport.

During the past four years there havebeen several interventions, of which thelast one in 2006 is the most importantone, where the Minister of Transportgave us the mandate to try and trans-form the centre into the Centre forExcellence.

When we started in 2006 there wasalready four years of work done. Thatincluded work done by theOrganisational Development Com-ponent from the year 2000 to 2002.

The Organisational DevelopmentComponent findings at that stageincluded the high rate of staff vacancy,especially within the management partof the organisation. That brought a lotof instability to the staff due to insecuri-ty and lack of direction. People were justdoing their jobs as they were told andwhen they were told what to do.

On the procedures side, there wereoutdated systems, no route verifications,

no public transport plan, and the biggestfinding was the existence of incompleteapplications. As you can imagine, whenan application comes into the system ithas to be handled within the prescribed90-day process prescribed in the legisla-tion. If it is taken in wrongly, it has to gothrough the process and sometimesthese incomplete applications (whichwere about 80% of them) led to a lot ofprocess problems later on.

If we look at service delivery, between15 000 and 20 000 applications per yearwent through the centre. The averagewaiting time for a person just to behelped was between two to six hours.Where the Act prescribed a 90-dayprocess, the processing of applicationswent from six to 24 months.

There was no formal inquiries facilitywhere low staff morale led to poor serv-ice delivery. Facilities layout was alsopoor. On the administration side, therewere no policies in place and there waspoor inventory control.

In general you could think that withlow staff morale and the public havingto wait for two to six hours in order to


67

get assistance, there was an immediatesense of aggressiveness from both staffand clients.

This led to corruption, fraud and evensabotage of the processes where wefound thousands of applications lying indrawers with people not wanting toattend to them because the process wastoo long and they felt they were gettingtoo behind in their work.

Also the cost of application versus theadministration cost was a problem. InCape Town an application would costgovernment R840, and in the Georgeoffice about R4 000 and yet governmentonly charges R25 per application.

In 2002 there was a recommendationfor the implementation of the ImprovedNational System to develop more client-focussed processes, enhanced customerinterface, electronic document manage-ment system, electronic hearing system,and also refine Board responsibilities asit was determined that not all cases canbe presented to the Board.

There was also a recommendation forthe development and implementation oftransport plans, and the importance ofthe role of local authorities in theseplans. It was also recommended that thisbe supported as a proper structure, withjob descriptions and a new managementframework.

When the Task Team came in 2005 anintra-management team was appointed,which gave stability to the organisation.An interim process enhancement wasmade, with interim changes to the facil-ity.

A call centre, help desk and bulkapplication desk were established.Traffic officers were appointed and thebacklog in the system was reduced by50%. However, not all recommenda-tions were implemented at that time.

The 2006 interventions andphases of the project

The guiding concept of these interven-tions was to, where possible, centraliseall Transport and Works-related servic-es where they can be accessible to thegeneral public. The objectives of this

intervention were process enhancement,systems implementation and interfaces,facilities improvement, capacity andtraining, and communication to thecommunity about the new services.

A special Steering Committee wasestablished which was led by the Headof Department because buy-in from topmanagement is very important. If youdo not have buy-in from top manage-ment your intervention is destined forfailure.

The Task Team (acting managers,OD), senior managers and representa-tives from the department were all partof the Steering Committee. We alsoappointed specialised consultants thatdealt with Shared Service Centres, sys-tems development, labor relations, andchange management. There were alsoother consultants such as architects forthe facilities.

The project consisted of three phases.The first phase consisted of basic buy-inand basic analysis of what the situationwas at that stage. In the area of buy-in,we managed to establish political andmanagement commitment and complet-ed the revision process.

The structure and change manage-ment strategy was developed with postsadvertised. The first phase also saw thedesign phase of the New Shared ServiceCentre. The phase also involved com-munication to the transport industry.

The second phase involves the detail-ing and roll-out of the project. Itinvolves the development of the idealprocesses including electronic documentmanagement, SMS in-contact rightthrough the 90-day process, and a callcentre. All these are in progress.

The second phase also involves datamerging and go-live on NLTIS which isalso in progress. The phase also involvesthe training of new staff, interim facilityenhancement, a move to a new building,the amendment of administration fees,development of service standards, andcommunication to industry which iscontinuous.

Phase three involves the final imple-mentation, testing and process enhance-ment. In this phase, there will be incor-

poration of all public transport relatedservices into the New Shared ServiceCentre with services identified, con-firmed and implemented within theShared Service Centre.

Intervention enhancements

So far the enhancements that were donethrough the intervention include a con-tact centre which provides services to allclients. It is a one-stop contact centre.We have centralised back-office process-ing to bring down the costs of processingan application below R800. We have arunning Electronic ProcessManagement system which includesdocument scanning which has to complywith the 90-day process.

We have also implemented an on-sitevehicle checking to promote safety andcompliance. We found that a lot of peo-ple came in with a road worthy certifi-cate that was issued the previous week,but the car is not road worthy. The traf-fic officers that we appointed deal withthis immediately.

There is also electronic messagingthroughout processing, a helpdesk, aclearance of backlog applications,upgraded and new facilities, a newstructure and capacity.

Conclusion

Our challenge at this stage is changingthe mindset of the industry, where theindustry was so used to bad service tosuch an extent that it is difficult for themto find the New Service Centre andassociate with it and the new processesthat follow from this.

The achieving and maintenance ofservice excellence has also been a chal-lenge. This is the case with setting aworld-class standard sand being leadersfor Provincial Operating LicensingAdministration.

The other challenge has been imple-mentation within the set time limit. Oneof our biggest challenges is the datainterface and support from the nationallevel. It has been a real battle to get thison the go. •


68Solly Mogaladi,

of SAMDI, details

lessons learned from

the UK that can be

used in the introduction

of Batho Pele National

Standards

The UK Charter Mark System:

Lessons from the South African public service


This paper does not focus on theUnited Kingdom Charter Marksystem, but rather on the lesson it

has for the South African public service– namely the introduction of the BathoPele National Standards.

The notion of the Batho Pele NationalStandards is still an idea. The reason it ispresented here is because it has someministerial approval attached to it as weare trying to make sure that we improveon Batho Pele. It is one of the ways tobring it forward for public critical com-mentary.

The 1997 White Paper on transform-ing the public service (Batho Pele) laidthe foundation for a transformed publicservice delivery system. It transformedthe public service from serving theminority to providing services to all citi-zens.

The White Paper is modeled on theUK’s Putting People First campaignchampioned by the Cabinet Office. As aWhite Paper, it informs part of the leg-islative framework for improved gover-nance and it is complemented by otherdocuments such as the Public ServiceCode of Conduct, Public Service Anti-Corruption Strategy etc.

Batho Pele Status Quo

Regular surveys conducted by the Officeof the Public Service Commission(OPSC) and the Department of PublicService and Administration (DPSA)point to continued existence of the gapbetween policy and implementationgenerally. These surveys also point tothe lack of management endorsement ofBatho Pele with its implementation seenas the responsibility of human resourcesunits.

There is also a lack of organisationalculture necessary to promote the ethos ofBatho Pele. This is coupled with frag-mentation in the implementation ofBatho Pele; ineffective implementationstrategies (PMDS) and lack of attentionto Batho Pele at local government level.Some progress has been made, but thereis a need to do more.

In a 2004 media briefing MinisterGeraldine Fraser-Moleketi said, “BathoPele cannot be owned by few andignored by many.” This statement is tes-timony to a prevailing situation in manydepartments within the public service. Itposes a challenge to us in terms of howwe address this.


69

There is an emphasis on the need formeasurement of compliance. This iswhat the SDIPs will attempt to do. Thequestion is, against which performancestandard? Let us explore an examplethat will assist us with internationalbenchmarking.

The UK Charter Mark System case study

The Charter Mark is a national standardfor excellent customer service in the UKpublic sector. It was launched initially in1992 as an Award for Excellence. It is aquality improvement tool centredaround the needs of the customer.

It links up well with other qualitymodels like the EFQM and BalancedScorecard. It recognises and encouragesexcellence and innovation with highstandards delivered flexibly.

The Charter Mark is based on six crite-ria similar to the eight principles of BathoPele. These six criteria include: to set stan-dards and performing well; activelyengage with your customers, partners andstaff; be fair and accessible to everyoneand promote choice; continuously devel-op and improve; use your resources effec-tively and imaginatively; and contributeto improving opportunities and quality oflife in the communities you serve.

Each of these criteria has sub-criteriathat are measured against a four-bandscale of compliance:• best practice (all criteria satisfied

beyond requirements);• full compliance (all criteria satisfied);• partial compliance (some but not all

met and those not satisfied could beput in place in three months); and

• major non-compliance (non of criteriasatisfied and can be remedied in threemonths).

Assessment of compliance in theCharter Mark system is divided into two– internal assessment and formal assess-ment. Internal assessment is mainly selfassessment. It includes a web-based toolwhich people are free to use.

It gives an indication of the results offormal assessment (with no guarantees).It can be used as a management tool on

the implementation of Batho Pele indepartments.

As indicated, there are also formalassessments of compliance. This is doneby accredited assessment organisations.Assessed organisations have the right toappeal the assessment results. Suchresults form the basis of certification ofcompliance.

Interfaces with proposed nationalstandard on Batho Pele

By interfaces I am referring to thelinkages that exist between what isintended and what is already happen-ing. One of the major tools to fostercompliance to Batho Pele are ServiceDelivery Improvement Plans (SDIPs)which focus mainly on setting standardsbut include consultative and redressarrangements.

Departments still compile SDIPs dif-ferently. For example, standards aredefined differently and sometimes unin-formed by baseline levels and citizens’demands. The new drive for complianceis, however, comprehensive but stillwithout common performance indica-tors.

What needs to be understood is thatthe Batho Pele White Paper is inherent-ly a policy framework. Because of this, itdoes not spell out details with regard toperformance indicators. We will fill thisgap through the Batho Pele nationalstandard initiative.

There are clear linkages betweenwhat we are proposing and the AnnualReport on the State of the PublicService. This OPSC document focuseson the nine constitutional principles ofpublic administration as explained inChapter 10 of our Constitution.

With that, there are Batho Pele Audits(Citizens’ Satisfaction Surveys, Citizens’Forums etc which measure the extent ofthe implementation of Batho Pele exter-nally. Although these are important,they do not foster the existence of theBatho Pele culture internally wheremanagers should play an active role topromote it.

Current developments

The Batho Pele National Standard hasbeen approved as a project to comple-ment existing efforts in promotingBatho Pele. The DPSA is in a process ofsetting up a stakeholder team to facili-tate the design and implementation ofthe Batho Pele national standard.

The initial design has commencedthrough the support of the AcceleratedDevelopment Team (Action Learningproject). Ideally the design should havebeen completed in January 2007 withconsultations for buy-in to be done inFebruary 2007.

The final draft of the national stan-dard should be submitted in March 2007with preparations and launch of thestandard done in April 2007.

Conclusion

I would like to conclude by providingthe guiding principles for the imple-mentation of Batho Pele. The imple-mentation has to be guided by a bottom-up approach on recognition for thework already done in the promotion ofBatho Pele.

This implementation also has to bedevelopmentally orientated. It will dothis by recognising different levels ofdevelopment in the implementation ofBatho Pele. It can also do this by strivingtowards getting all public sector institu-tions geared towards service deliveryimprovement through advice and sup-port.

Another important guiding principlefor implementing Batho Pele is attain-ing compliance with the Batho Pele pol-icy and regulatory framework (theBatho Pele White Paper, Public ServiceRegulations – Part C, as well as legisla-tion such as Promotion ofAdministration Justice Act, Promotionof Access to Information Act etc).

There also has to be commitment tohigh performance standards; and flexi-bility, which should be applied in thewhole of the public service in the threespheres of government. •


70

Ms ZPP Tantsi explains

how the Kimberley Hospital

Complex found a solution

to the problem of ensuring

that the bond between a

mother and baby is

maintained when the child

is admitted to hospital

Kimberley’s Breastfeeding

Mother’s Lodge


The Kimberley Hospital Complex isthe only referral hospital in theNorthern Province. Besides provid-

ing level one care (primary), it renderslevel two and three care (specialisedcare). It also provides paediatric care,where the services for children that weprovide include medical, surgical andneonatal care.

One of the best approaches in thecountry is Kangaroo Mother Care.Because we are a baby-friendly hospital,we are promoting breastfeedingthrough the Breastfeeding Mother’sLodge.

The hospital is located in a provincethat is largely rural. Communities in thearea are largely poverty stricken withhigh unemployment, illiteracy and mal-nutrition rates. Perhaps more significantis that the area experiences high rates of

infant mortality. You might rememberthat one of the MillenniumDevelopment Goals is reducing infantmortality. The Breastfeeding Mother’sLodge needs to be understood withinthis broad context.

Due to the high unemployment andilliteracy rates most people who come tothe hospital, outside Kimberly in partic-ular, live in undesirable socio-economicconditions. The hospital is renderingservices largely to people that come fromthis kind of background.

The lodge houses the mothers of chil-dren who have been admitted to thehospital. We want to ensure that thebonding between the mother and childcontinues uninterrupted.

We need mothers to continue breast-feeding. To us it is about caring for theinfant, not necessarily a five-year-old,


71

but a baby that has lived for a few dayswith a mother discharged from hospitalafter giving birth.

Problems that were faced before the initiative

The Breastfeeding Mothers’ Lodge ini-tiative is an attempt to address a range ofproblems. On a monthly basis we usedto admit 90 babies on average withextreme low birth weight. It is evenworse now because of HIV and Aids.When we talk about children that diewithin five to 15 days after birth we cansee if our interventions are working interms of the stages in the developmentof a child.

The bed occupancy rate is also veryhigh. This occurs when bed occupancyrate and average rate of stay is above thenorm. The average length of stay forany condition in a rural setup is three tofour days. Once a person stays morethan this duration then there is some-thing wrong with the system.

It could be wrong interventions, qual-ity measures and level of competenciesof both paediatricians and nurses. Itmight also be the result of impropermonitoring of the progress of thepatient.

The third problem involves the quali-ty of care. The rate of readmission ofneonates was high. If a baby is dis-charged after delivery and readmittedmore than once, then there is a problemwith clinical intervention.

Secondly, the rate of infections posedproblems. In most instances people losebabies because of post-infections. Hencethe issue of infection control in our hos-pital is critical.

The nutritional status of neonates isanother area which concerned people.Lastly, the one that was most critical,was perinatal death, the death of a childafter delivery.

The nature of the lodge

One of the initiatives that the hospitalundertook in 1997 as part of the WealthHealth Organisation (WHO) and

UNICEF recommendations was pro-moting breastfeeding and the KangarooMother’s Care. As a hospital we boughtinto this idea by providing 30 beds in theunit where we accommodate breastfeed-ing mothers of neonates.

The lodge is not a ward becausemothers are not there for clinical inter-ventions. They are there because thechild is admitted to the hospital.

The facility is managed by a healthpromoter with catering provided for themothers. Basic hygiene resources such asbathrooms, soap, toothpaste etc are alsoprovided. Security is also provided.

What is important to us in terms ofthe initiative is the kind of programmesthat are running in the lodge One ofthese is promoting health, because wehad to ask ourselves one question: What


72

are we going to do with a mother whilstthe child is admitted?

In response to this question, thePaediatric Department together withthe Obstetrics and Gynaecology depart-ments, worked to teach mothers how tobreastfeed and the importance of this,and on the promotion of basic hygiene.

Most of the mothers housed in thelodge are women from rural areas. Theyare high-risk mothers who cannot bedelivered in a level one facility, theyneed specialist care. They move fromwherever they are coming from toKimberley. If the mother is going to beadmitted for more than three days, thenyou need to take care of the mother.That is the rationale behind the mothers‘lodge so that a mother is able to stay tobond with the child.

The responsibility of the PaediatricDepartment is to ensure that the moth-ers get educational programmes and atthe same time find a way of bondingwith their children.

At certain times mothers need to go tothe ward where children are to breast-feed. We encourage them to breastfeedmainly because they cannot afford tobuy food for their children due to thesocio-economic situation. Besides this,the best thing to do in order to nurtureyour child is to breastfeed.

Moreover, breastfeeding is veryimportant in the first five days after thechild is born, a period where we normal-ly lose most children. It is a priority inthe health sector that we do not losethese children, hence the emphasis onbreastfeeding.

There are also skills programmes atthe lodge. We have sessions where we letmothers do food gardening, hairdress-ing, sewing and knitting. They do all ofthis for their own benefit.

Resources needed to establishthe lodge

What is needed is a place to accommo-date mothers. There has to be a budgetto provide meals. Personnel have to beavailable to manage the lodge. Managershave to be committed to the initiative.

Support of the clinicians and nursingstaff has to be solicited. The facility hasto be maintained. There hav3e to be pro-grammes to engage mothers duringtheir stay at the lodge.

The lodge was a management initia-tive so it was easy to implement. To bemore precise, it was the initiative of cli-nicians and nursing personnel from thePaediatric Department which was sup-ported by management, and Dietetics

Department working hand in handwith the Department of Agriculturewhich provide the seeds for the mothersto take home when the child is dis-charged.

The Nutrition Department also con-ducted teaching sessions with the moth-ers and local business partners whodonated soaps, toothbrushes, televisionetc.

Current status

The lodge is now part of the programmedeliverables of the PaediatricDepartment. We also have scholarshipsfor nurses. We now have two nurses whoare taking care of the mothers. Theirmeals are now booked on-line becausethe catering services are also on-line.

There is also an information manage-ment structure and a reporting system inplace. Quality assurance programmesare happening in the lodge and they arelinked to mindset.

Conclusion

The lodge has ensured better bondingbetween mothers and children.Breastfeeding takes longer now, whichis good for children. We are seeing adecrease in infections because of the pro-gramme. Physiologically the childrenare more stable and the mothers aremore empowered.

Furthermore, the lodge has decreasedstress in both mothers and babies.Communication between themimproves. It also has a positive impact onthe growth and development of thebabies.

However, we do have challenges. Thelodge is not within the hospital whichcreates security problems every timemothers have to go and breastfeed in theevening.

Continuous support for the skills pro-gramme is another challenge. It is alsodifficult to ensure sustainability once thechild is discharged. We do not reallyknow who provides after discharge.

It is also difficult to ensure compliancewith the breastfeeding schedule.Sometimes mothers disappear on Fridayand come back on Sunday.

Despite all this, we believe in theBogota declaration of Kangaroo MotherCare of 1998 that “Kangaroo MothersCare and Breastfeeding is a basic rightof the newborn and should be an inte-gral part of the management of lowbirth weight and full term newborn, inall settings and all levels of care in allcountries”. •

We are seeing

a decrease in

infections

because of the

programme.

Physiologically

the children are

more stable and

the mothers

are more

empowered


73

Thabisile Mfeka,

Senior Manager:

Customer Services,

stresses the stresses the

importance of buy-in from

all stakeholders and

support from leaders in

the implementation of

Batho Pele

The implementation ofBatho Pele by the

eThekwini Municipality


Iwant to share how we have imple-mented Batho Pele at eThekwiniMunicipality. But before I do that, I

want to provide, as a way of introduc-tion, the structure of eThekwiniMunicipality. The municipality has astaff complement of about 22 000employees. It comprises seven clusters:Corporate and Human Resources;Governance; Health, Safety and SocialServices; Office of the City Manager,Procurement and Infrastructure;Sustainable Development and CityEnterprises; and Treasury.

Under these clusters there are variousunits which I will not mention here.Perhaps more relevant is that the officethat deals with Batho Pele falls underCorporate and Human Resources clus-ter. The office of Batho Pele, therefore,reports directly to the Deputy CityManager Corporate and HR.

Background

In 1997 Batho Pele was initiated by thenational government through the BathoPele White Paper. As local government,we were not mandated to implementBatho Pele as it was targeted at provin-cial and national departments.However, at eThekwini Municipalitywe were proactive as we were impressedby Batho Pele and therefore adopted theinitiative in 1998.

During this period there were noblueprints on how Batho Pele was goingto be implemented. We were just doingeverything positive that was done byother people. We were also not clearwhat was expected of us.

We therefore initiated service chartersjust like everyone else. Not that weknew what we were doing with them.We also had social clubs and events such


74

as Batho Pele Awards and various otherinitiatives to promote Batho Pele.

In 2003 Batho Pele was given a homein the Corporate and HR cluster. Wethen held a workshop where we invitedall department heads in the municipali-ty and the City Manager. During theworkshop, we engaged on what BathoPele is and what is expected of us. A lotof questions were asked.

What role do we want Batho Pele toplay in our organisation? What is ourvision? On this, we saw Batho Pele as awatchdog where we can have officeswhere poor service delivery is reported.We are looking at Batho Pele taking thisdirection.

We also looked at the strategy that wehad to create to ensure that we meet ourobjectives. We decided that we neededto develop a policy on Batho Pelebeyond the White Paper. When we cre-ated this policy (as it was drafted andcirculated to all the heads of depart-ment) and gave it to the Department ofPublic Service and Administration tomake recommendations.

We also asked ourselves what impactdo we want Batho Pele to create? Youcan have Batho Pele as a policy, but itcannot necessarily create any impact,hence our concern. The other questionthat we asked ourselves was what man-date will we give Batho Pele? What canthe office of Batho Pele do when peoplebring complaints regarding poor servicedelivery? Will complaints be taken for-ward or they will just be reported with-out any action?

The office must have a mandate tofollow-up on complaints with statedpowers. We also asked which depart-ment will Batho Pele fall under? Webrought it under Corporate and HRbecause the department caters for bothinternal and external customers. Lastly,we asked, what resources will we needto achieve our goal or vision?

Implementation strategy

Implementing was a difficult taskbecause a few organisations had imple-mented Batho Pele. A lot of research

was conducted to find out what otherdepartments are doing with regard toimplementing Batho Pele. We startedbenchmarking with other departmentsand other organisations on how theywere implementing Batho Pele.

After the workshop mentioned above,it was decided that the first step in theimplementation of Batho Pele was theappointment of a project manager or acoordinator for Batho Pele.

The project coordinator was supposedto interact with the deputy city managerand establish the scope and critical deliv-erables, and align strategies to supporteffective implementation of Batho Pele.The coordinator would also prepare andmanage the business plan for the officeof Batho Pele.

The responsibilities would alsoinclude coordinating and planning allinitiatives around Batho Pele council-wide, including Public Service Week.The coordinator would also manage theimplementation of Batho Pele principlesand mainstream the principles into theIntegrated Development Programme

(IDP), departmental policies, pro-grammes and projects.

The second step in the implementa-tion was to develop a Batho Pele policy.The policy sought to ensure that allemployees of eThekwini Municipalityadhere to the principles of Batho Peleand are more accountable to citizens. Itsought to instil a customer-centricapproach to service delivery.

More importantly, the policy intendedto improve service delivery and buildeffective relationships with the end-users of public service. It is important tomention that for this kind of policy towork, you must have total buy-in fromall stakeholders. Here I am referring tocouncillors, city manager, and staffmembers from top management to gen-eral staff.

The coordinator nominated a taskteam to assist in the implementation ofBatho Pele. The task team comprises thedepartments of Communication,Training, Corporate Policy Unit andCustomer Services. The task team meetson a monthly basis.


75

The third step in the implementationinvolved the nomination of the BathoPele champions by heads of department.The champions are supposed to estab-lish if there were any bylaws and policiesthat contributed to the prohibition ofservice delivery.

For example, we found out that at theDepartment of Engineering their officesare closed every day at 1pm. One of thechampions reported to the office ofBatho Pele that this is a problem for vis-itors who come to the department at thattime. After discussions with relevantstakeholders the offices started stayingopen at this time.

Champions would also identify activi-ties which will be part of service deliveryimprovement. In addition, the champi-ons would liaise with unit heads onweekly/monthly basis regarding theservice delivery improvement pro-gramme. They serve to ensure that theunit heads address the concerns of staffmembers. They also organise in-housestaff training such as cultural diversityprogrammes. Lastly, they identifyemployees who perform exceedinglywell in their respective sections andadvise the Batho Pele office on how theyshould compensate those employees.

The criteria used to nominate cham-pions were diverse. Staff members weregiven a chance to volunteer. If therewere no volunteers, the head of the unitwould make a nomination. The cham-pion has to be a customer service personwith friendliness as an important attrib-ute. We normally prefer somebody whois in a managerial position to be a cham-pion mainly because we need someonewho is empowered and not scared toknock on the door of the unit head todiscuss concerns.

To be a champion, a person must beenthusiastic to cascade the Batho Peleinformation using the principles. Forexample, by having monthly meetingswith staff.

Batho Pele internal and externalcommunication strategy

Issues regarding Batho Pele should be

constantly communicated with internalstakeholders. In the case of eThekwiniMunicipality, we engaged the city man-ager on a regular basis. As a result BathoPele got onto the agenda of manage-ment’s strategic meetings. This madeHoDs recognise the importance ofBatho Pele.

To illustrate my point, this year wehad Africa Public Service Day for thefirst time. In order to get buy-in we toldthe city manager what was happeningand I was surprised that he discussed itat the management’s strategic meeting.Immediately after the meeting I got a lotof calls from HoDs asking me how theycan help. So buy-in from the top is veryimportant.

Councillors have played an importantrole in the implementation of BathoPele. In order to get the Batho Pele pol-icy adopted, I presented it in aCouncillors Committee and it wasadopted instantly.

The task team is also important in thisinternal communication strategy, asmentioned above. This was the samewith unit and departmental champions(the latter represent sections in variousunits). We also have skills developmentand training as part of our internal com-munication strategy. Here we have aBatho Pele course on customer care.

We also do presentations at depart-mental level as part of the awarenessprogramme. Events such as PublicService Week are significant vehicles forinternal communication. Lastly, we usethe intranet and e-mails to advance ourcause.

On external communication, we feelthat it is important to make our cus-tomers aware of their rights through ourcommunity mobilisers who go to com-munities to teach them about theserights. Also, events such as PublicService Week are a very useful externalcommunication strategy. TheMasakhane Roadshows, where alldepartments are participating, are alsoused to discuss the kinds of services weare providing to the public. We are alsopart of Mayoral Imbizos. OurCommunications Department also pub-

lished a lot on Batho Pele fromeThekwini Municipality.

Systems to improve service delivery

There systems that we put in place toensure that we improve service delivery.In order to achieve this, we train ourstaff members on customer care. Thereis a Batho Pele implementation progresssurvey that is done annually to measureour implementation progress. We havedrafted our generic service standardsand the document is being circulated toall stakeholders for comment. We havealso established a Sizakala CustomerCare Unit that is responsible for cus-tomer care line, customer satisfactionquestionnaire, and decentralised cus-tomer service centres.

We have conducted surveys that haveshown that the staff attitude haschanged for the better and that there hasbeen improved community participa-tion.

Lessons learnt

In order to effectively implement BathoPele, you need to get buy-in from allstakeholders. Commitment by role play-ers is essential. Batho Pele should beinstitutionalised through structure inthe organisation. We need to acknowl-edge that changing people’s mind-set is aprocess and must be built into organisa-tional culture.

I must also state that Batho Peleshould be championed at the highestlevel, by the city manager or the direc-tor-general. Lastly, Batho Pele initiativesshould be tangible and be felt by thecommunities that we are serving.

Conclusion

The revitalisation of Batho Pele is atransformation process and not an event.Therefore, recognition should be madeof the fact that transformation startsfrom within. It is not only about theskills and competencies, but about us aspeople. •


76

Bheka Mnisi,

Department of Health

and Social Services,

Mpumalanga Province,

presents a turnaround

strategy on the filing

system at Rob Ferreira

Hospital

Improvement of Filing System at

Rob Ferreira Hospital


Rob Ferreira Hospital was histori-cally a segregated hospital withtwo different filing systems kept in

two different filing rooms. In 1996 thefiling system was integrated into onesystem using the date of birth as a keyreference.

The date of birth filing system pre-sented major challenges. For example,retrieving a file was a huge challenge.Files went missing and this impactednegatively on service delivery.Complaints were received from the pub-lic, other stakeholders and the Khaeduproject participants.

A need to improve the filing systemwas therefore identified based on theKhaedu recommendations in order tomake the hospital customer-focussed.

Rationale, process andstakeholder recommendations

There were three major objectives fordeveloping the new filing system: toimprove the filing system at RobFerreira Hospital and to make the hospi-tal customer friendly and accessible to

the public. It was also intended to avoidthe problem of missing files whichimpacted negatively on service delivery.The final objective was to reduce wait-ing times and long queues for customers.

The Khaedu Project which was com-missioned by the Department of PublicService and Administration made find-ings on service delivery gaps at RobFerreira Hospital. They found thatthere was a poor filing system, longpatient queues, loss of files and poorstorage facilities.

Khaedu Project therefore recom-mended that the filing system and per-sonnel management issues needed to beimproved. It also recommended thatqueue patient management be initiated.It called for the reduction of the volumeof PHC patients.

Khaedu also recommended that cer-tain functions should be decentraliseddown to the hospital level. Finally, theproject also called for the developmentof a good communication strategy withall staff members in the hospital.

The management of the hospitalagreed to the implementation of the


77turnaround strategy involving officialswithin the hospital (led by managers),service provider (Optiplan), projectteam (comprising different institutions),and the Department of Finance.

Current situation, sustainabilityand replication

The improvement of the filing systemwas prioritised as a quick win. TheOptiplan Filing System has been imple-mented. The queuing system has beenimproved and patient waiting durationhas decreased. Patient waiting time fordoctors has also improved.

The retrieval of files has alsoimproved with no files getting lost. Filesare now linked to the PAAB electronicsystem. More important is that commu-nities get the benefit of improved servicedelivery at Rob Ferreira through theturnaround strategy.

We believe that the system is sustain-able as file accessories are available ontime from the service provider. To fur-ther ensure sustainability, there is con-tinuous training of personnel involved

in the filing system. There is also a correct numbering of

patient information on files. We alsobelieve that continued partnership withstakeholders and the practice of thevalue for money principle will ensurethe sustainability of the initiative.

On the issue of replication, I believethat the system is user-friendly and easyto replicate. The Department of Healthis planning to replicate the initiative ineight hospitals due to the benefits of thisfiling system. The system is imple-mentable with accessories designed tomeet the client’s needs.

There is, however, a plan to move thefiling system to a new location, mainlybecause the filing space will be used forarchiving purposes. There are also possi-bilities of linkages to electronic systems.

Lessons learnt

Through the new filing system we havelearnt that improved service deliveryinitiatives can be implemented in a col-laborative environment. We have alsolearnt that an improved filing system

increases the accessibility of services tocommunities due to reduced patientwaiting duration. The queuing systemalso improves.

The system also allows for enhancedservice delivery initiatives whichincrease the volume of service recipientsat Rob Ferreira Hospital. This has resultin the hospital becoming “the hospital ofchoice”.

Finally, participation in the BathoPele learning network increased knowl-edge capacity of management and offi-cials at Rob Ferreira. So the learningnetwork should be applauded for this.

Conclusion

Throughout the project the involve-ment of stakeholders is essential, espe-cially if it is an initiative that will benefitthe community. There has to be activeinvolvement of the public service trans-formation and service delivery improve-ment unit in the Office of the Premier.Strategic partnerships with other coun-tries can be used to the advantage ofimproving service delivery.•


78

Ntatho Malope of the International Marketing Council

of South Africa, explains the vital role of civil servants in

creating a positive brand image of South Africa

“South Africa, Alive with Possibility”

Building National Pride within the Public Service


The International Marketing Councilof South Africa (also known asBrand South Africa) has an annual

budget of R80 million to go out to thewhole world and market South Africaas a destination of choice. However, thisadvertising has to be linked withimprovements in the actual brand. Thisis to ensure that when people come intothe country they get the true brandexperience so that the brand promise isnot broken.

If you see a fantastic advert and logo,you should not have a different andunpleasant experience when you cometo the country. So there is a need for rep-resentation and integration in people’sbehaviour and other brand factors.

As a result, we look at all domesticmobilisation and building national prideas one of our major strategies in improv-

ing South Africa as a brand. We aretherefore engaging public servants bysensitising them to the national brandand in preparing for the 2010 FifaWorld Cup.

Brand South Africa and its role

Brand South Africa is a Presidential ini-tiative established in August 2000 uponthe realisation that it was absolutelyimperative to create a positive and com-pelling brand image for South Africa. Itis aimed at positioning South Africa totake its rightful place with regard totrade, tourism and investment.

Our key objective is to build a positiveimage for our country. Because we aretrying to attract trade and investmentinto our country, it was a logical step totry to create a positive brand image of

the country. This is so that Brand SouthAfrica becomes a vehicle for most peopleto engage with and have packagedinformation about South Africa.

I must also state that a consistentbrand image will create a strategicadvantage for our country in an increas-ingly competitive marketplace.

Brand South Africa’s major role,domestically, is to drive national pridethrough the public service. It also seeksto assist the public service to prepare for2010 and to define the behaviours neces-sary to ensure that the public servicedelivers on its mandate of service deliv-ery.

As far as the DPSA is concerned wehave started matching the Batho Peleprinciples to the values of the nationalbrand which is a key factor for us.


79

Rationale for the BrandChampions Programme

Why do we need the Brand ChampionsProgramme? The programme seeks tocreate brand champions out of the ordi-nary South Africans to represent thechosen values of the nation.

South Africa exists in a very competi-tive global environment. We are com-peting with provinces in China, cities inEngland, eastern Europe, Brazil etc.One clear example of this competition isthat 90% of the world’s luggage is madein a town in China that is not biggerthan Cape Town. So we will never beable to compete in areas that our com-petitors are far advanced in.

Our call to action is the depth of thespirit of our people. However, as adeveloping country we cannot afford tobe lax and we cannot assume to be sureof the future. We are consistently underthe spotlight, particularly because of the2010 World Cup.

Just a few facts to concretise what Iam saying. For every visitor that comesto our country and has a good experi-ence, three more people are likely tocome. For every visitor that comes to ourcountry and has a bad experience, 10

more people are likely not to come. For every one person that comes to the

country and has a negative brand expe-rience either through the police, immi-gration officials, customs officials, hotelstaff, taxi drivers, or public servants gen-erally, that person can cause 10 potentialvisitors not to come to the country.

We know that 70% of customer brandperception is determined by experienceswith people.

The public service which is in thefrontline in terms of engagement withour country is critical in shaping percep-tions about our country whether the vis-itor is a tourist or an investor coming totrade with us.

Just to paint the picture a bit morevividly, investors look past the cleveradvertising and look for quality andreliability. This is not different in termsof product branding as tourists look pastthe brand promise and look for depth ofexperience.

Being a developing economy requiresus to do something special. It requires usto differentiate ourselves from the com-petition.

We believe that the public servicemandate and our requirement from thepublic service has shifted. The public

service, for us, is there to deliver phe-nomenal experiences for each and everyperson engaging with the South Africanbrand before, during and after the 2010World Cup. The South African brandexperience is created by us. No one elseis going to do it for us.

The importance of this is evident inother countries’ commitment to improv-ing their branding as countries. Forexample, India has a budget of $300 mil-lion a year to promote tourism andinvestment into the country. We allknow that some parts of India are worsethan Alexandra township inJohannesburg, but this has not dentedthe image of India as the economy con-tinues to grow and continues to be a des-tination for international investmentand tourism.

We do not have this luxury of peoplehearing negative stories about SouthAfrica and still wanting to invest or visitthe country. With us, they hear one neg-ative story and that has an effect. So noone is going to improve perceptionsabout our country, but us.

As Brand South Africa we would liketo assist the public service to create theappropriate brand behaviour, brand dis-cipline, brand language, brand culture,and brand leadership. This is critical instarting to create the depth of experiencewhen people engage with our country.

Our competitors are far moreadvanced in terms of defining who theyare, their size and scale of the economy.What is going to set us apart is the depthof experience when people come toSouth Africa, feeling very welcomed inthe country, with us having a sense ofubuntu.

Conclusion

How can the public sector get involved?We have a team of facilitators that invitepeople and engage them in a half-dayprocess on the BCP, so there is traininginvolved. We have the budget to do thisfrom the Presidency and have to reportback to the President. We would like toreport on our progress in driving nation-al pride within the public service. •

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80

Professor Johann Kinghorn,

Director of the Centre for

Information Dynamics at the

Stellenbosch University, uses

his knowledge to unravel

Knowledge Management

and explains how all

members of an organisation

can become more

knowledge-able

The “Mystery” of KnowledgeManagement

Knowledge Management Indaba

Knowledge Management (KM) isnot really a mystery. Yet manyexperience it as such.

This is partially because of the verycomplex nature of the KnowledgeEconomy – which is where we find our-selves at this time of human history –and partially because of the highlysuperficial way in which KM is present-ed in South Africa.

Internationally public talk about KMsurfaced approximately 14 years ago. Inthe beginning it was all about a practicalresponse to an operational problem inthe United States and Europe. It gener-ated an avalanche of publications and agreat deal of emotion.

And it quickly attracted consultingfirms and librarians. Both groups,unfortunately, were and are seriouslyunequipped to deal with the fundamen-tal issues of KM.

The initial practical problem was inreality just a surface expression of a fun-damental and revolutionary processwhich is still in progress. South Africabegan to take note of KM around 2000.By and large, up to now, the talkremains focussed only on the surfacephenomenon. Not surprisingly it deliv-ers little value.

But, since the initial issue was relative-ly simple and basically operational, it hasled to the assumption that KM can beperformed by anyone and consists of aset of recipes.

This is the death of KM in any organ-isation.

Surface KM – operationalknowledge sharing

In the late 1980s a management wave of“downsizing” and “rightsizing” to drive

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

81labour costs down started to sweeparound the world’s advanced economies.In South Africa a similar process hastaken place since the late-1990s, driven(mostly) by politics.

Soon it becomes clear, however, that“rightsizing” results in the loss of opera-tional efficiency. Management wakes upto the fact that the loss of “labour”,today, actually means the loss of knowl-edge-able people.

In the early 1990s in Europe and theUS this was a new insight. Up to thenwork was not associated with knowl-edge-ability.

When this dawns on managementtheir question becomes: How do wereduce the number of employees, butretain the knowledge? That is normallythe moment the cry for “knowledgesharing” is born. People are going to beretrenched anyway, but before that their

knowledge has to be “extracted and cap-tured”.

Since most people are not fools, theyresist all sorts of attempts to “extract”their personal knowledge. The counterforce of consultants, librarians and KMpractitioners then spend endless hoursdevising strategies to entice the “shar-ing” and capturing of personal knowl-edge.

The stalemate is evident in the nev-erending laments one hears when KMpractitioners come together, about how“difficult” it is to get KM (defined asknowledge sharing, of course) “off theground”.

In 1995 the Japanese author Nonakaintroduced to the management world adistinction by the philosopher MichaelPolanyi between “tacit” and “explicit”knowledge. Since then the terms “tacit”and “explicit” have become the signa-

ture jargon of the sharing school of KM. Some research that followed did

indeed produce useful insights, in par-ticular in respect of web-based portals,and communities of interest, practiceand purpose. In the bigger scheme of theglobal knowledge economy, however,these contribute little value and certain-ly do not justify whole divisions for KMin organisations.

To see KM as knowledge sharing suf-fers from at least two fundamental mis-takes. Number one, tacit knowledge isonly useful when it is tacit. To “extract”it is like taking a heart out of a humanbody. Tacit knowledge is completelyuseless outside a knowledge-able per-son. Tacit knowledge is insight and skill,and that is acquired only through hardlearning and not by sharing.

Secondly, knowledge sharing modelsof KM let themselves be taken in tow by

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

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management’s wrong understanding ofthe problem. Knowledgeable peopleshould never have been set out of thedoor in the first place! The root problemis simply bad overall talent manage-ment. It is not the function of KM tocover that.

Parallel to the sharing school a muchmore sophisticated discourse on KMwas established from the mid-1990s.Drawing on a combination of advancedthought derived from complexity, sys-tems and chaos theories, computationaladvances, cognitive science and organi-sational design theory, a discourse onKM has developed with the focus onknowledge creation.

The fundamental question is to deter-mine what you will need to knowtomorrow. And then you have tomobilise activities of research and inno-vation, interpretation, decision-making,and even knowledge destruction in yourquest to create tomorrow’s knowledge.In some circles this is now calledThought Leadership.

None of this fell from the blue sky.Let us see how it came about.

The knowledge economy

Why did companies want to rightsize inthe first place? In hindsight rightsizingwas no more than a symptom of a majorrevolution in the making.

The gist of the revolution – throughwhich we are all living today – is verywell formulated in a popular way byThomas Friedman in his recent bookThe World is Flat. Quoting the econo-mist Jeffrey Sachs, he says: “Until thescientific revolution began in the 17thcentury, virtually everyone everywhere[in the world] was living on the edge ofsubsistence.

“But after three straight centuries oftechnological and scientific advances,subsistence is no longer the norm foreveryone. Steam power, machine tools,electricity, and ultimately computers,software and the World Wide Web haveproduced both the Industrial Revolutionand the post-industrial services revolu-tion, enabling individuals and commu-

nities to become vastly more productive… But the tools and skills that are cru-cial to improving productivity, and driv-ing our standard of living, become moreand more advanced with each new gen-eration. Therefore you need more andmore knowledge to get the most out ofthem.

Since 2000, following the EuropeanUnion, this revolution is called theKnowledge Economy. KnowledgeManagement is a direct descendant ofthe Knowledge Economy. In its purestsense KM is about the question of how

organisations and societies should bestructured and managed if they areknowledge-intensive organs in theknowledge economy.

The knowledge economy is driven bytwo factors: dynamic knowledge (read:creativity) and knowledge technology(read: computation).

Dynamic knowledge and the science revolution

What is dynamic knowledge? In a nut-shell, it is the knowledge regime whichdevelops when science becomes the basisof knowledge. Scientific knowledge isknowledge which is actively constructed

through methods deliberately designedto discover and analyse what lies beyondthat which is visible to the human eye.

Science does not rely on experiencebut on creative reasoning. The scientificmindset is not interested in how theworld appears, but in the invisibledynamics that drive the world – andhow to manage those dynamic forces tochange the world to suit us better.

Science constructs knowledge, it doesnot inherit it. Today, for example, weknow that the world is round, becausescience has worked it out, not becausewe can see it with our natural eyes.

This contrasts with traditional modesof knowledge production. For as long ashuman beings have lived in the worldthey have employed knowledge. Butthat knowledge was for all practical pur-poses acquired through experience andhanded on from generation to genera-tion.

Consequently, knowledge hardlychanged, and if so it took centuries.Knowledge was inherited and perhapstweaked, but not constructed.

The scientific knowledge revolutionstarted 300 years ago when a few indi-viduals started to experiment with waysto create (new) knowledge. Scientifictheory and abstraction began to replaceexperience. Experimentation and analy-sis took the place of repetition.

As science grew, so did the capacity tochange the world around us. Soon aphysical revolution, known asIndustrialisation, followed. First inBritain 200 years ago, reaching SouthAfrica in the 1930s, scientifically con-structed knowledge began to reshapethe physical world.

A non-natural (industrial) worldstarted to emerge. The world of technol-ogy, machines, infrastructure andorganisations which we inhabit today isentirely the outcome of this revolution.

In what way is this knowledgedynamic?

It is dynamic because of the way itcomes into being through deliberateconstruction. That already distinguishesthe science-driven industrial age fromany other one. It is also dynamic because

The purpose of

knowledge

creation is not

the knowledge

itself, but to apply

it to our world so

that our lives

become easier

(we hope)

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of what happens with the (constructed)knowledge.

In the industrial age the most impor-tant use of knowledge is to embed it inartefacts (machines) which then contin-ue to exercise the knowledge (like yourcar which gets you to work). The pur-pose of knowledge creation is not theknowledge itself, but to apply it to ourworld so that our lives become easier(we hope).

In the era after the science revolution,knowledge is not primarily codified, butengineered into machines, buildings andsystems. You can burn all the writtenmanuals about your car, but as long asthe car exists the knowledge exists andthe car will work.

Thus the physical environment inwhich we live today – the buildings andsystems – are the scripts of scientificknowledge in action. In every building,machine or system resides an enormousamount of knowledge.

We call this the knowledge economytoday because we have come to realisethat what is called economic growth byeconomists is nothing else than the accu-mulation of knowledge over time in theform of the physical constructs of ourworld, based on the knowledge con-structed through science.

It is that knowledge that makes theworld around us function.

The knowledge of the knowledgeeconomy is dynamic for a third reason.It would be a serious mistake to view thescience revolution and the industrial ageas a once-off event. The history of thelast 300 years shows clearly that knowl-edge creation is inherently continuous.

The result is dichotomous. On the onehand there is a constant growth in thevolume and refinement of the knowl-edge stock. In fact, that stock is today sovast that an overall grasp – whether by ahuman being or a computer – is impos-sible.

On the other hand, partly because ofthe growth, there is a continuousreplacement of old knowledge with newknowledge. The nature of the dynamicis that knowledge gets accumulated, butalso discarded.

In fact, this is one of the most crucialquestions for any KM activity – whichknowledge is useful, which must be ter-minated, and how do we decide? (This,by the way, is the reason why the knowl-edge sharing conception of KM is notonly mistaken, but dangerous. It leads tothe canonising of useless knowledge inthe name of “sharing”.)

Of course all of this has a revolution-ary impact on the way we function asindividuals and as organisations. As thephysical embedding of constructedknowledge proceeds around us, theknowledge we individually and collec-tively need to operate productively insuch an environment undergoes revolu-tionary changes as well.

We find ourselves drawn into ahuman-side revolution to which theanswer is continuous learning. Humanbeings are not exempt from the dynam-ic of knowledge!

And, indeed, an enormous body ofknowledge – albeit hugely contested –about the human side has been con-structed over the past century.

The central question driving thehuman-side knowledge construction issimple: What human structures and sys-tems in society and in the work place fitbest with the evolving dynamic ofknowledge and the production process-es that emanate from this?

Over the last 50 years the consensushas grown that the best macro structureis a democratic society, within whichorganisations function as corporate citi-zens, with government performing aregulatory function to smooth outimbalances.

Some societies are doing better thanothers in this respect. South Africa isfortunate to fall in the category of “bet-ter”. But, getting the macro structuresright is only the beginning. The decisivemoment comes in the micro structuresand moments.

That is the point where knowledgeacts, or is created. That is the point onwhich KM focuses in practice. How tostructure and manage the organisationin the moment of actual knowledgedynamism?

Enter knowledge technologies

Since the late 1980s, as if overnight, anew technology popped up on almosteveryone’s table. It was the technology ofcomputation.

It is quite unfortunate that it hasbecome known as InformationTechnology. That makes it sound as if itis a super postman that also serves youwith TV and doubles as a telephonecompany, albeit a bit more fancy andmystical.

However, these functions are simplyspin-offs. The essence of computation isthat it brings new and much moreadvanced ways of dealing with thedynamic of knowledge. For that reasoncomputation has increased the rate ofconstruction of knowledge (and discard-ing of “old” knowledge) exponentially.

And it has given KM a “tool” whichallowed it to surface as a serious disci-pline.

A computer is a machine with moreor less sophisticated artificial intelli-gence capacities. Thus it is technologythat supports, and sometimes substi-tutes, human cognition.

In the history of humanity the com-puter is the first knowledge technologyat our disposal. It is the first machineever to substitute for brain power. Allthe other machines that were inventedover the last three centuries substitutedfor brawn power.

Computers help us remember, theycalculate infinitely faster than we do,they allow us to visualise and simulatedifficult ideas, and they help us commu-nicate in ways not even dreamt of 20years ago. (The engine of your motor cardoes not communicate with the engineof your neighbour’s car, but your com-puter does!)

But most importantly, because theyare artificially intelligent, they are capa-ble of semi-autonomous functioning.

Since the mid-1990s these computingmachines have been linked up in a glob-al web. The result is the biggest revolu-tion in the history of the productionprocesses of the industrial world, lead-ing to the fundamental redesign of

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organisations and a revolution in theskills and knowledges required.

Because they do not have to sleep, theyare now the 24/7/365 agents running theworld for us as our proxies. This meansthat they are also important decision-making agents in a devolved way.

The birth of knowledge sensitive and the death ofbureaucratic management

A world full of linked up, semi-autonomous computers is still so newthat we are struggling to understand thescope of the revolution brought about bythem. But two aspects are clear.

One is that computing has broughtwith it a vast new set of knowledges andskills of its own. Half a generation agowords such as the following would nothave meant anything: software architec-ture, human-machine interface, scenariobuilding, virtual reality, distributed cog-nitive systems, learning organisation,ubiquitous computing, network design,document engineering, multimedia,semantic web …

Today, these skills and knowledgesare becoming the basics for all levels ofall organisations and production.

Secondly, that means we are livingthrough the dying days of bureaucraticorganisation. On the one hand there arethe new computation-enabled knowl-edges which are mostly in direct conflictwith bureaucratic work processes andskills. On the other hand we have mas-sive organisational and societal struc-tures which are the outcomes of threegenerations of bureaucratic evolution.

By 1880 industrial society had grownto such an extent that new modes of doc-umented management were necessary tomaintain it. The eventual result wasbureaucracy: lots of people sitting in lotsof offices, creating an immense numberof documents (including rules about thecreation of documents) and movingtheir paperwork up and down so-calledline functions.

Scores of clerks were employed to col-lect and trace the data, collate them intosynthesised documents and deliver that

to the “top” management who were theonly ones mandated to take decisions.

The British and German (and laterother) governments quickly adoptedthis, and so the modern civil service wasborn, providing work for millions ofpeople. Entire state education systemswere subsequently developed to producethe millions who could read and write inbureaucratic style and format.

But the success of bureaucracy wasalso its downfall. By 1980 the globaleconomy had grown in volume andcomplexity to such an extent that thetime-consuming processes of bureaucra-cy had become an obstacle.

Bureaucracies are incapable of adapt-ing to fast-changing circumstances suchas we experience today. And they arenotoriously incapable of taking deci-sions. No wonder, one after the other thestate-run or managed economies col-lapsed. What we witness in Zimbabwetoday is a sad – and belated – example.

In the last 25 years all the successfuleconomies of the world have shifted toproductivity based on agile privateorganisations which take rapid knowl-edge decisions. Parallel to this, comput-ing has become ubiquitous, because thatis the primary tool in a knowledgeintensive environment. Besides, com-puting systems provide the capability toautomate the little bit of bureaucracystill needed.

Today, the non-bureaucratic organisa-tion in an advanced economy is of neces-sity a knowledge organisation. They areorganised dynamically and on the coreassumptions of systemic trust and indi-vidual imagination.

The work processes of such organisa-tions are open ended to allow for theexercise of knowledge construction.Employees are not hired on the basis ofrigid job descriptions but for theirknowledge construction abilities, andskills to synchronise with knowledgetechnologies.

Overall organisational strategy pro-vides direction, while individual creativ-ity is encouraged. What steers theorganisation is not a set of rules butmutual commitment to shared values

and work is preferably performed intask teams who commit to mutuallysupportive personal creativity.

What bureaucratic functions remainnecessary are automated throughadvanced information systems, therebyfreeing human capacity for creative action– as opposed to perfunctory performanceof standard operating procedures.

All in all, work becomes enterprise,jobs are activities of self fulfilment,being an employee means assumingresponsibilities for co-team members aswell as for the overall success of theorganisation.

KM in a knowledge organisation

The brief outline of the factors impact-ing on the question how knowledge is tobe managed today should make at leastone point very clear: the question ofknowledge management is extremelycomplex.

It should also be clear that KM cannever be understood as a set of rules.KM can only be understood as leader-ship capacity capable of detecting thespecific dynamics of knowledge in agiven situation and the ability tomobilise the organisation to derive valuefrom the dynamic.

Knowledge Management can only beperformed on behalf of organisations bypeople who are thoroughly knowledge-able as Thought Leaders. If not it willremain a mystery – in the same way asthe working of Koeberg Nuclear Plantremains a mystery to all of us because weare not experts in the field.

What do knowledge-able KM practi-tioners have to be competent in?

To manage in the knowledge econo-my general management needs a veryclear insight into the dynamics ofknowledge in general and the currenttrends in the knowledge economy inparticular. This is the first function of aKM division – to trace and interpret forstrategic purposes the global trends inthis respect.

Following closely on this the KM divi-sion will compare such trends with thevarious dimensions and systems of

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

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knowledge operative in the organisa-tion, and interpret their value to thegoals of the organisation when viewedagainst the broader global picture.

To do so requires highly theoreticalknowledge about the knowledge econo-my, global networks, complex adaptivesystems and complexity-related KMapplications such as the Cynefin modelof Dave Snowden. It also requires skillsin social network analysis, informationflow analysis and organisational sense-making.

It might even involve the use of thetool of organisational storytelling asdeveloped by the World Bank and someKM theoreticians.

A second type of activity one expectsfrom a KM division relates to the designof the organisation. The dynamic ofknowledge requires a dynamic organi-sational vehicle if it is to be productive.This entails the design of strategies toreinforce or to re-channel the dynamicsof knowledge in the organisation.

It involves a host of possible interven-tions, but almost always organisationalrestructuring, or workflow changes, andintelligent reconfiguring of informationsystems. To do so successfully requires adeep understanding of human computercognitive interface, organisationaldesign and sensemaking, and productspecific knowledge.

Increasingly knowledge of E-businesssystems and workflow is required.

The third type of activity relates toindividual knowledge commitment.Knowledge organisations cannot live onstructures alone. They need knowledge-able people. It is not the KM role toengender personal commitment (with-out which people will not offer theirimagination to the organisation).

But assuming the mutual trust andcommitment exists, (thanks to goodmanagement) the KM role is to provideinterventions which allow for the imag-ination and creativity to surface. In thisrespect the use of knowledge technolo-gies, such as visualisation, simulationand advanced decision-making supportsystems, are indispensable.

It also requires very sophisticated

facilitation of scenario teasing events,rooted in a thorough understanding oforganisational sense-making and sharedvalues. Very often this type of KM activ-ity is known as “organisational learningand intellectual capital development”.

A fourth, but related, KM field is thedesign and integration of knowledge-enabling systems. Too often these fail. Itis no easy task to align the logic onwhich technological systems function(which is basically a mathematical logic)with the logic of human beings who aremostly not mathematical experts.

In the last decade or so the field of

Human Machine Interface (HCI) hasgrown considerably in an attempt tofind the “sweet spot” where humans andknowledge systems meet productively.Any KM division in an organisationshould be on top of the developments inHCI and ready to adapt the insights inan imaginative way for the benefit of theparticular organisation.

But the KM division must hold up-to-date knowledge about developments inthe primary field of computing as well.This is a tall order given the rate ofinnovation in computing applications.But it has to be done.

KM divisions ought also to be

involved with research and develop-ment policy-making. A KM divisionshould not manage the expert knowl-edge one associates with R&D divisions.But R&D divisions live (or die) fromsourcing suitable talent.

Sourcing, screening and negotiatingfor and with talent is not a humanresource function in a knowledge organ-isation. Talent is more than having anappropriate qualification. Talent in theknowledge organisation involvesknowledge-ability. The KM division,based on a holistic understanding ofknowledge, is the appropriate organ todetermine that.

The sixth task: Knowledge organisa-tions – because they are not routinebased, but live from creativity and imag-ination – are hugely vulnerable to inad-equate communication. In knowledge-intensive contexts communicationbecomes a very complex activity.

To date most organisations manageonly to perform information dissemina-tion – and the result is information over-load because information outside of aknowledge framework is meaningless.This is the antithesis of communication.

In a knowledge-intensive contextcommunication is the ability to interpretthe knowledge needs of sections of theorganisation and to inform them accord-ingly. It is the function of KM divisionsto develop communication-enhancing,discretionary information distributionsystems.

Conclusion

Finally, in the knowledge economy,knowledge gets “old” very fast. The rateof obsolescence is in fact increasing. It isone of the main functions of a KM divi-sion to eliminate old knowledge fromthe organisational systems and minds.

To do this successfully requires veryadvanced knowledge of database sys-tems (on the technical side) as well as aprofound understanding of the industrysector, the global knowledge develop-ments, and a great deal of intra-organi-sational coordination. In fact it requiresa live learning organisation. •

It is one of the

main functions

of a KM division

to eliminate old

knowledge

from the

organisational

systems and

minds


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By Dr Albert Simard, Director,

Knowledge Strategies, Office of

the Chief Scientist, Natural

Resources, Canada

Knowledge services:

The “Why” ofKnowledge Management


It is generally recognised that sciencecreates new knowledge that increasesthe standard of living in developed

societies. The same can be said for inno-vation that uses knowledge to developproducts that satisfy the wants and needsof consumers.

At a grand scale of scientific and tech-nological progress, it can be said thatknowledge flows from its source to socie-ty. At a scale of knowledge organisations,however, the reality is that some knowl-edge flows: somehow, somewhere, some-time.

In a knowledge organisation, peopleuse systems and processes to generate,manage and use knowledge to supportorganisational goals, learning, and adap-tation. From this definition, we see thatknowledge management provides a linkbetween generating knowledge andusing it and that this is done within thecontext of achieving organisational goals.

Goals specify what a private or publicsector organisation wants to accomplishin relation to its business or mandate,respectively. This article is about the busi-ness of a knowledge organisation – trans-ferring knowledge-based products andservices to clients or citizens throughknowledge markets.

Since the invention of writing, infor-mation and knowledge have been thelifeblood of organisations. Bartlet (1999)notes: “Organisations aren’t just struc-ture. Structure is just the skeleton.Organisations also have a physiology –the flow of information and knowledgeis their life blood – and a psychology, rep-resenting people’s values and how theythink and act.”

Similarly, Evans and Wurster (1999)point out: “Fundamentally, informationand the mechanisms for delivering it arethe glue that holds together the structureof businesses.” Buckman (2004) takes the

argument even further: “Ever since thefirst human clan enjoyed the warmth ofthe first tame fire, it’s been true thatknowledge shared is knowledge multi-plied. The more a group knows of whatits members know, the better it can per-form in the world.”

In essence, if the internal flow of infor-mation stops, an organisation cannotfunction very well.

From a broader perspective, organisa-tions are systems that exist within thecontext of their socioeconomic environ-ment. Lynch and Kordis (1988) state:“Open, or living, systems are alwaysexchanging matter or energy with theoutside environment.”

Similarly, Amidon (1997) notes that:“No enterprise is an island – especially inthe knowledge economy ... The flow ofknowledge must transcend traditionalorganisational boundaries.”

Finally, Mcgee and Prusak (1993) point


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out that: “In an information economy,organisations compete on the basis oftheir ability to acquire, manipulate, inter-pret, and use information effectively.Organisations that master this informa-tion competition will be the big winnersin the future, while those organisationsthat don’t will be quickly overtaken bytheir rivals.”

It is apparent that in both business andgovernment the consequence of not pro-viding something that markets or societywant or need is that the environment willnot provide the resources, in the form ofprofits or a budget, that the organisationneeds to sustain itself.

From these arguments, it is evidentthat knowledge organisations must dotwo things well to remain relevant andsustainable – run the organisation effi-ciently and provide knowledge-basedproducts and services to their clients.

As with yin and yang, neither is com-plete nor sufficient without the other.Without satisfied clients an organisationcannot sustain itself, and without anorganisation there is no way to provideservices that satisfy clients.

Yet, in an era of specialisation, thosewho use knowledge to serve clients andthose who use other knowledge to runorganisations tend not to fully appreciatethe importance of, nor understand theother side of, this inseparable duality.Unless we bridge the gap betweenknowledge management and an organi-sation’s business, KM will remain a “fac-tor of production” – a function that ispoorly understood by business leaders,with costs to be minimised.

How much better for KM to be viewedas a “strategic investment” in the business– something that should be proportionalto the return on that investment.

This paper presents a framework formanaging organisational content (data,information and knowledge) thataddresses and integrates both organisa-tional management and client service.The framework is based on a knowl-edge-services system model developed byNatural Resources Canada (Simard et al.,2006). Although the model is based ongovernment science-based organisations,

it should be applicable to a broad range ofknowledge organisations in both thepublic and private sectors.

As noted by Davenport (1998),“Although simple answers to complexproblems are intuitively appealing due totheir apparent clarity, knowing moreusually leads to better decisions thanknowing less.”

Management frameworks

The first concept that I want to define is“knowledge organisation” which is anorganisation in which people use technol-ogy and processes to generate, manage,share, use and transfer knowledge to sup-port organisational goals, learning andadaptation.

The second important concept is“knowledge services” which are pro-grammes that produce or provide con-tent-based outputs with embedded value,intended to be used or transferred tomeet user wants or needs. “Output”, onthe other hand, is a collective term forcontent, products, services or solutionsthat have been produced and transferredby an organisation to satisfy external userwants or needs.

Lastly, a “framework” is a structuraloutline of the essential components of anorganisation, system or processes, and therelationships among them.

From these definitions, we see that aknowledge organisation produces, usesand transfers knowledge; knowledgeservices are the programmes throughwhich this is done, outputs are what isproduced, used and transferred, and aframework is how it all fits together.

PurposeA framework is positioned roughly in themiddle of a hierarchy of organisationalprocesses that range from why an organ-isation exists to daily work activities. Thebusiness processes are: business case,vision, charter, governance, policies,strategy, framework, plans, programmes,projects and services.

A framework lists everything neededto implement an organisational strategyand describes relationships among the

elements. A framework provides an out-line for planning how programmes, proj-ects and activities will be undertaken.

The position of a framework in thishierarchy is pivotal. Starting from the topleads to a results-based or demand-driv-en approach to managing an organisa-tion. That is, what business are we in andhow do we conduct that business?

Starting from the bottom leads to acapacity- or supply-driven approach.That is, what do we do well and how canwe market what we do? Using a cookinganalogy, a top-down approach involvesdeciding what to cook (intended result),finding a recipe that lists the ingredients(the framework) and buying the ingredi-ents (capacity-building). By shoppingfirst, an infinite variety of meals can beprepared.

A bottom-up approach involvessearching through recipes (the frame-work) to find a list of ingredients thatcorresponds to what is available in thepantry (supply) and following theinstructions for cooking that meal (plan).One can vary the meal, but the choicesare limited by what is available.

Returning to our organisation, regard-less of the management approach, aframework is both central and pivotal.

Frameworks serve a number of organ-isational roles. They provide structure ina complex environment. By revealinghidden patterns and functional relation-ships, a framework helps in understand-ing complex processes – a necessary pre-cursor to measurement and management.

A framework also shows what the pic-ture looks like. Like a blueprint or archi-tectural drawing, seeing the intended endresult and how individual pieces relate tothat result and to each other helps toorganise the many pieces of the manage-ment puzzle.

It provides a basis for planning andaction. Structure and organisation pro-vide a sound basis for selecting anapproach, prioritising work and plan-ning activities.

Framework Attributes Desirable attributes of a service-basedframework are:


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• Independence – The frameworkshould be independent of content,issues or organisation; it should beapplicable to any knowledge services.

• Level – The framework should bebased on a single department or enter-prise; mandates, authorities andresources are tied to legally constitutedorganisations.

• Scalability – The framework should bescalable upwards to multiple depart-ments or businesses and downwards tospecific domains or business lines.

• Primary driver – The primary drivershould be the departmental mandateor business charter because an organi-sation must first exist and have themeans to produce outputs.

• Secondary driver – The frameworkshould also respond to user needs fororganisational outputs to reflect ademand-driven approach to services.

• Process – The framework should bebased on use rather than delivery ofservices to actively lead to outcomesand benefits, rather than passively leadto receipt of outputs.

Framework dimensions

A service framework has four dimen-sions: scale, infrastructure, content andoutputs. They are discussed in order ofincreasing relative importance for ourpurposes. Each framework dimension ispart of all subsequent dimensions.

Thus, scale is part of infrastructure,both are part of content, and all three arenecessary to manage outputs.

The four dimensions are definedbelow and discussed in the remainder ofthis section. “Scale” the spatial, temporaland organisational magnitude, span orlevel of outputs and their intended use.“Infrastructure” is the underlying foun-dation of human resources, organisation-al management, work processes andtechnology that enable organisations togenerate, manage and transfer outputs.

“Content” is the message or signembedded value that is carried by objects,data, information, knowledge or wisdom.Content is the basic building block or rawmaterial of a knowledge organization.

“Outputs” are content, products, serv-ices or solutions with embedded value,derived from, dependant on or in supportof content. Simard, et al (2006) provides adetailed list of definitions and descrip-tions of outputs for Natural ResourcesCanada.

Scale Scale is ubiquitous. It is everywhere andit affects everything, yet scale is oftenpoorly understood, relegated to back-ground status or omitted entirely in mostsystems, models or frameworks.

Scale is important as a frameworkdimension because it is essential that thescale of outputs be similar to that of theirintended use. It is also important that thescale of multiple outputs be similar toenable their integration for combineduses.

Finally, scale considerations includetechniques to integrate outputs and usesacross scale boundaries or to differentiatebetween adjacent scales.

Lack of compatibility between thescale of outputs and uses has a number ofconsequences. Too much detail wastestime, resources and effort for both pro-ducing and using outputs. Too littledetail may conceal processes that areessential to obtaining useful results – akey limitation of simplistic models of“knowledge cycles”.

Although a transition between adja-cent scales may be possible, it is only oneway. While integration is generally feasi-ble, differentiation into component partsis often impossible.

If outputs differ by more than one scaleclass from the intended use, they areunlikely to be useable (Simard, 1992).National-scale outputs are poorly suitedto local applications, and vice versa.Annual averages are of little value whenup-to-date statistics or the weather areneeded. Global climate-change modelstell us little about regional impacts.

There are four aspects of scale: space,time, process and organisation. “Space” isthe spatial context of outputs and intend-ed uses. It has attributes such as place(coordinates, place names, relative loca-tions), relative size, magnitude or extent.

Spatial classes are: point, spot, site,area, zone, region, continent and global.“Time” is the temporal context of outputsand intended uses. It has attributes suchas when (clock, date, event), duration,interval and flow (delay, past, present,and future).

Temporal classes are: instant, immedi-ate, brief, current, short-term, mid-term,seasonal and long-term. “Process” is thecontext of the complexity and magnitudeof outputs and intended uses. Complexitycan be classified as: static, dynamic, flow-through, feedback, learning, reasoningand goal changing.

Magnitude classes are: micro, mechan-ical, sensory, meso, synoptic, macro andglobal. “Organisation” is the context ofthe hierarchical and management level ofoutputs and uses. Although organisationis a subset of process, it is identified sepa-rately because of its importance to thesubject at hand.

Hierarchy classes are: society, govern-ment, department, sector, branches, pro-grammes, projects and tasks.Management classes are: business case,vision, charter, governance, framework,policies, strategy and plans.

Although scale is an essential frame-work dimension, it is more attribute thandriver. Thus, although scale is a part ofall subsequent dimensions, it is not a can-didate for the primary dimension of aframework for a knowledge organisa-tion.

Infrastructure Infrastructure includes everything need-ed to manage an organisation. That is,infrastructure connects and enables peo-ple in an organisation, using technologyand work processes, to produce contentand provide services.

It follows, therefore, that a manage-ment infrastructure includes four com-ponents: people, the organisation, tech-nology, and work processes. These fourexist for the purpose of generating andusing content and for providing content-based services.

All components are equally necessaryto success. Downplay any one and organ-isational productivity suffers. People, in


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this context, are persons and groups whoperform information and knowledgework.

Information and knowledge arehuman constructs. People create, manageand use content to accomplish organisa-tional goals.

Managing people involves humanresource activities, such as staffing, pay,motivation and evaluation. In knowledgeorganisations it also involves expertise,sharing, learning and adaptation.

An organisation is a legally constitutedgovernance, administrative and function-al structure that fulfills its mandate bytransforming authority, responsibilityand resources into programmes that pro-duce output and provide services.Without an organizational structure,nothing else follows.

Technology is the means of productionin a knowledge organisation. It is impos-sible to succeed in the information socie-ty or the knowledge economy withoutinformation and communication tech-nology. Information technology includescomputers, applications, systems, com-munications and networks.

Process is the development, implemen-tation and operation of methods toacquire, organise, preserve and provideaccess to content to enable its use or trans-fer. Process is the way in which informa-tion and knowledge work are done.

We will drill one level down intoprocess. As pointed out by Galliers(1987), “Information is both elusive andillusive; [it is] difficult to define ... anddeceptively easy to underestimate.”

One difficulty in developing thisframework is the lack of a generallyaccepted vocabulary to aggregate allprocesses or types of content under acommon term or to distinguish betweenoverlapping but different processes ortypes of content.

For example, Webster’s (1991) has ninedifferent definitions for information and10 for knowledge, some of which are interms of each other (not to mention data),so that either can mean almost anything.Further, authors frequently interchangeterminology, which adds to the confusion.

Collections, therefore, are groups of

objects or artifacts that facilitate andsupport the generation of content.Curators acquire, organise, preserveand provide access to collections.Collections include rocks, minerals, fos-sils, wood samples, insects, plant mate-rials or diseased tissue.

Libraries are collections of intellectualproperty. Librarians acquire, organise,preserve and provide access to their hold-ings. Intellectual property (IP) includesbooks, publications, reports, documents,maps, photographs, images, art work andaudio or video recordings. Note thatlibraries may not own IP rights to thematerial that they hold.

Data is recorded, ordered symbols orsignals that carry information and pat-terns. Data managers acquire, organise,preserve and provide access to data anddata-based products. Data is organisedinto elements, files, data sets, databasesand statistics (data in context).

Information is meaning and context,arising from processing, interpreting ortranslating data to extract an underlyingmessage or pattern. Information man-agers acquire, organise, preserve and pro-vide access to information and informa-tion-based outputs. Informationincludes: documents, reports, images,maps, brochures, presentations or multi-media recordings.

Records are content that is specificallyrelated to organisational management.Records managers acquire, organise, pre-serve and provide access to organisation-al records. Records include data (finance,personnel, operations), information(decisions, meeting minutes, proposals,reports) and knowledge (experience,policies, guidelines, contacts).

Knowledge is understanding arisingfrom integration, analysis or synthesis ofdata or information to reveal cause andeffect relationships that facilitate theexplanation and prediction of natural orsocial phenomena.

Knowledge managers acquire, organise,preserve and provide access to knowledgeand knowledge-based outputs. There aremany types of knowledge, including fac-tual, experience, skill, tacit (mental),explicit (codified or documented).

It is apparent that each type of contentinvolves similar processes (acquire,organise, preserve and provide access).This partially explains why there is somuch confusion among them. Yet, eachprocess involves specialists who use dif-ferent management practices and vocab-ulary.

Libraries and collections generally man-age physical objects. To use information,one “only” needs to find it, access it and“read” it. To use data, one must also knowits format, codes and the software that wasused to prepare it, as well as be able toextract and manipulate subsets of it.

A key aspect of using knowledge is anability to find and interact with an expert.Records are not simply a subset of infor-mation, but include organisational dataand knowledge as well.

The four components of an organisa-tion’s infrastructure all exist to enable orsupport the management of an organisa-tion’s content and outputs. It is the simi-larity of goals rather than functions thatunites the processes and requires theircoordination. In the final analysis, how-ever, although, managing organisationalinfrastructure is necessary, it emphasises“how” an organisation does work, ratherthan “what” work it does or “why” itdoes it.

The bottom line is that clients are notinterested in how work is done; ratherthey are interested in what outputs areproduced – the subject of the next sec-tion.

Content As indicated in the previous section, con-tent includes much more than informa-tion. Although some classify data,knowledge and records as subsets ofinformation, or vice-versa, we have seenthat they are generated, managed andused differently. Therefore, the termcontent management is preferable toinformation, knowledge or records man-agement.

Content is essential to managing anorganisation, and generating it is the firststage of providing services. This sectiondescribes content from three perspectives– value chains, flow, and context.


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Value chainsContent can be described from a value-chain perspective. Value chains are wellunderstood in the private sector as pro-duction or distribution channels. Theydescribe a sequence of steps in whichinputs are transformed into increasinglyrefined and higher-value outputs that areeventually sold to consumers.

For example, a tree is cut into logs,which are transported to a mill, wherethey are sawn into rough lumber, whichis milled into finished lumber, which istransported to a distributor and then to aretailer, where it is sold to a consumer.

Each step in the chain adds valuethrough production or distribution, someof which can be extracted as profit.

A content value chain is the flow ofcontent through a sequence of stages inwhich its form is changed and its value orutility to users are increased at each stage.

From a domain perspective (e.g., sub-jects, topics, issues, markets), objects aremeasured to yield data (a signal that iscarried); data is interpreted to yield infor-mation (meaning in context); informa-tion is synthesised to yield knowledge(understanding how things work), andfinally wisdom (experience and judge-ment) lead to the correct application ofknowledge.

Note, however, that value and utilitymust be viewed in the context of use. Forexample, a manager who needs knowl-edge to solve a problem consults anexpert rather than collecting data tostudy the problem. In contrast, informa-tion has less value to a scientist, because itcannot be disaggregated into its sourcedata that are needed to create new scien-tific knowledge.

FlowThe flow of content integrates every-thing that an organisation does. Asshown in Figure 4, content flows fromthe executive to the operational level andvice versa. This flow normally takesplace through a vertically oriented infra-structure of people in programmes (e.g.,science, statistics, policy), supported bytechnology, doing work.

Further, two types of content flow

through this network – domain-relatedand organisational records. Finally, con-tent also presumably flows across theorganisation, as individual programme sor production processes add valuethrough different kinds of knowledgework.

ContextManaging the flow of content is not assimple as it might, at first, appear. Thereare many considerations that affect gov-ernment departments and/or businesses.These can be grouped into three cate-gories: rights, strategy and management.

Rights – Many information “rights”are encoded in law. Citizens have a rightto privacy with respect to personal infor-mation. Departments have a legal obliga-tion to safeguard information relating tosecurity, while businesses do so for com-petitive reasons.

Citizens have a right to access govern-ment information not excluded by theprevious rights and obligations. Finally,government policies require that certainstandards be followed for all information(e.g., bilingual content, common lookand feel, universal accessibility).

These rights constrain what can bedone and mandate what must be donewith information. Further, specific rightsmay conflict with each other, as in indi-vidual privacy vs national security, orwhen access is limited because the cost ofmeeting required standards is prohibitive.

Strategy – Delivery strategy relates toan organisation’s natural or chosen posi-tion along a spectrum of content richness.At the rich end of the spectrum, commu-nication involves relatively complex mes-sages transmitted to small, knowledge-able audiences. Science and technologyorganisations emphasise richness.

At the reach end of the spectrum, com-munication involves relatively simplemessages transmitted to large, generalaudiences. The government as a wholeand mass marketing emphasise reach. Aswill be shown in section four, contentneeds and service delivery methods at thetwo ends of the richness spectrum are notcompatible with each other.

Management – There are many crite-ria and indicators of how well an organi-sation manages its content. Does anorganisation have a formal content man-agement infrastructure? How efficientare the content management practices?

Is there adequate technological capaci-ty to manage organisational content?What is the quality of the content? Howeffective are the content managementpractices? Not surprisingly, content man-agers often have considerable difficulty insetting priorities.

Ultimately, the purpose of contentmanagement is to enable an organisationto produce outputs and provide servicesof interest to clients, customers, and citi-zens. Traditionally, organisations havetended to manage each form of contentindependently, within domains or mar-kets.

But this is not enough; it emphasiseswhat an organisation does in vertical pro-gramme silos or business lines. Outputsand the services that they support are thereason why a knowledge organisationexists; they are what clients, customersand citizens see and want.

Therefore, basing a managementframework on outputs and services ispreferable as such an approach directlyrelates to an organisation’s business.

Outputs An organisation produces four types of

Table 1. Comparison of Content Value-Chain Drivers for Organisations and DomainOutputs

Driver Organisation Domain Outputs

Purpose run the organisation fulfill mandate, make a profit

Infrastructure laws, regulations, policies market forces, domain standards

Level plans, management strategy business case, content strategy

Focus internal needs, efficiency external needs, effectiveness

Evaluation audit market feedback


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outputs: content, products, services andsolutions. Common to each type of out-put is the idea that it contains embeddedvalue and that it is intended to be used byor transferred from an organisation tosatisfy user wants or needs.

The definitions are limited to thoseoutputs derived from information orknowledge work rather than those pro-duced from physical materials. Othertypes of service defined by the govern-ment of Canada (2005) include transac-tions, intervention and interaction.

Because knowledge is often at the rootof most government programmes, theframework provides for knowledgebeing used as an input to other types ofservice.

Let me briefly define the four types ofoutputs. Content is embedded value, inthe form of the message or signal con-tained within all elements of the contentvalue chain that are held or owned andintended to be transformed, used by, ortransferred from an organisation to satis-fy user wants or needs.

There are five types of content: objects,data, information, knowledge and wis-dom. Products are tangible, storeablecommodities, or merchandise wholly orpartly derived from and dependant on, orin support of content, with embeddedvalue, intended to be used by or trans-ferred from an organisation to satisfyuser wants or needs.

Products produced by NaturalResources Canada are: databases, scien-tific articles, technical reports, promo-tional material, geospatial products, sta-tistical products, standards, policies, reg-ulations, systems and devices.

Services are intangible, non-storeablework, functions or processes, wholly orpartly derived from, dependent on, or insupport of content, with embedded valueand intended to be used by or transferredfrom an organisation to satisfy user wantsor needs.

Services provided by NaturalResources Canada are: answers, advice,teaching, facilitation, support and labora-tory. Solutions result from the successfuluse of content, products or services toembed or extract value by accomplishing

organisational objectives, and intended tobe transferred from an organisation tosatisfy external user wants or needs.

Solutions transferred from NaturalResources Canada are: direction, opera-tions, plans, positions, integration andresults.

We can define a knowledge-servicesvalue chain as the flow of knowledgeservices through a knowledge servicessystem in which value is embedded,advanced or extracted by the organisa-tion, sectors and society.

The knowledge services value chainincludes nine stages: generate, transform,manage, use internally, transfer, addvalue, use professionally, use personallyand evaluate. As with the content valuechain, downstream services generallyhave higher embedded value thanupstream services.

The purpose of each stage of theknowledge services value chain is:

Generate – Content with intrinsicvalue and potential utility must be gener-ated as the first stage of the knowledgeservices value chain.

Transform – Content may be trans-formed into products and services toincrease its utility or value to users.

Manage – Existing knowledge servicesmust be preserved and their flow enabledto permit their internal use or externaltransfer.

Use internally – Knowledge servicesmay be used internally to produce solu-tions that accomplish organisationalobjectives.

Transfer – Organisational outputsmust be transferred, through transactionsand interactions, to intermediaries,clients, citizens or customers to enableexternal use.

Enhance – Intermediaries mayincrease the availability, utility, or valueof knowledge services.

Use professionally – Knowledge serv-ices may used by clients with sector-relat-ed knowledge to benefit an identifiablesector.

Use personally – Knowledge servicesmay be used by citizens or customers torealise personal benefits.

Evaluate – The system should be eval-

uated to improve its performance in sup-plying or fulfilling demands of knowl-edge markets.

Three stages (1, 3, and 5) are mandato-ry; all must function for subsequentstages of the knowledge-services valuechain to function. This is good news forknowledge management (stage 3). Oneor more (but not all) of the other sixstages may be bypassed without stoppingthe value chain.

However, at least one value-extractionstage (4, 7 or 8) must function for thevalue chain to have useful meaning.

Information and knowledge marketshave been variously described asenabling, supporting or facilitating thesharing, exchange or mobilisation ofinformation and knowledge among indi-viduals or groups who have it and thosewho need it (Stewart, 1996; Davenportand Prusak, 1998; Simard, 2005).

This approach focuses on facilitatingtransactions and interactions throughwhich content is transferred fromproviders to users. This approach gener-ally assumes that content is, somehow,available for transfer and that it is want-ed or needed for some purpose – a passivedelivery approach.

Provider-user models are applicable insituations with autonomous providersand users. That is, in markets with littleor no control or influence over the pro-duction and availability of content andlittle or no interest in how or why it isused.

A provider-user model is inadequate insituations where a provider not only con-trols the production and distribution ofknowledge, but is also mandated to pro-mote and facilitate outcomes and benefitsfor citizens, as are government agencies.

In such cases, providers and users arenot simply facing each other with con-necting infrastructure between them.Rather, providers and users interact atmultiple points along the knowledgeservices value chain. The value chainallows managers to evaluate the completesequence of transformation processesfrom the original generation of content toit’s eventual use – a proactive outcomeapproach.


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A value-chain approach to knowledgeservices demonstrates a number of keyprinciples. These principles are muchricher and more complex than simplytransferring knowledge from providersto users. They also include a knowledgevalue chain which comprises nine stagesin which value is embedded, advanced orextracted at each stage.

Distinguishing between internal andexternal use resolves the confusion aris-ing from providers also being users.Lastly, distinguishing between profes-sional and personal use resolves the con-fusion arising from knowledge servicesintended for clients and those intendedfor citizens and customers.

Knowledge services

A “knowledge services system” pro-vides the underlying infrastructure andprocesses that support the knowledgeservices value chain and, ultimately,knowledge markets. Yet, a knowledgeservices system does not actually existas an identifiable entity in the realworld.

It is an artificial construct that com-bines many components and flows acrossorganisations, sectors and the societythey serve. Although driven by organisa-tional mandates, it has no place in theorganisation chart and no line item inthe budget.

That it has not been previously identi-fied as an entity partially explains why noone has previously described what itdoes. Yet, to understand, measure andmanage knowledge services, we mustbring together in one place all of themany processes that collectively trans-form organisational outputs into benefitsfor citizens and customers.

We have to be able to “heat water atone end and see steam coming out at theother”.

Knowledge Services System We begin by bending the knowledgeservices value chain so that it closes onitself, forming a circular value chain. Wethen use a framework of “who” is “work-ing” on “what” and “why” to define three

types of components and a purpose foreach stage.

On “who” we are referring to per-sons, groups or organisations who doknowledge work. On the “work” weare looking at processes, activities oractions that embed value into, advancevalue or extract value from knowledgeservices.

Lastly, on “what” we are exploringinputs to and outputs from each stage ofthe knowledge services value chain.

There are 34 components of the ninestages of the knowledge services systemas a cyclic flow. The cycle begins with anorganisational mandate to generate con-tent and it ends with recommendationsto the organisation about the effective-ness of and need for services. The firstfive stages are internal to the organisationwhile the four remaining stages areexternal to the organisation.

Each stage performs one of three func-tions: embedding value, advancing valueor extracting value.

The knowledge services system alsoincludes parameters that interact withmultiple stages of the knowledge servic-es value chain and that notably affect theoverall system (Simard et al, 2006).Parameters can be thought of as genericprocesses that lie in a layer above the sys-tem and that interact with it at manypoints. The knowledge services systemincludes nine parameters: channel, qual-ity, utility, scale, intellectual property,ownership, source, criteria and indica-tors.

Content richness The knowledge services system showsthat a knowledge organisation may dis-tribute outputs and provide services toany or all of six destinations (individualsare split into two groups: customers, andall residents).

These destinations can be thought of asregions of a content richness spectrum.Like colours in the electromagnetic spec-trum, we can name regions of the contentrichness spectrum, even though we cannotprecisely define boundaries between them:unique, complex, technical, specialised,simplified and mandatory (Table 2).

As with a blue-green color, sub-regionscan also be identified. For example, uni-versity professors need both concepts andmanagement practices while high-schoolteachers do not need professional knowl-edge, but they require more than a casu-al acquaintance.

Table 2 lists seven attributes associatedwith each region of the richness spec-trum: system destination, audience size,market segmentation, architecture, diffi-culty of understanding, level of interac-tion, and use along with one exampleoutput or service. Each type of output isgenerally intended for one region of thisspectrum. The terms used in each boxare not categorical; rather, they areintended to show a progression from oneend of the richness spectrum to the other.

The spectrum can be divided intothree zones: rich, middle, and reach. Twoopposing processes take place across therichness spectrum: distribution and inter-action. At the rich end of the spectrum,distribution of a few copies requires onlyminimal effort while interaction in theform of conversations is critical to knowl-edge transfer.

Conversely, at the reach end, distribu-tion to millions of customers or residentsrequires substantial effort while signifi-cant personal interaction is unfeasible.

The essential point is that in producingcontent, an organisation may assume alevel of understanding appropriate to therichness region. Similarly, because all cit-izens or customers may access and usecontent in their areas of interest, contentneeds to be popularised and disseminat-ed, but it does not have to be provided atthe same level of simplicity and accessi-bility as content that all residents mustaccess and use.

The flow to other services is closest tothe “rich” end of the spectrum because ittends to be unique. It is often intendedfor one or two persons, is specifically tai-lored to a particular end use, and is oftentransferred through dialogue involvingquestions and answers.

Next, complex content flows to thepool of knowledge. It is generally concep-tual in form and is transferred to scien-tists conducting research in related areas


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through scientific articles. In the middle region, technical outputs

are destined for a few intermediaries whoadd value in a variety of ways (e.g., cus-tomise, innovate, simplify, analyse) andmove the enhanced content towards thereach end of the spectrum.

Continuing, specialised content istransferred to a broader group of practi-tioners through advice and recommend-ed management practices to achieve sec-tor outcomes.

Approaching the “reach” end of thespectrum, many citizens or customers usesimplified outputs such as self-helpguides to realise benefits in areas of per-sonal interest. The reach end of the spec-trum is the domain of government agen-cies who are mandated to interact withall residents, regardless of their interests.

A key strategic decision for any organ-isation is the positioning and distributionof its mix of outputs and services alongthe content richness spectrum.

Business context

The knowledge services framework hasa number of business advantages overfunctional records, knowledge or evencontent management approaches. Ithelps identify important questions.Describing the components and interac-tions reveals key strategic patterns and

relationships that underlie managementissues.

It emphasises horizontal flow ratherthan management processes. This fostersand promotes enterprise-wide integra-tion across organisational silos. It alsosupports an organisation’s business.Content management should be moresuccessful by using a value propositionthat is meaningful to senior managers.

Lastly, it promotes sector or marketoutcomes. Focusing on user needs ratherthan organisational efficiency supportsan evolution to results-based manage-ment. The advantages can be groupedinto four categories: the business model,service strategy, management role andattributes.

Business Model Sinclair (2006) states that “KM is proba-bly the single best hope for successfullymoving the monolith of governmenttowards a new and improved businessmodel, one that can better respond to theinformation age demands of an on-lineand computer-savvy generation.”

The government of Canada servicetransformation vision represents nothingless than a new business model for gov-ernment. Although knowledge manage-ment is relegated to a functional specialtyin the service framework the concept isequally applicable here.

Leonard notes that, “Companies, likeindividuals, compete on the basis of theirability to create and utilise knowledge;therefore, managing knowledge is asimportant as managing the finances. Inother words, firms are knowledge, aswell as financial, institutions.”

Stewart (1997) extends the argument:“Knowledge assets, like money or equip-ment, exist and are worth cultivatingonly in the context of a strategy. You can-not manage intellectual assets unless youknow what you are going to do withthem.”

The service-based framework is posi-tioned in the centre of a hierarchy of busi-ness processes. Although direction flowsfrom the business model through thecontent strategy to the framework, theframework should also influence thestrategy and, in turn, the organisation’sbusiness model.

For example, if an organisation is cur-rently using a traditional vertically ori-ented, domain-specific, and functionalbusiness model, recommendations aboutits limited suitability to the informationsociety and knowledge economy mightbe appropriate before starting to imple-ment a service-based framework.

Alternatively, implementation will belimited to adapting the service frame-work to the existing business model, tothe extent possible.

Table 2. Selected regions on the content richness spectrum

Rich Reach Region Unique Complex Technical Specialized Simplified MandatoryDestinationother services knowledge intermediaries practitioners customers all residents Audienceone few few some many all MarketCustomised specialised tailored sector categories mass Architecturenone formats specifications domain standards common Difficultycomplex conceptual complicated professional popular fool-proof Interactionintervene support promote explain advertise provide Useparticular research enhancement management interests instance Examplequestion & answer scientific articles product consultation & self-help guides forms & instructions

specifications advice


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It is important to understand how theframework fits into the hierarchy of busi-ness processes. There are four contentdrivers: mandate, rights, policies and per-formance. These impact businessprocesses, the business model, contentstrategy, management plans, and pro-grammes, respectively.

From a content perspective, externaldrivers impact on a department or busi-ness at four different levels. At the top,the mandate defines the business, butthere is considerable flexibility in inter-preting how that mandate will be ful-filled.

Rights affect the content strategy, poli-cies affect content management and per-formance standards affect programmes.It should be evident that this structure isfraught with opportunities for inconsis-tency and sub-optimal decisions.

If, for example, rights, policies or stan-dards require content management prac-tices that are not consistent with the busi-ness model and not budgeted at anappropriate level, the former will be dif-ficult to implement. Clearly, the func-tional needs of managing an organisa-tion’s content cannot be considered in iso-lation.

Service Strategy Mcgee and Prusak (1993) discuss theimportance of an information strategythat establishes the use of information asa strategic resource to help the organisa-tion attain its goals. This should not beconfused with a typical informationmanagement strategy that establisheshow information will be managed. Theformer presents a business case whereasthe latter is limited to functionality.

Most information management strate-gies begin with motherhood statementsthat information is important and thenmove directly to how it will be managed.Rarely do they show why it is important,even critical, to the business in ways thatare convincing to senior managers.

Until content management (in itsbroadest sense) is seen as an investment inorganisational success and relevance, itwill be just another function whose costsshould be minimised.

A content strategy is a high-leveldirection and approach for using contentas a strategic resource to support anorganisation’s business. A content strate-gy can be framed as a hierarchical set ofissues that need to be addressed: organi-zational role in knowledge markets,market approach, intended audiences,richness spectrum, and finally, a man-agement framework.

Organisational role – What is theappropriate organisational role in exter-nal (sector, national and international)information and knowledge markets?Once it is understood that external mar-kets exist and function with or withoutthe organisation, the question of appro-priate organisational roles becomes self-evident.

There are risks associated with nonparticipation as well as benefits of partic-ipation. Three types of market roles needto be considered: content (provider, user,intermediary), participant (owner, part-ner, manager, developer, member), andsupport (champion, facilitator, funding,infrastructure).

Clearly, most organisations will havemultiple roles in external knowledgemarkets. The key point is that theyshould be explicitly identified, selectedand managed so as to support the organ-isation’s business.

Market approach – What is the desiredorganisational balance between supply-and demand-driven approaches toknowledge markets? All organisations

operate somewhere between the endpoints of supply and demand.

Further, unless an organisation pro-duces only one output or service, theywill likely be distributed at both ends ofthis range. Supply vs demand has signifi-cant ramifications.

Although promoted by the govern-ment’s service transformation vision, ademand-driven approach requires shift-ing current organisational capacity andimplementing processes to continuouslyadapt that capacity to shifting marketdemand. These may require substantialorganisational transformation.

Intended audiences – What is theintended distribution of outputs amonginternal, professional and personal users,as well as the pool of knowledge, otherservices and intermediaries?

This addresses a key question of whoare the clients for organisational outputs.This question relates directly to anorganisation’s mandate, business andstrategy. Does the business emphasiseproducing outputs, industry support,making a profit, sector outcomes or ben-efits for citizens?

As with supply and demand, mostorganisations will distribute their outputsamong various categories and sub-cate-gories of audiences.

Richness spectrum – What is the mosteffective position of organisational out-puts along the content richness spec-trum? This relates to the nature of theoutputs and services that must be provid-

Table 3 Hierarchy of external drivers and business processes.

External drivers Business processes The mandate defines the business. The business model interprets the mandate. Rights impact on the content strategy The Content strategy supports the business model which cannot exceed the legal limits by linking content management to business outputs. of what must and must not be done. Policies impact on content management which must implement institutional rules and procedures. Content management supports the content strategy by linking program outputs to the content strategy. Performance standards impact on Programmes support content management by programmes which must meet implementing and operating content-specific specified requirements. technology and processes.


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ed to facilitate usability by different cate-gories of users.

The spectrum also affects the appro-priateness of various types of systemarchitecture, distribution channels andtransfer processes. The key point is thatthe closer to the reach end of the spec-trum an organisation wants to positionitself, the more that outputs will have tobe adapted to user wants and needs.

Management framework – What is themost appropriate framework for manag-ing organisational content? Althoughthis paper demonstrates the advantagesof a service-based framework, that choicemust be made by decision makers at var-ious levels in the organisation.

The answer to that question providesthe starting point for developing a con-tent management strategy and the segueto implementation and performancemeasurement.

Management role The capacity of content management tohelp an organisation achieve its goals isgoverned by the level of investment inthe process. How broad should the role ofcontent management be in an organisa-tion?

Some specialists maintain that it iseverywhere – from the inception of anidea through the termination of work,and even beyond. And they are right.

Others argue that it is focused in cer-tain critical areas – that of enabling anorganisation to do work (Figure 6, stage3). And they are also right. These seem-ingly contradictory views are both par-tially correct because much like the blindmen and the elephant, each view repre-sents only part of the whole.

Data, information and knowledge arethe lifeblood of any organisation.Programmes, projects and processes can-not interact and work collectively toachieve a common purpose unless theyexchange content among themselves.

Thus, it is correct to say that contentmanagement is (or should be) every-where, supporting the work of the organ-isation.

However, an organisation consists ofpeople working in groups. People and

groups have beliefs and values, percep-tions and opinions, behavior and dynam-ics. They also take pride in their workand their role in the organisation.

Unlike technology, which can be cen-trally controlled, to the frequent annoy-ance of those who use it, information andknowledge cannot be conscripted; theymust be volunteered. If content manage-ment portrays itself as the centre of theorganisational universe, it will dissipateits energy in territorial battles rather thanin serving the organisation.

Consider functionality. Content man-agement does not generate content,except for what it needs to demonstrateits performance, as with other pro-grammes. Similarly, it does not trans-form content into products and services;programme subject-matter experts dothat. It also does not use content to carryout the business of the organisation; thatis the mandate of other programmes.

Functionally speaking, content man-agement is mandated to perform thecritical work of enabling the rest of theorganisation to achieve their mandates.Although this is no small purpose, it is asupport, and not a business function.

If programmes perceive content man-agement as “invading their space”, or a“tax” that reduces their budgets, they arelikely to resist with every bureaucraticdevice available to them, resulting inmuch motion but little movement.

Conversely, if content management isperceived as supporting, facilitating andpromoting programmes, they are morelikely to support changes that are neces-sary to move the enterprise forward.

The service framework clearly distin-guishes between organisational pro-grammes that generate, transform anduse content to provide services and thefunctional need to manage content sothat it can be used for the good of theenterprise.

Service framework attributesThe knowledge services framework hasa number of attributes that enhance itsfunctionality. The systems model onwhich the framework is based is intend-ed to work operationally; it is not a sim-

plified overview that conceals more thanit reveals about managing organisationalservices.

All necessary components and connec-tors are included, although assembly willbe required. Although the frameworkdoes not describe what to do or how to doit, it lists everything that an organisationshould consider in managing its contentfrom a service perspective. It is therefore: • Independent of content or issues. It

should be applicable to a broad rangeof knowledge organisations and pro-grammes.

• It is based on a sound logic model.There should be no “fatal flaws” orparts that don’t work to be discoveredafter implementation begins.

• It addresses real-world complexity.This avoids the problem of solving aproblem based on its symptoms only tohave another problem arise elsewhere.

• It is complete. It includes everythingthat an organisation should consider inmanaging its infrastructure, contentand services as a whole.

• It is detailed. The sub-components aresufficiently detailed to permit bureau-cratic identification and classificationof all relevant organisational activities.

• It supports performance measurement.Criteria and indicators can be devel-oped for evaluating any of the interac-tions and flows portrayed in theknowledge services system.

Conclusion

The knowledge service framework pre-sented here goes beyond information andcontent management to provide a directlink to an organisation’s business. A serv-ice-based business case should bestronger and more successful than onebased on functional necessity.

Further, the framework focuses onexternal clients, customers and citizens.Finally, the framework promotes a shiftfrom supply-driven information andknowledge markets to demand-drivenmarkets. Organisations that use a serviceframework will decreasingly ask, “Canyou use what we have?” and increasinglyask, “What do you need from us?” •


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David Viljoen,

Manager, Development

Bank of Southern Africa,

looks at the development

of a Knowledge

Management strategy

within the DBSA and

products and services

provided by the bank

KnowledgeManagement for

development:The case of the Development

Bank of Southern Africa


The Development Bank of SouthernAfrica (DBSA) is a parastatal. Westarted introducing the concept of

Knowledge Management (KM) in ourorganisation in 1998/1999. Since then alot has happened and KM has developedwithin the organisation.

DBSA’s rationale for implementingand integrating KM processes into itsbusiness processes is to maximise theleveraging of its existing and newknowledge to add value to its roles offinancier, advisor, partner, implementerand integrator. In addition, it also seeksto add knowledge as a differentiatingvalue-add to its products and services.

KM processes are significant for theDBSA mainly because they help buildknowledge foundations for improveddevelopment impact. These are thethree aspects of the rationale for theinclusion of KM in DBSA’s businessprocesses.

In seeing knowledge as a value-add,the DBSA sees knowledge as an enablerto achieve organisational goals, to opti-mise the effectiveness of core businessprocesses and practices, and to maximiseits development impact the DBSA takeson the following knowledge thrusts:• Use of knowledge to add value;• Use of knowledge to build capacity;• Use of knowledge to innovate;• Use of knowledge to solve complex

development problems;• Use of knowledge to improve business

practices and decision-making;• Use of knowledge to improve devel-

opment planning processes; and• Use of knowledge to manage and

grow a valuable knowledge asset.On KM strategic fit, we are interested inwho is going to benefit from our KMstrategy (business strategy)? Whatknowledge adds value to business strat-egy (knowledge strategy)? How to man-


97

age the knowledge (KM strategy)? The business strategy is the core of

KM strategic fit. It is through a businessstrategy that products and services aredelivered. The knowledge strategy tellsyou whether organisational knowledge,staff knowledge, customer knowledgeand market knowledge are required inorder to add value to the business strate-gy.

The KM strategy tells you if you howyou identify, capture, manage, dissemi-nate and share knowledge.

Knowledge strategy

The knowledge management strategy isinformed and determined by the knowl-edge needs of the DBSA. Our firstknowledge need is knowledge of devel-opment. This is because the core strate-gy of the DBSA is to improve develop-ment impact through the provision ofinfrastructure.

An understanding of social and eco-nomic development is at the heart ofknowledge management.

We also need knowledge of infra-structure because the DBSA should cre-ate, deploy and manage technical, sec-toral and institutional knowledge aboutphysical and social infrastructure with abias towards the developmental applica-tion of such knowledge.

Knowledge to ensure additionality isalso important as it necessitates knowl-edge of public policy and developmentinitiatives, and of the developmentalcapabilities of stakeholders active in themarkets in which the DBSA operates.

Linked to this is knowledge of themarkets. Knowledge of the characteris-tics, dynamics and needs of the targetmarket is needed if the DBSA is to iden-tify market opportunities and designinnovative products and services tai-lored to the needs of different segmentsof its market.

We also need to have knowledge forthe design of products and serviceswhich includes technical knowledge fordeveloping lending and financial instru-ments, asset-backed project finance,grant funding and technical assistance in

different fields, knowledge and skillstransfer and training, policy advice andadvocacy, project design and manage-ment, and procurement amongst others.

Also on this mode is knowledge forproduct and service delivery whichinvolves knowledge for the design anddelivery of products and services. Theseinclude funding, marketing, projectappraisal, project selection, monitoringand evaluation, and risk management.

At the DBSA there is also a need forknowledge to support organisational

sustainability. Required here isinformed and visionary leadership,innovative thinking and sound manage-ment which can support long-term sus-tainability, but requires the creation,application and management of knowl-edge for all key functional activities.

There is also a need for knowledge ofstaff selection which targets and recruitsstaff with appropriate skills necessary tocreate, apply and manage the knowl-edge the DBSA needs to deliver itsstrategies.

In the same capacity area we also needknowledge for skills transfer and devel-opment. The DBSA therefore designsand conducts training, including skillstransfer and development programmesthat augment the creation, applicationand management of knowledge.

We also need knowledge capture andarchiving systems. The DBSA KMDivision designs, implements and oper-ates systems to capture and archiveknowledge, ensuring that it remains rel-evant to the functional activities of theDBSA.

Lastly, on the need for knowledge toaccess and dissemination systems, theKM Division designs and operates sys-tems and processes to access and dissem-inate knowledge for various functionalactivities of the DBSA.

Knowledge managementstrategy

In 2002 our KM strategy consisted offive “pillars”: knowledge culture, learn-ing organisation, knowledge exchange,knowledge accounting and knowledgepartnership. Knowledge culture waspushing us to capitalise on and enhanceexisting knowledge. The knowledgeorganisation pillar was intended to keepthe DBSA continuously focussed onlearning that builds capital.

Knowledge exchange focussed oninternal and external knowledge flows.Knowledge accounting insists on evalu-ating knowledge management effortsand resources. Lastly, knowledge part-nerships encourages sustained andenhanced partnerships mutually fur-thering development knowledge.

In 2004 the DBSA board memberssaid that KM is not really coming intobanking and that the strategy is a bit toofar off pure managing and we shouldfocus more on managing. A decisionwas taken to focus on four pillars insteadof five.

The first pillar was knowledge gener-ation which focuses on identification,collecting, accessing, research, monitor-ing, evaluation, sector and informationanalysis.

The KM

strategy tells

you how to

identify,

capture,

manage,

disseminate

and share

knowledge


98

The second pillar was knowledgeaccounting which was retained. Thethird pillar was knowledge applicationwhich focussed on advisory services,capacity building, training, integrationof lessons learned, successes and so forthinto business processes, products andservices.

The last pillar was knowledge sharingwhich was to be achieved through con-ferences, dialogues, workshops, publica-tions, case studies, portals and websites.Knowledge culture and learning organ-isation fell off in 2004.

Despite this, we still see the DBSA asa learning organisation. The organisa-tion ensures continuous learning bymeans of the following:• Annual personal development plans;• Coaching, mentoring, capacity build-

ing programmes;• Capacity needs aligned internal and

external training programmes;• Shared lessons learned and successes

from monitoring and evaluations;• Active Communities of Practice and

Communities of Interest;• Research, publications, articles;• Brown bags, dialogues;• Workshops, seminars, conferences;

and• Formal studies.

KM at institutional level

At the DBSA we have an institutionalarrangement to implement KM. At thetop is the Knowledge StrategyCommittee of Board. It is a sub-commit-tee of the DBSA board and was estab-lished to direct the implementation ofthe DBSA KM strategy. The DBSAboard mandated the KSC to send a clearmessage that knowledge management isa DBSA-wide imperative and not theexclusive preserve of the KnowledgeDivision. The aim of the KSC is alsothat KM is driven at board level.

The next committee is called theKnowledge Management Committeewhich was established with the primaryfunction of coordinating knowledgeproducts and business support servicesacross all divisions of the DBSA.

The last committee is the KnowledgeManagement Quality AssuranceMeeting which was established with theprimary function of quality assuring allthe new knowledge products created bythe DBSA.

In 2002 the KM Division of the DBSAhad seven business units: Policy,Development Information, Specialists(implementers), Monitoring and Evalu-

ation, Human Resources, Training andDevelopment, and Employment Equity.

With the change in strategy in 2004the number of business units wasreduced to five: Policy Research,Development Information, SpecialistsAdvisory, Monitoring and Evaluation,and Training and Development. In 2006,the number was further reduced to four:Research, Development Information,

Specialists Advisory, and Monitoringand Evaluation.

Tools, products and services

The DBSA utilises a number of tools andsystems to facilitate the flow, managementand sharing of the bank’s knowledge inter-nally and externally. These tools includeknowledge portals such as intranet andportals; Local Government ResourceCentre portal; Knowledge Centre orlibrary; COPs; COIs; peer review and peerassists; brown bags and development dia-logues; and our website and a number ofother websites that we host.

The KM products and services thatwe provide include human and institu-tional capacity building, something wedo through our Development Fund. Wealso provide technical and skills trainingthrough the Vulindlela Academy.

We offer project technical assistancethrough financial, technical and humansupport. Advisory services are central toour business. We therefore, offer sectorand functional specific advisory support.

Through Development Report andInfrastructure Report, we offer appliedresearch services. Where necessary, weinfluence policy debated and decision-making through policy advocacy. Wealso provide development informationanalysis and advice particularly throughsocio-economic profiling.

We also assist in monitoring and eval-uation analysis and advice through thedevelopment impact indicators that weprovide. We also have publications andarticles as key KM products.

Conclusion

I want to conclude this paper by listingfuture KM projects in DBSA. These arethe development of an internal knowl-edge portal; development of an externaldevelopment knowledge portal; develop-ment of the KMAfrica Knowledge Hub;development of the ASGISA NationalSkills Database; a staff knowledge audit;development of Unit Portals; and thedevelopment of more topic specific por-tals (Economic Gateway Portal). •

An

understanding

of social and

economic

development

is at the heart

of knowledge

management


99

Dr Nolwazi Mbananga

of the Medical Research

Council, outlines the

benefits of knowledge

management

Establishing a SA NationalCentre for Informatics,

Knowledge Management andthe Knowledge Economy


This paper introduces the SouthAfrican National Centre forInformatics, Knowledge Manage-

ment and Knowledge Economy (SAN-CIKMKE) that is to be established soon.The purpose of the centre is to coordi-nate information and knowledge man-agement at a national level. This paperintends to create awareness and stimu-late interest from all South Africansinvolved in the area of informatics,knowledge management and knowl-edge economy including civil societyand general members of the communityto contribute in strengthening thisnational resource.

Background

The need for establishing the nationalcentre comes as a result of a long-stand-

ing challenge of coordinating informa-tion and knowledge at a national level.A major influence on this challenge is asilo-based model in the creation of infor-mation and knowledge in the country.

This challenge is coupled with theidentified need for skills development inthe area of informatics and knowledgemanagement; and poor understandingof knowledge economy in the country.

Of critical importance in coordinationand managing informatics and knowl-edge at a national level is a sharednational vision on knowledge manage-ment. Currently the country lacks theshared vision that will lead to a nationalpolicy on informatics and knowledgemanagement.

Crucial regulations and laws areimportant for knowledge managementover and above the existing ones such as


100

the Promotion of Access to InformationAct of 2000. These regulations shouldaddress the following aspects:• National policy on knowledge econo-

my;• National policy on knowledge

Management; • Knowledge Management Act (to be

preceded by the Bill);• An Act on Knowledge procurement

and management ( broader than theIP);

• An Act on Knowledge Sharing andTransfer (Open Access and OpenAccess Publishing); and

• Act on Trans-border Informationand Knowledge Flows.

The centre supports all the endeavourstowards developing skills in the area ofinformatics and knowledge manage-ment including the creation of knowl-edge economy awareness in the country.

Creation of knowledge transfer part-nerships and packaging of nationalknowledge into useful comprehensiveassets are major functions as well. The

centre is positioned to assist relevantorganisations in the development ofknowledge management standards,including benchmarking.

It is often difficult to measure thequality of knowledge and informationin relation to improving productivitythrough use of such knowledge. Thecentre identifies six knowledge bases todraw from:• tertiary institutions;• research organisations;• private institutions: business and

industry;• government organisations including

departments;• indigenous knowledge systems; and• general public.

Lack of a dedicated institution to measure economic gains due to ICTand KM

Since the dawn of its democratic dispen-sation in 1994, South Africa has mademarked strides towards the implemen-

tation of information and communica-tion technology (ICT). These effortshave led to a massive growth in ICT,particularly in the public sector and forthe general public.

Although the country has made suchinvestments there is little evidence of theeconomic benefits gained from most ofthese. Limited documented evidence onthe economic achievements attained bythe mass development and implementa-tion of ICTs in the country was one ofthe reasons to establish the centre.

The reason for this scant evidence isbecause there is no institution that isdedicated to measuring the gains. Also,information and knowledge have notbeen used widely to generate economicgains in the past. As a result, it is notclear to most South Africans whetherthe investment made in information cre-ation, ICT and KM have shown anytangible social and economic gains.

KM is new and emerging in SouthAfrica, perhaps as a result of the globalinfluence surrounding the knowledgeeconomy In 2003 and 2005 South Africaplayed an important role in the WorldSummit on Information Society (WSIS).

South African Presidency and its commitment to an information society

In his address at the WSIS 2005 inTunis, President Thabo Mbekiexpressed the need to promote the use ofmodern information to inform decisionsthat are taken for the development ofthe oriented information society. Hemade an appeal to everybody to translatethe concept of an information societyinto a practical reality and urged allstakeholders to commit themselves andtake actions towards this end.

The SA National Centre forInformatics Knowledge Managementand Knowledge Economy is a responseto this call.

There is a need to harness effortstowards managing information andknowledge and use technologies to dis-seminate information to all, in theendeavour to create an information soci-

ICT

Innovation

KnowledgeEconomy

KnowledgeManagement

Education

InformaticsInformation

SocietyKnowledge

Society

R&D R&D

R&D

R&DR&D

R&D

Proposed Pillars of Knowledge for Development


101

ety and knowledge economy. While ICT is needed in networking,

communication and some form ofInternet trading and bussiness, withoutproper organised and synthesised con-tent, it will be a vessel that is full of use-less information. For example, manypeople who have access to Internet ande-mail technology suffer from "informa-tion overload".

Information and knowledge shouldbe managed and synthesised into tailor-made resources, and technology shouldbe applied to manage and disseminatethese resources collectively towards eco-nomic development.

The concept ‘knowledge economy’

The knowledge economy is founded inthe knowledge-based service, innova-tion and development of the 21st centu-ry versus the physical creation, manu-facturing and distribution of goods ofthe 20th century. The knowledge econ-omy refers to the use of knowledge toproduce economic benefits. The phrasewas popularised (if not invented) byPeter Drucker as the heading to chapter12 in his book, The Age ofDiscontinuity (1969, Heinemann,London).

The concept came to prominence inNew Zealand in the 1990s to refer to themanner in which various high-technolo-gy businesses, especially computer soft-ware, telecommunications and virtualservices, as well as educational andresearch institutions, could contribute toa country's economy.

However, this concept has grown andexpanded beyond the definition devel-oped by Drucker. As depicted in the dia-gram, the concept does not focus on ITdevelopments or innovation only, but ona whole range of matters related to:information, information flows, infor-mation management, knowledge,knowledge flows, knowledge produc-tion, knowledge management, knowl-edge transfer, knowledge sharing,knowledge translation (innovation)access, knowledge institutions/indus-

tries, knowledge services, knowledgetrades, research and development, edu-cation, knowledge supplies and demandand knowledge society.

The interpretation will changedepending on the area of focus andissues to be addressed.

For any country to begin with mattersof knowledge economy there is a needfor conceptual operationalisation for dif-ferent sectors. There is a need for coun-trywide participation and involvement;massive creation of awareness of theconcept and how it applies to differentsectors; and impacts on people at nation-al and individual levels.

An important point to make is thatknowledge economy does not refer toscience knowledge only, but to all formsof knowledge as long as such knowledgeand/or activities lead to economicgrowth and job creation.

A. Informatics The concept of “informatics” is inherentto KM. Informatics is the term that is

used to explain the connection of “tech-nology”: with information, creatingmuch synergy. Information is the foun-dation of knowledge creation, very littleknowledge can be created withoutinformation. Knowledge is the combi-nation of “book knowledge” with whatis “in the environment” or “in people’sheads” and not research informationonly.

Informatics is the science that studiesthe collection, collation analysis, use,flow and processing of data and infor-mation and the development, imple-mentation of ICT-related systems ofinformation that is applied to medicine,health care, public and other sectors.

B. Knowledge managementAnother factor that has emerged in dif-ferent sectors of government and in theprivate sector is knowledge manage-ment (KM). Some government depart-ments have established KM units ordirectorates to deal with KM. The phi-losophy of establishing these units is

ICT• Telecom• Internet• Satellite

• Hardware, etc

Public• Access to

information/Knowledge• Information and

knowledge hubs for society• Social change

• Integration of ICT’s forcountries

• Empower societies to useICTs

• Taking advantage of KM• Educate society• COP and COI

• KE

KM• K coordination

• K hubs• K networks• K systems

• K packaging• K measurement

• KM policy• KM Act

• Open access• COP and COI

Education• ICT

• Information• Database design

• Hardware, etc• Ergonims

• Information Manager• KM

• K.Eng• KE

Informatics• Information systems

• Information• Software development

• Informationmanagement

• Data management• Monitoring and

evaluation(Systems

survaillance)

KnowledgeEconomy

Indus

tries Government

Knowledge Society

Transition from Inform

ation Society to

Cou

ntrie

s at

diff

eren

t lev

els

of e

volu

tion

A Model of Knowledge Sociey


contained within the concept of theknowledge economy.

Unfortunately there is no mandategiven for coordination and managementof knowledge at a national level, hencethe centre is established to close theexisting gap.

Knowledge management can bedefined as the capturing, organising,packaging, disseminating, knowledgeasset development and storing of rule-based/explicit knowledge and experi-ences of individual workers and groups(tacit knowledge) within an organisa-tion and organisations; making thisinformation available to others in gener-al public organisations and using itsknowledge product for economic pur-poses.

KM is used for: process management,organisational management and prod-uct/asset development leading to eco-nomic development.

C. Enterprise knowledgemanagementEnterprise knowledge management isconcerned with strategies, processes andtechnologies to acquire, store, share andsecure organisational understandingand insights into the core business of theorganisation. KM at this level is closelytied to business intelligence, competitiveadvantage, and innovation.

D. Knowledge societyThe concept “knowledge society” canhave different meanings from variousstandpoints. For purposes of this docu-ment, the concept refers to a nation thatbases its life on knowledge to developand prosper economically and socially.

The knowledge society comprisespeople who have developed a cultureand interest in using knowledge to pros-per. Such a society tries to make effectiveuse of the vast wealth of knowledge forthe benefit of the whole nation.

This society nourishes and contributesto new areas of learning by feedback tothe knowledge pool. Every society isformed around shared concepts – theconcepts “information” and “knowl-edge” are vital to the knowledge society.

ICT unites the knowledge societies ofthe world into a global knowledge soci-ety, where knowledge is shared and usedto create international possibilities.

Conclusion

The Informatics and KnowledgeManagement and Knowledge Economy

Centre in South Africa is marking animportant milestone in preparationtowards a successful knowledge econo-my in the country. The centre coordi-nates information and knowledge of thecountry at a national level, a very crucialaspect in the development of the econo-my.

This coordination will lead to thereduction of duplicated efforts in thecountry which leads to waste ofresources. Of importance is the develop-ment of a Bill leading to an Informaticsand Knowledge Management Act.

This Act will be important in prevent-ing theft of information and knowledgecountrywide. It will be naïve to assumethat information and knowledge theft isnot happening in this country.

Evidence can be seen in various areasif it is searched for. One seminar inSouth Africa highlighted the fact thatknowledge and information theft inSouth Africa is high and this country isregarded as a sitting duck in thisregard.

It is based on these views that theSouth African National Centre forInformatics, Knowledge Managementand Economy is established in SouthAfrica. •

References1. Harvard Business Review on Knowledge

Management, Ch 2 The Knowledge-CreatingCompany, p 26, 1998

2. Health informatics: van Bemmel JH, MusenMA, eds. Handbook of Medical Informatics.AW Houten, Netherlands: Bohn Stafleu VanLoghum; Heidelberg, Germany: SpringerVerlag, 1997.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Informatics

3. Enterprise knowledge management:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_man-agement

4. Knowledge economy:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_econ-omy

5. Louw, J. A. and (2002) Implications of theInformation Revolution for Economic Development in South Africa. Report com-piled for Department of Trade and Industry

6. Manville B and Foote N. (1996) Strategy as ifKnowledge Mattered. Illustrations by ReganDunnick Issue 02, April/May.

7. Mbananga N, van Zyl H and Luke N. (2006)The Establishment of the SA Informatics and Knowledge Management

Centre in South Africa: Proposalsubmitted to South African Government

Departments. 8. President Thabo Mbeki 2005. Address of the

President of South Africa at the WorldSummit on Information Society Tunis Tunisia, Issued by the Presidency 16 November 2005.

There is a

need to

harness efforts

towards

managing

information

and

knowledge

and use

technologies

to disseminate

information

to all

102

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

103

Sikhumbuzo Mthembu and Dr Andrew Kaniki present the processand key content issues that emanated from the KM Indaba

Key issues from the Knowledge Management Indaba


Part of the way forward for theIndaba was the DPSA’s undertak-ing to finalise the draft Knowledge

Management Framework (KMF) by theend of first quarter of 2007, and also tocontinue to provide assistance and guid-ance whenever required.

The challenges that confront the publicservice as it becomes a learning organisa-tion may be summarised as follows:• the entrenchment and institutionalisa-

tion of knowledge management – plac-ing it at the centre away from the mar-gins;

• demonstration of the value-add ofknowledge management in depart-ments and its resultant contribution tothe mandate and operational effective-ness and efficiency;

• cascading of knowledge sharing andlearning to lower levels, where servicedelivery is taking place; and

• no policy framework to give directionand guidance to government depart-ments on application and implementa-tion of knowledge management.With the various changes in the public

service (e.g. Single Public Service,amendment of the Public Service Act,etc.) change management becomes a crit-ical ingredient. The DPSA is developingthe KM framework and is targeting theend of the first quarter of 2007 to have adraft document.

There is a challenge to secure seniormanagement engagement in supportingthe process. The Research, Learning &Knowledge Management Chief Direct-orate will continue to provide assistance onspecific requests and continue to brokercontacts between different interest groups.

The conference was also a way ofreviving the learning network that wasinitiated some years ago.

Based on the proceedings of the confer-

ence, it is recommended that the follow-ing challenges should be addressed:• There needs to be a re-examination of

how departments’ organisationalstructures relate to the influential posi-tioning of KM. Silo working arrange-ments should not be perpetuated. Agood reference point is the packagingof three elements of the CanadianIndividual Learning;

• For the provision of advisory servicesthat ensure departmental learning,there needs to be an examination ofhow confidence will be gained fromthe public service. In addition, thereshould be an examination of the suc-cesses, pitfalls and working relation-ships with other learning and develop-ment institutions and initiatives; and

• It is suggested that the group should bewidened by inviting other groupings toparticipate in next year’s KM forum.

Recommendations

There were a range of recommendationsmade during the conference. It was rec-ommended that the Learning andKnowledge Management learning net-work be re-activated. Topics and specificKM areas need to be identified based onthe needs of KM practitioners.

Both provincial and sectoral learningnetworks have to be strengthened inorder to ensure continuous activity.There has to be a database of best prac-tices. We should ensure that the Projectsof Transformation database is populatedand widely accessibl.

In so doing, benchmark the UK PublicSector Benchmarking Service. We needto facilitate benchmarking of good prac-tices – local and international. Studytours need to be undertaken.

The Senior Management Services

cadre has to be mobilised on KM. Theyhave to be invited to the next LKM net-work forum. There has to be an aware-ness drive in various departments. Whendoing this, we should look at bench-marking Canada’s ManagementAccountability Framework.

Furthermore, we have to qualityassure customised and relevant capacitybuilding on KM. SAMDI should collab-orate and exchange expertise with theCanadian School of Public Service.

In developing the policy framework, weneed to look very closely into issues of peo-ple, process, organisation and tools andmechanisms. In doing this we might haveto adopt the Canadian Natural Servicesmodel on “putting the puzzle together”,and “knowledge management services”.

There has to be a partnership withDBSA and we can use their expertise inrolling out KM in the public service.Therefore we should think about a possi-ble Memorandum of Understandingwith the DBSA.

Conclusion

We need to adopt Canada’s humanresources and social development visionand principles on KM as a preamble tothe policy framework – outcome of com-mission group 1 discussions. In the ensu-ing period we need to advocate and lobbyfor strategic positioning of KM in gov-ernment departments as part of corpo-rate/organisational strategy.

In developing policy framework, weneed to take cognisance of complianceand enforcement mechanisms. Thenotion of “cost of not knowing”. The def-initions of terms and issues are veryimportant. We need to deal with them inboth the policy framework, and inawareness-raising and implementation. •


104

Developing skills leads

to a developing economy,

writes Mr Gugu Mji, Head:

Skills Development,

eThekwini Municipality

Skills development for growth

A local governmentperspective

EThekwini Municipality has takenthe first few tentative, but exciting,steps towards becoming a knowl-

edge-based city and a learning organisa-tion. In the few years since the first dem-ocratic local government elections wehave learnt a great deal.

We knew from the beginning that itwas essential to find out as much as pos-sible about all the citizens in the munic-ipal area. For instance, we know that themunicipality is home to over three mil-lion people, 68 % of whom are African,20% Indian, 9% white and 3% coloured.68% of our population is under the ageof 35 years and 28% of the economicallyactive community are unemployed.

The role of the municipality is toidentify the major economic, social andenvironmental needs of the community,and institute sustainable development

programmes to address each of these.Information alone does not bring

about development. It merely provides aplatform from which to direct thechanges that need to be made. Differentneeds require different actions, certainlywe have learnt that “one size does not fitall”. Nor can we be arrogant enough tobelieve that our programmes will imme-diately and directly change the lives ofevery individual citizen, but by the year2020 we hope to have achieved a betterlife for all.

The political and administrative enti-ties of the municipality are workingstrongly together towards realising thevision of Durban in 2020 as the mostcaring and liveable city in Africa. Toachieve this title will not be an easy task.Its achievement means that, at the veryleast, all of its citizens will feel safe, have


105


access to affordable and efficient servic-es, including those of health and wel-fare, and the education we provide willbe of the highest standard.

The economy will be flourishing tothe degree that businesses will want toinvest in the city and its individual citi-zens will have secured a source ofincome.

Linking economic developmentand skills development

Achieving this vision requires a processof accelerated, sustainable economicdevelopment which, the municipalitybelieves, can only be achieved throughthe joint and focussed efforts of publicand private enterprises.

The national government’sAccelerated and Shared GrowthInitiative (ASGISA) recognised six bar-riers to achieving economic growth andpoverty reduction, one of these being the“shortage of suitably skilled labour,amplified by the impact of apartheidspatial patterns on the cost of labour”.

Research has clearly shown that thereis a link between the skills profile of anarea and its economic well-being. It rea-sons therefore, that programmes aimedat improving the skills of the citizens of

eThekwini will assist in the economicgrowth of the municipality.

It is for this reason that the municipal-ity has structured its Skills DevelopmentUnit as an autonomous unit which hastwo focus areas. Firstly there is a depart-ment that specializes in the developmentof its own employees. The work of thisparticular department is closely alignedwith that of the Human Resources Unitof the municipality. The other depart-ment in the Skills Development Unitworks closely with the EconomicDevelopment Unit of the Municipalityin skilling the citizens of eThekwini inorder that they are able to constitute apool of workers able to sustain existingbusinesses, attract potential investors tothe area, or sustain their own employ-ment .

In its attempts towards fulfilling itsvision, eThekwini Municipality has, inits Integrated Development Plan, identi-fied eight strategic areas in which it hasplanned to focus its activities. One ofthese plans is referred to as“Empowering Citizens”.

Within this plan there are pro-grammes and projects which have thestrategic focus of Developing HumanCapital or Developing the City as aLearning City. In this plan the word

“citizens” refers to employees of themunicipality as well as non-employees.

When considering the development ofour own employees we are mindful ofthe need for the municipality to deliveron its constitutional mandate of deliver-ing sustainable services to the communi-ty. For this reason the municipalityoffers various development opportuni-ties to its staff in order that their compe-tencies keep pace with the technologicaland other advances in the world ofwork.

One of the municipality’s internal,social development programmes is theprovision of free basic literacy andnumeracy classes for its employees, aswe believe that if an employee is able,independently, to engage fully in society,his/her self-esteem will be enhanced andhe/she will become a more active mem-ber of society and a more productiveemployee.

It is sobering to know that approxi-mately 20% of our employees do nothave the basic 12 years of schooling thatis the minimum required by law today.About 732 employees are attendingAdult Basic Education classes.

As part of its efforts towards encour-aging lifelong learning, all staff areencouraged to improve their qualifica-tions by taking advantage of theAssisted Education Scheme in which themunicipality provides financial assis-tance for employees to study in theirown time. About 500 employees are reg-istered on this scheme annually.

Partnerships and thedevelopment of the eThekwiniMunicipal Area (EMA)

The national government has promul-gated an inordinate number of Acts ofParliament, policies and strategy docu-ments over the last 10 years in a valianteffort to right the wrongs of the past andimprove the social and economic statusof the country. None of these, however,would have produced the results theyhave without the efforts of local players.

Skills development should not happenin a vacuum. It should be part of the big-

106


107

ger social and economic thrusts of thecountry. Ethekwini municipality hasmany skills development projects inplace and each is there to achieve a par-ticular outcome.

All of these projects are collaborationsbetween public and private sectorswhich attest to the notion that all stake-holders in the EMA have an obligationand desire to secure its future.

In the EMA the business communityhas risen to the challenge of meeting theobjectives of the 2005-2010 NationalSkills Development Strategy, by open-ing its doors to young learners on learn-ership programmes.

Since August 2004 the municipalityhas facilitated the placement of 665unemployed and 53 employed learnerson learnerships, relating to Tourism,Early Childhood Development,Customer Management, MixedFarming Systems, Project Management,Internal Audit, Emergency Operationsand Payroll Administration etc.

This has happened despite the factthat learnerships are administrativelyonerous for businesses and municipali-ties alike. There are times when closescrutiny needs to be given to the differ-ence between the theory of legislation orpolicy and its implementation at locallevel.

The facilitated learnerships were notchosen indiscriminately but were select-ed because the qualifications had beenidentified as needs in our area. To iden-tify these needs the Skills DevelopmentUnit worked, and is continuing to work,closely with the municipality’sEconomic Development Unit, and area-based management structures, and withthe Chamber of Commerce and itsmembers.

Using the ICT sector as a pilot project,the municipality has developed a modelfor identifying the immediate and long-term skills needs of an economic sectorand has developed a process to addressthese needs.

A project management team, com-prising one member of each of the SkillsDevelopment and the EconomicDevelopment units of the municipality

and a private ICT enterprise known asSmart Xchange, undertook researchinto the skills needs of the major ICTcompanies and ICT users in the EMA.

The same team then surveyed theservice providers in the area and identi-fied the gaps between supply anddemand. The outcome of this projectwas the establishment of an ICT skillsforum, which has the objective of clos-ing that gap. This model established inthis process will be replicated for othermajor economic sectors.

The Skills Development Unit ofeThekwini sees it as part of their respon-sibility to facilitate economic growth inthe area by seeing that the skills avail-able in the EMA match the skills needsof the business community, and that theinformal economy is developed to theextent that it is has the skills to developfurther.

To succeed in this role three factorsare essential:• We need to know the economic status

and strategies for the EMA;• We need all public and private stake-

holders in the EMA to acknowledgethat their active participation in itsdevelopment is essential for success;and

• We need individual citizens to realisetheir responsibility in the growth ofthe municipality.

One skills need already known to us isthe need for pupils to be competent inmaths and science and then for them tobe encouraged to enter scarce skill voca-tions. Every high school in the EMAoffers mathematics and science as part oftheir curriculum, however this does notmean that they all have teachers compe-tent to present the programmes atmatriculation level.

The Skills Development Unit isworking closely with the ProvincialDepartment of Education and theInanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashuABM to provide support for the teachersand pupils of maths and science in theschools in these areas.

The municipality is also in a positionto help those schools whose performance

is compromised because of poor facili-ties. Once infrastructural needs areidentified, the provincial governmentand the municipality can work togetherto prioritise the provision of these servic-es.

Collaboration between provincialdepartments and the municipality is anarea that needs attention. Both entitiesare bureaucratic by nature and a chal-lenge for us is to find ways for both par-ties to speed up their transactions andincrease the trust between us.

A simple example of a procedural dif-ficulty is the fact that national andprovincial departments share the samefinancial year which is 1 April to 31March, whilst the local governmentfinancial year spans 1 July to 30 June.This makes planning with other gov-ernment departments difficult and thesynchronisation of financial years maybe an issue that we have to look at toimpact on service delivery.

The prospect of the 2010 WorldSoccer Cup is exciting for our city butwe are planning skills development ini-tiatives to take us up to and beyond2010. For example, we are currentlydeveloping a cadre of tour guides, notjust for 2010 but as a support for all ourevents, annual and special.

Events like the A1 race and interna-tional conferences held in our city pro-vide potential year round employment ifmanaged creatively

We are exploring the skills needs ofthe film industry and encouraging dia-logue between our FET, higher educa-tion colleges and local players in theindustry to determine what skills shouldbe taught in anticipation of a flourishingindustry developing in South Africa inthe next few years.

Conclusion

Although the present economic growthof the country is hampered by the lack ofskills, it is hoped that the initiatives ofeThekwini Municipality will go morethan a little way to turning this aroundand that, indeed, by 2014 poverty andunemployment will have been halved. •

P r o f i l e S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

108

Bongani Matomela

spends a day with

Mr Matlakala Maoto –

a veteran health

administrator and a

perfectionist

extraordinaire

Making a healthy hospital

It is a late summer Monday, partlycloudy and hot, when I arrive atHelene Franz Hospital in

Senwabarana (previously Bochum) inLimpopo. The surroundings are notunfamiliar to me, I was here in earlyNovember during Public Service Week,and it’s a good “homecoming” for me.

I arrive at the CEO’s office at 8.45,minutes ahead of my appointment, andthe hospital is already buzzing withactivity. Just after 09h00 I meet theCEO, Mr Matlakala Maoto, who ushersme into his office. As we walk in I amimmediately drawn by his very organ-ised set up. The bespectacled CEO,exuding seriousness and energy, wel-comes me, and asks me how my journeyhas been.

Mr Maoto was born in March 1947,the last born in the family. He was born70km from Helene Franz Hospital, at a

place called Brilliant Farm – and yes, hewill be celebrating his 60th birthdaysoon he tells me. His father was ateacher. He himself is a father of two, agrown up and working son and adaughter.

He qualified as a Public HealthInspector (today termed EnvironmentalHealth Practitioner) in 1968 at MadikotiTechnical College. He has always beeninterested in public health issues, and infact wanted to do medicine, but becauseof limited funds he could not. So pursu-ing a career in environmental health wasthe next alternative.

He was first appointed in public serv-ice in February 1969 under the RegionalDirector State Health Services:Northern Transvaal, stationed first atPotgietersrus then Nebo and laterPietersburg at the Regional Office.

The work involved extensive travel-

P r o f i l eS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

109ling covering areas that are today cov-ered by a staff of well over 15 officers.Due to continued ill-health, he took abreak of service and resigned andworked as a clerk grade 11 in theDepartment of Interior and Educationin the then Lebowa homeland.

Outlining the problems and chal-lenges that the hospital faces, Mr Maotasays that Helene Franz is a rural institu-tion with limited revenue resulting inrevenue constrains as people are unem-ployed. It is not attractive to young pro-fessionals, resulting in a high vacancyrate. The hospital serves 20 clinics, twohealth centres, and 63 mobile clinics.

Shortage of key personnel creates con-ditions not conducive to support pri-mary health care. Resources are limitedas community needs are many, andMaoto says this is compounded by thefact that people know their rights and

demand their rights. Appointed in April 2001, he has been

CEO of Helene Franz for six years now. I ask him if he has enjoyed his stay

and his work, and he says with absolutecertainty that he has. He acknowledgesthat it is a challenging work, but in aquintessential public servant way, hesays, “At the end of the day you havedone good for the public indirectly, andhave contributed. That happiness thatpeople have is my happiness. If I suc-ceed, that makes me happy.”

I ask him what drives him and hecomfortably responds, “The communityhere is needy, they need help.” Indeedhere is a community person. He says thecooperation of support staff drives him,and he concedes that “we meet seriouschallenges, but at the end if you haveresolved some, you say yes you haveachieved”.

Mr Maoto attributes a large part of thesuccess of the hospital to good relationswith local and district stakeholders inthe Blouberg and Capricorn area. They,together with the hospital board, makethe hospital work. He also commendsthe provincial department, saying thatdespite the financial constrains, the hos-pital derives moral strength and valu-able support from visits to the hospitalby the province.

The prospect of having additionalstaff posted at head office in the districthospital section, as promised by theprovince, brings visible relief to him.However, he feels that there needs to bemore involvement of stakeholders suchas the private sector through PPPs.

Referring to the problem of theunderutilisation of sports grounds andfields in hospitals, Mr Maoto indicatesthat with private sector involvement,


110

including local mines in the vicinity,these could be utilised for the good ofthe hospital staff and surrounding com-munities. Referring to a recommenda-tion from the Khaedu team that the hos-pital involve universities to help dealwith salted water reticulation problemin hospital, Mr Maoto declares thatnegotiations are already underway.

On staff relations, he is generallyupbeat, despite some problems and dif-ferences with the unions at times. A casein hand, for instance, is when sevenworkers took the hospital on for not giv-ing them performances bonuses. This, heindicates, could not hold as it emergedfrom the regular management walka-bouts that the people concerned wereseen on several occasions not working.The case is, however, still continuing.

On the positive side, he proudly sin-gles out the recognition of excellenceservice that the hospital undertakesmonthly. This, he declares, is payingdividends. I am told, for instance, about10 staff members who, together withtheir partners, have been tipped for anouting and a small function as rewardfor best performance.

A veteran administrator laden withwisdom, perseverance, leadership,tenacity and resolve, Mr Maot’s guidingmotto is “adapt and listen to the nextperson”. This, he asserts, really and trulyworks. He attributes the successes andany achievements in the institution todedication and hard work by teammembers as well as team work spirit,leading by example, being a good listen-er and adapting but still remaining firm.

He tells me he always learns from thenewly appointed young people, for theyhave new brains fresher than his.

When I try to find out what he thinkshis biggest achievement has been to date,he humbly points out that he has servedthe nation, and is proud of havingimproved the quality of life of peoplethrough his services as public healthpractitioner.

Referring to his leadership style, MrMaoto thinks he has improved disciplinein the institution, citing the dismissal ofsome people as an example.

Profile of Helene Franz Hospital

Helene Franz Hospital was established around 1902 by the Berlin Mission in SouthAfrica and was taken over by the Department of Health of the Republic of South Africain 1974. The facility was handed to Lebowa Government and later taken by the dem-ocratic South African government in 1994. It is a District Hospital situated in BloubergMunicipality 96 km North West of Polokwane City. Due to its location the facility serv-ice part of Molemole, Aganang, Makhado, Mogalakwena and Lephalale Municipali-ties. According to District Health Information System; 2005 (DHIS) it serves a popula-tion of 169,073. The population served is estimated as 161,321 (census 2001). It is areferral hospital for twenty(20) Clinics, sixty (60) mobile Clinics and two(2) Health Cen-ters, viz. Ratshaatshaa- and Blouberg . It has 149 beds, but only uses 119 beds. Thespare capacity is useful for emergencies.

Its mission is to provide “accessible, affordable and equitable quality health caresystem”. Its mission statement states that “the institution is committed to provide com-prehensive health care service that promotes healthy lifestyle through efficient hospi-tal service delivery system”. Services rendered by the facility are as follows:

• Outpatient Department• Casualty• Children’s Ward• Female Ward• Male Ward • Maternity Ward• Theatre• Poli Clinic (Service as Gateway Clinic)• X-Ray• Pharmacy • Dental• Occupational Therapy• Physiotherapy• Nutrition • Psychometric• Medical Social Work• Environmental Health• Optometrist • ARV Services

The hospital has approved 21 posts for medical staff, but only five are filled at themoment. There is also a shortage especially senior professional nurses, a 33% vacan-cy rate there. Overall the hospital vacancy rate is 35%.

The hospital has seen improvement in its management of finances, although theregross areas of under funding. In both 2004/5 and 2005/6 it had overspent its allocat-ed budget at the end of the third quarter, but in 2006/7 financial, by 31 December ithad spen 78% of its budget, which is very commendable. Machinery and equipment,and the maintenance thereof, continue to be budget pressure areas, where undermaintenance, there is already an overspent.

In 2004/05, the revenue target was reached by 85%, in 2005/06 it was exceededand they collected 157% of what they had set, and in 2006/7 as at the end of thethird quarter it has already been met at 135% has already been collected.

During the interview, the interview the CEO was very cautious and modest aboutthe performance of the hospital, saying that the jury on this one is still out. The aver-age cost per patient day equivalent is R1,000, and the income R28. The averagelength of stay is 5.5, with December 06 showing a slight decrease – the CEO wishesto see a decrease in the average length of stay. The average useable bed utilisationrate is 70%.

P r o f i l eS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

111With his sixtieth birthday in March,

Mr Maoto says “the body can tell” andhe thinks a young blood must take overhis job soon. However, he is quick topoint out that “maybe one could comeback and assist like sitting on the hospi-tal board”.

His hopes and wishes for the hospitalare clear-cut. He wants a reduction inthe length of stay of patients in the hos-pital. He also wants chronic patients tobe high priority. In dealing with some ofthe challenges, he says they intend tohave a step-down facility to deal withpatients that do not require critical med-ical care. He mentions that the challengeis to change the community’s “I want tosee a doctor” mentality.

He also believes that in extensiveefforts to liaise with the community onthe utilisation of primary health carefacilities in order to “reduce the load”because the hospital is overstretched.

Mr Maoto values the benefits of hav-ing sound relations with local structures.

Their initiative to explain to the com-munity the benefits of paying tariffs ininstitutions is paying dividends as thehospital is getting more revenue. “Weask people to pay however much theyhave.”

Given a chance to raise a few burningissues and give suggestions to either theMEC or Minister, he says he would tellthem to pump more money into the hos-pital revitalisation programme for hos-pitals like Helene Franz to benefit. Hewould also employ more personnel,especially midwives.

On the skills exodus in the health sec-tor, Mr Maoto believes that the depart-ment could be missing some of the basicthings. “Some of reasons could be thatpeople may not be happy. There is still aneed to go to the heart of these people.”Having better schools close by in ruralareas, as is the case in urban areas, couldhelp.

After more than an hour talking in hisoffice we take a walkabout in the hospi-

tal, first in the main reception areawhich has been fitted with modern andcomfortable chairs. We then proceed tothe waiting rooms where Mr Maotochats with some nursing staff. In the X-ray section, the section head proudlyshows us the new equipment that theyrecently received and a batch of newfiles, and we catch up with a few nursesfor a chat. In the maternity ward a nurserecounts to us the problems of staffshortages.

We move to a gateway clinic area(which attends to patients that wouldordinarily be treated in the clinic). Herethere are more than 60 people waiting tobe attended to, mostly children withtheir parents.

As we do a walkabout in the femaleward where new carpeting is being fit-ted, Mr Maoto to my surprise goes downto finger the carpet to get a feel of howthe work has been done. A suddenfrown creeps onto his face, as he express-es his utter dissatisfaction concerning


112problems with artisan work done bysome BEE companies.

He makes the point that as manage-ment they rely on supervisors and super-intendents to give feedback on the qual-ity of work done. Clearly from his senti-ments and body language this has notbeen forthcoming.

As we move out we briefly catch upwith a gentleman behind a desk, and hetells me he is one of the three wardsclerks the hospital has recently hired toease the administrative burden of thenursing staff.

We visit the laundry area which hasbeen beset with problems. The supervi-sor shows us around and by the look ofthings the challenges are far from over.Only one washing machine works, andthe ironing machine is non-functional, tosay the least. Visibly disturbed, Mr Maotois at pains to recount solutions proposedby the province to sort out this challenge.They are more in favour of outsourcingthe function, which, he thinks, will comewith its own challenges.

In the meantime, a temporaryarrangement is required to deal with the

existing challenges. He is at pains to tellme that the hospital is trying to movetowards hotel services, but with prob-lems such as the laundry, this is a chal-lenge.

We proceed to the mortuary and as wewalk he tells me of the challenges theyhave with the fridge not being fully func-tional. He is informed, in my company,that some corpses have had to beremoved over the weekend to some-where else as the fridges had stoppedworking and how unbearable the situa-tion still is. For this he chides the officialfor not having informed him timeously.

This, he tells me, is symptomatic ofserious problems with the maintenanceof equipment in the hospital, citing thefact that most equipment is old andexpensive to maintain.

At the boiler section, which is the lastplace we visit, the same problem pre-vails, Only one boiler machine worksand the pipes that have to distributewater throughout the hospital are allfairly old and rusty. However, perhapsto reassure us, we hear from the supervi-sor that R215 000 has been earmarked to

see to repairs. As we proceed towards his office, I

ask him what his typical day involvesand he replies that it is the usual: staff,problem solving, meeting with manage-ment, dealing with personnel problems.For obvious reasons staff do come tohim to air problems and issues, and hetakes kindly to that. In typical modestfashion he agrees that h is, indeed, afather figure.

I ask him whether he thinks the hos-pital is on the right track, and heresponds: “I think we are on the righttrack with things like monitoring andevaluation, auditing being done. Thosethings will tell us if we are indeed get-ting it right.” He is happy that the latestpatient satisfaction survey rates the hos-pital at 64%.

It is the end the visit and he invites mefor lunch. We choose to have lunch inthe newly renovated boardroom wherehe continues to chat to me about how farthey have gone to implement some ofthe Project Khaedu recommendations.

A day well spent indeed, what an eye-opening visit! •

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Mrs Weziwe Thusi,

MEC for Arts, Culture

and Tourism, KwaZulu-

Natal, outlines what has

to be done to ensure

that KZN Arts and

Culture performs better

Getting KZN’s arts and culture

in order

Iwant to start by stating that in ourdepartment’s strategic planning meet-ing, I pointed out that the majority of

KwaZulu-Natal’s legislation regulatingthe Department of Arts, Culture andTourism is outdated. We have notmoved any further in updating such leg-islation. This will have to be treated as amatter of urgency. If there are impedi-ments, we should establish what they areas I believe this is important for any gov-ernment department.

Mapping a holistic approach to arts and culture

One must appreciate the efforts thathave been put into the development ofarts and culture in KwaZulu-Natal.However, there is more that needs to bedone in this regard. One of the compo-nents that I feel is not being afforded thestatus it deserves is the video and filmindustry. So far, I am aware of one clus-ter that has a programme to develop thisindustry.

Usually clusters function as if they arein competition with each other.Although sometimes competition can behealthy, I want to strongly advocate fordoing things in an integrated manner,injecting better coordination into whatwe do.

For example, giving awards to bestperforming employees should be adepartmental function, instead of some-thing that is coordinated at cluster level.Once we better coordinate our activities,what we do will have a better impact onthe customer that we are serving.

KwaZulu-Natal has an abundance oftalented and experienced people whocan assist in arts development. We needto draw them in so that they can imparttheir skills and knowledge to up-and-coming artists who want to venture intothe industry.

The department should identifyartists and put them through a needs-based training and development pro-gramme. This should cover all requiredskills areas so that the identified artists

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

114 can make a living using the acquiredskills. This should culminate in aprovincial festival, where the sameartists participate and showcase theirskills and talent.

Components such as tourism need towork with other departments such aseconomic development to assist with theformation of cooperatives in the indus-try. I am certain the same can be done byall other components, the key being aplanned, properly integrated approachand sustainable programmes.

Alignment of structures and vulnerable groups

We need to allocate funding for therealignment of our structures so thatthey correspond with those of munici-palities. I am fully aware that this is notan easy task and has serious financialimplications, but we need to have a planand timeframes as to how the processwill unfold.

This will help maximise the visibility

and accessibility of the department onthe ground.

Our government has put vulnerablegroups such as the youth, women, theelderly and people with disabilities highon its agenda. It is also vital that in ourprogrammes we mainstream projectsthat are directed to these groups.

We need to be able to respondpromptly when anyone asks us what weare doing for these groups. We musthave a clear programme as to how werespond to such challenges. It should besomething well-planned and focussed,not something that happens by default.

Supporting black economicempowerment

As government, we are custodians ofblack economic empowerment. In allour job-creating projects, we must beseen to be biased to the historically dis-advantaged groups. For example, sincewe are also responsible for buildinglibraries, it is important to see to it that

local communities benefit economicallyin the construction of that particularstructure.

This can be through employment andtender processes. We must not makeexcuses when it comes to the need fortransformation. But where we feel that,for instance, adequate skills are lacking,we need to come up with strategies thatensure that gradually previously disad-vantaged people are brought on boardand benefit from the department’s pro-grammes.

Marketing and promotion

The department’s Internet, which is animportant tool for communicating, isnow up and running. However, ourcommunication directorate has not mas-tered the art of working together withthe ministry despite many efforts toensure this happens.

Working together will help enhancethe image of the department since theright hand will know what the otherone is doing. We still continue to senddifferent messages to the outside worldas if we are two different organisationscompeting against each other.

For example, the communicationstrategy of the department must bereviewed to reflect the existing structurein the ministry, and I would like to seethe formation of an active communica-tion forum consisting of all key struc-tures, where we strongly address issuesof marketing and promotion of thedepartment.

Conclusion

We are yet to reach a stage where we cansay we are working as one department,with one goal – to change the lives of thepeople of the province for the better. It isimportant for us to constantly and effec-tively communicate among ourselves sothat all of us have an idea of what is hap-pening in the department. We mustalways bear in mind that all the chiefdirectorates are important and should beafforded equal status. •

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Pierre Schoonraad and Thuli

Radebe, Department of Public

Service and Administration, assess

the results of the first few years of

capacity assessmentsAcknowledgements: Glenda Moss (DPSA),

Karl von Holt and

Mick Murphy (Naledi)

Assessing capabilityin the public sector

During the first ten years of ourdemocracy we were able to put inplace progressive policies and

launch massive programmes to nor-malise society and alleviate poverty.However, not all programmes wereequally successful and it was evidentthat questions arose around capacity.Since October 2004 (and havingreviewed the first ten years of gover-nance), the President repeatedly posed avery simple question: “Do we have thecapacity to deliver on our developmentalprogrammes?”

Furthermore, in his February 2005State of the Nation Address PresidentMbeki emphasised that “there is a lackof all-round capacity and weaknesses inthe implementation of certain nationalprogrammes”. He also submitted that“we need to massively improve the man-

agement, organisational, technical andother capacities of government so that itmeets its objectives”.

Cabinet and the Forum of SouthAfrican Directors-General (FOSAD),through the Governance andAdministration Cluster, took up thechallenge and initiated studies into thecapacity of government to implementintegrated developmental programmes.Subsequently, the DPSA embarked on arolling programme of assessments andare reporting on a six-monthly basis toCabinet.

This article presents the major transver-sal findings of the first one-and-a-halfyears of capacity assessments, coveringdiverse programmes related to servicedelivery: housing delivery to the poor(Department of Housing), expanded pub-lic works (Department of Public Works),

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hospital management (Department ofHealth), district management in education(Department of Education), trade andindustrial development (Department ofTrade and Industry, court management(Department of Justice and ConstitutionalDevelopment), and freight logistics(Department of Transport).

Capacity

To allow for a more comprehensiveassessment, capacity has been “defined”broadly to account for a myriad of fac-tors that impact on service delivery.When talking about capacity, or capabil-ity for that matter, literature abounds.However, the bulk of the literature orig-inates in a donor or “technical assis-tance” and “capacity building” environ-ment. The UNDP (through SACI, theSouthern African Capacity Initiative),the European Centre for DevelopmentPolicy Management (ECDPM), WorldBank, IFM, and large donor organisa-tions have all made a significant contri-bution to our understanding of capacity.These initiatives generally refer tocapacity as it relates to organisations,institutions or governments as a whole.There is, however, limited reference tocapacity as it relates to specific or inte-grated government programmes.

Defining capacity

Most definitions of capacity are generaland outcomes-based. It relates to theability to efficiently and effectivelyattain set objectives. However, as PeterMorgan (2005) rightly indicates, theunderstanding of capacity should bebased on an understanding of a systemas a whole, whether it is the delivery of aservice through a value chain, a logisticssystem or supply chain or the function-ing of an institution such as a hospital:

“We do not want to get into yet anoth-er fruitless effort to ‘define’ capacity andcapacity development ... we have usedthe term ‘capacity’ to mean some sort ofability to perform or to create or delivervalue. In many ways, capacity is aboutthe potential to act as opposed to per-

formance which is about execution orimplementation …

“We use the term ‘capacity’ as refer-ring to the overall ability of a system toperform. The term ‘capability’ refers toa more specific collective ability to dosomething more specific such as learn-ing. ‘Competence’ refers to individualability or mastery.”1

In the case of public organisations,additional factors (also guided by theConstitution) such as equity of services,legitimacy, responsiveness to needs anddetachment from private interest alsoplay a role in how capacity is deter-mined. Others distinguish betweenadministrative and policy (making)capacity.

A capacitated government pro-gramme is therefore a programmethrough which the participating depart-ments, entities or officials – individuallyand collectively – effectively, efficientlyand equitably deliver on their mandate,i.e. demonstrably, significantly andappropriately deliver services andimprove the lives of citizens, especiallythe poor.

In order for a department or institu-tion to deliver on its mandate, specificcapacity-related elements have to bepresent in a programme. These ele-ments relate to both the internal andexternal environment in which govern-ment operates.

The ECDPM has developed a frame-

work for capacity evaluations, as pre-sented in the figure.2 This framework isbroadly adopted for the discussionbelow.

The “internal environment” entails allthe immediate variables that are withingovernment’s control. These includeresources (financial, human, physical),institutional arrangements (structures,macro-organisation), policies, legisla-tion, etc. These variables constitute theso-called supply-side measures.

The “external environment” consistsof variables that are outside the immedi-ate control of government. Importantvariables in this environment are theneeds of citizens, citizen participation,partnerships and stakeholder manage-ment. This constitutes the demand side.

Internal capacity

Internal capacity refers to five specificissues functioning at different levels:legal and policy frameworks as enablers;budgetary support; coordination andintegration; institutional capacity; andhuman resources.

Legal and policy frameworks asenablers: Public service-wide and sec-toral-specific legislation and regulationsprovide an enabling (or disabling) envi-ronment for attracting, building andretaining a core of capacitated publicservants. These include recruitment,remuneration and conditions of service,

External Operating Environmet

InternalEnvironment

OrganisationalCapacity

OrganisationalPerformance

The Organisation

Figure 1: Capacity Assessment framework

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procedures, and performance manage-ment. Other related policies in effectfacilitate (or hinder) the achievement ofparticular development tasks, such as aprofessionals policy and empowermentrelated policies. Enabling frameworks(such as an Outsourcing Framework)provide guidance to officials.Constitutional and other requirementsdefine responsibilities and empoweringor disempowering relationshipsamongst institutions, departments,spheres and other agencies.

Formal and informal power relation-ships can result in some departments,agencies or, on a local level, some coun-cillors, being able to acquire moreresources than others or to influencepolicy more effectively than others.

Budgetary support: Adequate finan-cial and budgetary support allowsdepartments to implement appropriatedevelopmental programmes. Ring-fenc-ing of funds ensures that funds are ded-icated to a specific developmental goal.Even though the preference is for dis-bursements to provinces through theProvincial Equitable Share, there are anumber of initiatives where funds arering-fenced, notably the ProvincialConditional Grants for initiatives suchas the Hospital Revitalisation Grant.

Coordination and integration:Coordinated activities within andbetween programmes are essential forsuccessful projects. Within such an inte-grated arrangement there may be leaddepartments/programmes and thosewith a lesser role, and support institu-tions (ICT, training, etc.). However,departments and programmes are notalways equally endowed and capacitat-ed. Coordination and integrationthrough an enabling network or part-nership then become a critical successfactor: How these networks functionand the nature of formal and informalinteractions amongst them may becomedeterminants of the success or failure ofa programme.

Institutional capacity: Most of what iswritten about capacity refers to institu-tional or organisational capacity. Itrefers to organisational structures,

processes, organisational culture andmanagement styles that influence howan individual’s competencies, and howthe organisation’s skills and resources,are effectively utilised. Organisationsestablish programme objectives, organ-ise work into structures, define linefunctions and responsibility, and incen-tivise the attainment of particular objec-tives. All of these contribute to the

capacity of the organisation to deliver onits mandate.

Human resources: This dimensionrelates to the training, recruitment(locating and attracting specific capabil-ities), utilisation (deployment, responsi-bilities), and the retention of managerial,professional, and technical skills, espe-cially scarce skills. Prerequisites, such asrecruitment policy and practices, remu-neration policy, job-evaluation and con-ditions of service, determine to whatextent the required human resources areavailable to a programme.

External capacity

Organisations, the public service includ-ed, tend to limit their definition to theirinternal environment. However, thecapacity of government to engage withissues on the demand side is of utmostimportance for the success of pro-grammes. That is, they question thecapacity of government to engage in amanner that will ultimately lead to athorough assessment of the needs of thepublic.

Limiting “capacity constraints” to theinternal environment of governmenthas led to short-term solutions to servicedelivery or misalignment between theneeds of citizens and programmes. Theexternal factors relate to, amongst oth-ers:

Partnerships: Many services are deliv-ered within a partnership relationshipwith external stakeholders. These part-nerships may include PPPs (Public-Private Partnerships), donor-fundedprogrammes and initiatives where gov-ernment and citizens work togethertowards service delivery. Examples ofthe latter include the PHP (PeopleHousing Process) and the EPWP(Expanded Public Works Programme).Part of or most of the capacity to deliverin these arrangements resides in thepartners.

Public participation: Public participa-tion remains a key element of anydemocracy. The ability to facilitate andmanage public participation is criticalfor the success of any developmentalprogramme.

Stakeholder management: Apartfrom the citizens directly linked to aspecific programme, many other some-times very diverse role-players may havean interest in the programme. Thesestakeholders may include organisedlabour, non-governmental and commu-nity-based organisations, organisedbusiness, state-owned entities and agen-cies, and many others.

These stakeholders can either addvaluable capacity to initiatives or frus-trate delivery if their interests are notaddressed.

Local andprovincial

practitionersview nationalpolicies as toocomplicatedresulting in

certainprovisions being

ignored iftargets are to

be met

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Transversal issues arising from the assessments

There are a range of transversal issuesthat arise from capacity assessments.Here we identify seven of these issues:policies, strategies, strategic leadershipand direction; balancing mandates; col-laboration and coordination duringplanning and implementation; budgetallocations and financial management;optimising existing infrastructure andresources; the institutional environment;and human resources.

Policies, strategies, strategicleadership and direction

There is a broadly shared concernregarding limited capacity to translatepolicy into strategy and strategy intoprogrammes and projects. One com-mentator states: “The fact is that gov-ernment departments are led, largely, byanalysts, academics and policy makers.Twelve years into the new dispensation,the focus should be less on policy devel-opment and more on implementation”.3

Local and provincial practitionersview national policies as too complicatedresulting in certain provisions beingignored if targets are to be met. Theseconcerns are especially visible wheregovernment is reliant on agencies todeliver the services. In these cases thereis consensus that the strategies are notcomprehensive and a number of gapsstill exist.

The need for decisiveness around keydevelopment choices and strategic direc-tion was strongly expressed. Thusrespondents pointed towards a lack ofstrategic leadership (to guide implemen-tation) from the national departmentwhere the perception is that the nationaldepartment does not have sufficienthuman capacity to drive strategiesdeveloped by themselves.

In the absence of such leadership,organisations take their own implemen-tation decisions which may not be in linewith national priorities. One of the con-sequences of the apparent absence ofstrategic leadership was pointed out as

inappropriate infrastructure develop-ments such as building new parkingfacilities at Durban InternationalAirport while the airport will be decom-missioned in 2009.

Poor statistics and limited knowledgeof the specific needs within a specificgeographical area further inhibit theformulation of sound local implementa-tion plans.

Balancing mandates

Respondents raised concerns regardingthe difficulty of balancing mandatesamongst various programmes. Forexample, the use of labour intensivemethods in the construction of housesmay take longer than other methods andthus impacts on ability of government tomeet set deadlines for the eradication ofinformal settlements.

Similar concerns were raised concern-ing small business development(through participation in construction)where there is a tension between theneed to empower small businesses andthe need to meet the deadlines andreduce costs. As a result of such tensionsrespondents indicated that they dedicat-ed a lot of effort and time trying to strikea balance between these mandates.

In the absence of sympathetic policyguidelines on such matters, respondentsuse their discretion and compromisesome of the policy objectives.

Another example of the difficulty inbalancing mandates relates to the gover-nance and oversight of public entities.For example, Transnet reports to theDepartment of Public Enterprises(DPE) but is operating in an environ-ment guided by Department ofTransport policies. The DPE’s primaryobjective, as shareholder, is the prof-itability of the entity whilst the policydepartment prioritises developmentalaspects. This leads to conflict betweendevelopmental initiatives (such as thereopening of branch lines) and improv-ing the entity’s bottom line and thus apreference for continuous bulk trans-port (e.g. iron ore or coal).

In many cases dealing with apparent-

ly opposing mandates and red tape arerealities that have to be managedbecause of the duality of our economyand because of the presence of corrup-tion. There should be a balanced butdecisive approach in dealing with these.

Good governance does not only lookat the (financial) “bottom-line” but atthe “triple bottom-line” (social responsi-bility and environmental friendlinessand profitability), with all its inherentconflicts.

For example, environmental impactassessments remain important but thebureaucratic decision-making andapproval processes should be swift andefficient so as not to unduly delay devel-opment.

Collaboration and coordinationduring planning andimplementation

It is clear that many inefficiencies relateto poorly integrated and coordinatedplanning. In many cases a silo mentalityis institutionally entrenched. One clearexample is from a respondent in thefreight logistics environment: “TheUnicity (Metropolitan municipality) wasplanning in isolation, the ports authori-ties were planning in isolation and boththese plans looked totally different.”

Freight corridors span across localand provincial and even national bor-ders. When planning takes placed in alocalised or isolated manner, the corri-dor cannot be optimised to serve theeconomy as a whole.

Nowhere is the “silo” character of thecorridor more evident than in the ICTenvironment, especially where systemsare not interoperable (even within enti-ties) for services to be rendered efficient-ly and effectively.

Budget allocations and financial management

Unfunded mandates: Municipalities,referring to roles and responsibilitiesdelineated in the Constitution, viewmany national and provincial develop-ment initiatives as unfunded mandates.

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These are therefore not prioritised,however important they may be for thealleviation of poverty. One metro hascalculated that their unfunded mandatesamount to R500 million per annum.

Capacity to spend allocations: One ofthe persistent challenges faced by thenational and provincial treasuries isunderspending. This is especially truefor capital spending, where the nationalaverage for the last financial year(2005/06) is 83% and the lowest provinceonly 53% of its capital budget. However,there has been a significant improve-ment compared to previous years (18,5%compared to the previous financialyear). Provinces and local governmentswho are underspending point to a lackof contract and financial managementcapacity. Larger metros view insuffi-cient transfers as their major constraint,preventing them from fast-trackingdevelopment initiatives.

Regulatory constraints: Financialmanagement processes as governed bythe PFMA and MFMA (mentionedabove) have made a considerable impacton countering corruption and misappro-priation of funds. However, supplychain management regulations have alsocontributed to the delays experiencedwith implementation. The cumulativeeffect of adhering to all PFMA/MFMA-related regulations, as well as environ-mental impact-related processes, is thatprojects take extremely long to get offthe ground.

Optimising existing infrastructure and resources

One of the best examples of inefficientuse of existing infrastructure can befound in the freight transport market.Currently only 20% of freight tonnagein Southern Africa is transported by rail,whilst the rest is transported by road.

Of the 20%, half consists of bulkfreight, especially coal and iron oreexports. It is therefore extremely impor-tant to ensure that government has thecapacity to provide strategic direction topublic-owned transport agencies andthe capacity to incentivise movement of

goods back to rail. Elsewhere is referred to the fact that

containers are moved at half the effi-ciency than that of the leading interna-tional harbours. At any given moment anumber of cranes are not active, due tomaintenance, insufficient operators, etc.In many cases it is thus technically possi-ble to improve service delivery withinexisting capacity constraints.

The institutional environment

Our assessment of hospital managementrevealed critical capacity constrains,constraints evident in many developingcountries.

For example, public hospitals haveexperienced substantially increasedpatient loads over the past decadebecause of rapidly growing urban popu-lations and the associated diseases andtraumas of poverty, because of the esca-lation of the HIV and AIDS pandemic,and because of the failure of the primaryhealth care clinics and district hospitalsto capture the patients who should notbe attending secondary and tertiaryinstitutions.

Public hospitals were described asgenerally highly stressed institutionsdue to staff shortages (of more than40%), unmanageable workloads andmanagement failures. The degree ofstress varies between institutions,depending on the degree of staff short-age and management dynamics.

The nursing function exhibits suchhigh levels of endemic stress due toshortstaffing that it may be regarded asa function in crisis.

Shortage of staff is a critical problemin most public hospitals, and is caused byboth under-funding and a nationalshortage of professional skills. Shortagesof support workers such as cleaners andporters exacerbate the problem of scarceskills, as nurses and doctors have to per-form unskilled but essential functions.

Shortages of nurses in particular aregenerating a healthcare crisis in publichospitals and pose a threat to the long-term functioning of the public healthsector.

The net result is that clinical andpatient care outcomes are compromised.In many cases the result is increasedmorbidity rates, higher costs of inter-vention and longer hospital stays. Inothers it affects mortality rates.

Capacity in public institutions such ashospitals is not only hampered by staffshortages. More importantly it is ham-pered by dysfunctional relationshipswith head offices due to limited decen-tralisation.

The assessments found that provincialdepartments have centralised controlover strategic, operational and detailedprocesses but are not always able todeliver on these. Hospital managers arefeeling disempowered and are of theopinion that they cannot take fullaccountability for their institutions.

The structural relationship betweenthe province and institution is thus a dis-incentive for managerial innovation.

Despite the limited devolution, seri-ous capacity gaps still exist within manyprovincial and national departments.Local governments lack dedicatedcapacity in most developmental pro-grammes.

National and provincial structures arein most cases bureaucratic and notaligned with new mandates and roles,such as contract management. Concernswere also expressed about significantduplication of structures on provincialand local levels.

The Department of Housing, forexample, has realised that its servicedelivery model is fragmented with toomuch duplication. This has beenreviewed and a new service deliveryvalue chain developed in order to re-align functions and structures with theirdelivery mandate.

Within many institutions, especiallyhealth institutions, management struc-tures tend to be fragmented, preventingthe integrated management of opera-tions, paralysing initiative and prevent-ing accountability.

The overall effect is pervasive disem-powerment of managers and an experi-ence of managerial vacuum on the partof staff. This gives rise to a management

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120culture in which administration of rulesand regulations is more important thanmanaging people and operations or solv-ing problems.

In an environment of scarce financialand human resources it is all the moreimportant to focus on a sustained invest-ment in management capability so thatthese resources are managed in as effec-tive a way as possible.

What is needed is a far-reachingrestructuring of the relationshipbetween distant provincial offices andinstitutions at the coalface in order tonarrow the distance between decision-making and implementation.

Substantial empowerment of institu-tional management and the enhance-ment of management capacity, as well asinnovative strategies to increase staffinglevels, are required.

Human resources

The amalgamation of the pre-1994administrations resulted in the disper-sion of scarce skills across provincial andlocal departments, with many notdeployed in their area of speciality.Hence, HR utilisation is not optimal.

There is a general view that in manydepartments capacity does exist but isnot available to be utilised. This is main-ly due to professionals (such as doctorsand engineers) becoming managers tofurther their careers. These professionalskills are then “lost” to the department.

The quantitative component of theassessments focussed on staffing pro-files. Of particular concern was theturnover in personnel and high vacancyrates. This was illustrated by 39% of per-sonnel in the national housing policyunit being on probation in April 2005,i.e. being less than one year in the unit,and vacancy rates of above 40% in manyother programmes.

For example, the vacancies in most ofthe programmes in provincial healthdepartments vary between 25% and45%.

If vacancy rates and turnover on avocational level is considered, it becomesclear that most capacity constraints arefelt in specific professional categories.The graphs below highlight vacancies intwo key areas: health services and infra-structure related services.

Of particular concern are professionswhere there is both a high vacancy rate

and a high turnover rate such as dentalpractitioners and pharmacists. Theabsence of proper succession planningexacerbates the problem by hinderingsmooth transition from one official tothe next when vacancies arise.

In some cases the vacancies reflectoutdated staff establishments and struc-tures not aligned to new mandates. Onesuch an example is the Department ofTransport that had (before restructur-ing) high vacancy rates in, amongst oth-ers, secretarial positions. However,because of the use of ICT, managers arenow themselves responsible for prepar-ing documents and correspondence,reducing the need for personal assistantson levels below chief directorates.

The limited availability of criticalskills results in the outsourcing of manyfunctions, significantly increasing thecost of development and reducing thebenefits transferred to the poor.

When departments de facto decide tooutsource functions it has an immediateeffect on the type, mix and number ofskills required internally. If in-housecapacity is developed, remuneration pol-icy (specifically job-evaluation processes,which penalises posts linked to imple-

Figure 2: Distribution of Provincial Vacancies

(Source: Vulindlela, 2005)

KwaZ

ulu

Nat

al: H

ealth

Gau

teng

: Hea

lth

East

ern

Cap

e: H

ealth

Wes

tern

Cap

e: H

ealth

Free

Sta

te: H

ealth

Nor

th W

est:

Hea

lth

Limpo

po: H

ealth

Mpu

mal

anga

: Hea

lth

Nor

ther

n C

ape:

Hea

lth

Tota

l

I s s u e sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

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mentation and rewards policy and strat-egy related positions) should be revised.

As one respondent said: “We advertisesenior engineering posts on AssistantDirector salary scales (lower middlemanagement … this is far below whatthe private sector offers.The same engi-neers are then contracted at a muchhigher cost.”

Specific critical skills issues that wereraised relate to the lack of contract man-agement expertise and legal oversight;and limited project management andoversight skills resulting in poor qualityof end-products or services.

Apart from “hard” technical skills,there is recognition for the importanceof “soft” skills, in the absence of whichlimited community participation takesplace; and where poor communicationskills result in a poor understanding ofspecific needs, the nature and extent ofbacklogs and poor liaison.

Other critical skill sets identified byrespondents are: logistics/supply chainmanagement; spatial planning; financialmodelling and economic forecasting;change management and communica-tion around change management(changing mindsets); and health andeducation professionals.

However, despite the concerns aboutskills shortages, respondents have

warned against a fixation on (the scarcityof) skills. They argue that the inherentweaknesses in the system are acting as apush factor for skilled staff to leave whilstcreating barriers to the recruitment ofappropriately skilled staff. It is thereforeessential to address these weaknesses.

One CEO stated: “Fix the system andthe system will find the skills.” Hiswords were echoed by many profession-als who left the health sector and statedthat they did not leave for financial rea-sons but because the conditions underwhich they have to work are not con-ducive.

The inability of current skills devel-opment structures and approaches toprovide the needed skills for a growingeconomy also came under the spotlight.The Skills Development Act of 1998,which proposed the establishment ofsector education and training authorities(SETAs), intended to address the skillsbacklog faced by the country as a resultof underinvestment in education andtraining of black South Africans.

However, these structures are per-ceived as not being responsive to theneeds of sectors and of local govern-ment. Respondents experienced a com-plete inability from a number of SETAsto respond to sector-specific needs suchas the development of skills for the mar-

itime industry. This led, for example, toharbour authorities and port citiesdeveloping their own training anddevelopment institute.

Ensuring political buy-in and action

Finding solutions to these challenges arenot always that straightforward, espe-cially when dealing with entrenchedpractices not aligned to Batho Pele prin-ciples.

Cabinet has taken decisive action andnumerous decisions were taken over thelast two years, and joint task teams wereappointed to prioritise the implementa-tion of recommendations. Althoughsome task teams are not meeting dead-lines set by Cabinet, their work has hada noticeable impact on the sectors.

There is still some reluctance indepartments, especially in expeditingthe devolution of powers to institutionallevel. In this regard political leadership,as was demonstrated by the GautengMEC for health in his 2006 budgetspeech, can radically speed up processes.

Some of the outcomes actioned bydepartments are:• A review of the grading and job

descriptions of hospital CEOs;• The development of an implementa-

Figure 3: Vacancy Rates and Total Turnover in the Public Health Sector


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I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

122tion plan to re-open nursing colleges inorder to increase the supply of nurses;

• Enhanced housing service deliveryvalue chain, including a review andrestructuring of related entities toeliminate extensive duplication;

• Critical skills analyses, recruitmentstrategies initiated and filling ofvacancies in departments such asTrade and Industry and Justice;

• The development of a ProfessionalsPolicy based on a comprehensivePersonnel Expenditure Review. ThisProfessionals Policy addresses jobgrading, career pathing and salaryprogression for professionals in orderto recruit and retain staff;

• Improved application of performancemanagement systems for senior man-agers in the education sector; and

• The development of guidelines fordepartments to ensure that the depart-mental structure, post establishmentand skills sets are aligned with theirservice delivery mandate(s).

Since the onset of the capacity assess-ments, the President continuouslyreports on the progress of the initiative

and also announced key interventionssuch as the reopening of nursing col-leges. In the 2006 State of the NationAddress he said: “As we announced lastyear, we have been engaged in assessingthe capacity of government to dischargeits responsibilities to help accelerate theprocess of social transformation …[Inthe assessed departments] issues of skills,vacancies, delegation of responsibilitiesto managers of delivery agencies andrelationship between national andprovincial departments have emerged asbeing among the most critical areasrequiring attention. Assessments of theother departments will be carried out.

“The government will make the nec-essary interventions to address the issuesraised by these assessments, bearing inmind the critical role that governmentmust play as one of our country’s mostimportant developmental agencies. Wecannot allow that government depart-ments become an obstacle to theachievement of the goal of a better lifefor all because of insufficient attention tothe critical issue of effective and speedydelivery of services.”

In the 2007 State of the Nation, thePresident again announced the continu-ation of these assessments.

Conclusion

Given the level of political and adminis-trative support, and the ongoing jointefforts, the South African Public Serviceis making a serious effort to identify anddeal with capacity constraints. Therolling assessment programme continuesand although the implementation of rec-ommendations will remain a challenge,everything possible will be done to ensurethat we all are capable of workingtowards a better life for all the citizens. •

1. Morgan, P. 2005, “The Idea And Practice OfSystems Thinking And Their Relevance ForCapacity Development”, European Centre forDevelopment Policy Management

2. Ibrahim Khadar, 2003 “Why managers shouldbe concerned with organisational capacitydevelopment and its evaluation” inCapacity.org Issue 17, April 2003 P5-6

3. I Abedian “FM Cover Story: “Now is HisChance. Finance minister can do what’sneeded to get efficient management ingovernment”, Financial Mail, Johannesburg,February 10, 2006 p18-20

Figure 4: Critical Vacancies in the National Department of Transport


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Dr Mataywa Busieka of the DPSA,

discusses how the peer review process helps

African countries learn from each other

Peer review and thelegacy of learning

from each other

W ith the dust settling – albeittemporarily – on the other-wise intense peer review

exercise, it bears to reflect on the signifi-cance of this intimately consultativeprocess. With much fanfare SouthAfrica’s self-assessment report washanded over to the Country ReviewMission, led by the eminent Nigerianscholar Professor Adebayo Adedeji.

President Thabo Mbeki, who wit-nessed the handover ceremony, used theopportunity to reiterate what hasbecome peer review’s raison d’etre: thatAfrican countries should learn fromeach other instead of looking north foranswers to essentially Africa challenges.

President Mbeki’s statement on learn-ing exchanges among African statesneed not be taken at face value. Thereare important undertones tacked faraway in this otherwise ordinary refrain.For the avoidance of doubt the FocalPoint Chairperson – Minister Fraser-

Moleketi – was categorical that the keyobjective of peer review is “to helpAfricans help themselves”.

She added, for good measure, that thisprocess would help “to show ourselvesand the world that we are not part ofthose whose mindset assumes that weneed external assistance in order togrow”.

There are many ways the learningfrom each other can take place. If thepeer review process results in commonrules, as indeed President Mbeki seem tosuggest, then the fear of breaching suchrules is motivation enough to refrainfrom a particular transgressory activity.The expectation is that the negativedefault like shame and name sophistrythat would discourage member statesfrom diverting from the universal norm.

One such motivation is the danger ofsocial stigma that comes with an openand unashamed breach of commonrules. The challenge is to put in place

monitoring systems that would reportsuch transgressions, yet looking at theodds to surmount in the African contextthis becomes a tall order.

The other dilemma would be whetherthe cost of such transgression is suffi-cient enough for states to refrain fromoffending the common good. Peerreview is essentially premised on persua-sion as a tool for state compliance. Thecommon assumption is that states maybe persuaded via peer pressure to rulecompliance.

The architect is that through continu-ous peer dialogue ultimately to lead to aredefinition of interests and identities.African states are expected to take it as amoral obligation to comply with what isvoluntarily negotiated and where statesovereignty is to that extent surren-dered.

This plays out a scenario where par-ticipating states as a collective arereigned in to comply with regime norms

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124through persuasion with a rider that it isin their own interest to do so.

Peer review is predicted on the under-standing that presupposes a more issue-specific process leading to internalisa-tion of a particular set of cognitive andnormative ideas, while other normswithin the same social system may stillbe rejected.

The learning from each other impera-tive is dependant on the trustworthinessand reliability of states as future cooper-ation partners which in itself calls intoquestion past reputation of the reviewedstate. It is in this vein that the FocalPoint Chairperson noted that theachievements of South Africa would bemeasured against the legacy ofapartheid.

What this introspective approachmeans is that a reputation for blatantand repeated violation of agreed normsin the past will lead to rocky futurecooperation. This approach does, how-

ever, beg the question whether a non-compliant state will forego future coop-eration opportunities.

As a soft instrument the African peerreview process does not seek to elicitcompliance through penalties, fines orother forms of sanctions, but is nonethe-less designed to address regime mem-bers that are not morally motivated tofollow regime norms.

The defining element in the Africanpeer review’s voluntarism lies in the factthat it is a soft compliance instrumentthat seeks to induce or stabilise compli-ant behaviour among the participatingstates.

In this scheme of things the materialsanctioning or punishment of transgres-sors is ruled out. In other words, the softinstrument’s architect seeks to mouldbehaviour by changing the orientationof peer review candidates instead ofsteering it through coercion and hierar-chical order.

Within the African peer reviewinventory of soft compliance instru-ments state corporation and participa-tion is at the heart of the review process.The rationale here is that soft compli-ance works by an evaluation of individ-ual behaviour in the light of norms, andthis evaluation must be done on the basisof shared factual knowledge about thisbehaviour.

The peer review processes is madeeasier by the non-adversarial nature ofthe engagement that encourages partici-pating states to volunteer informationwithout fear of condemnation or anysuch other coercive menace.

That proposition is the essence of thespirit of volunteerism. It is expected thatthe review process would ultimatelyinspire member states to pursue dili-gence and excellence, particularly inareas they have clearly excelled.

With regard to the South Africanprocess, for example, Minister Fraser-

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Moleketi makes the point that the self-assessment report highlights the emer-gence of an enabling political and eco-nomic environment conducive to improv-ing social cohesion and economic growth,transformation and empowerment.

These are benchmarks which otherAfrican other African countries canemulate, or what Professor Adedeji callsintra-African technical proficiency.

Africa, more than any other conti-nent, has been the recipient of the worstform of publicity particularly in theWestern media. The review processpresents an excellent opportunity forAfrican states to generate positive infor-mation and embrace transparency inorder to counter the excessive perceptionof political risk in Africa.

Often the lack of credibility comesfrom ignorance. Greater visibility forAfrican realities would avoid the absurdscenario where when something hap-pens in the north of Africa it must, andoften does, carry completely unjustifiedripple effects in the southern hemi-sphere.

The peer review exercise may alsoplay a role as a dispute settlement mech-anism by encouraging dialogue amongstates that helps to clarify their positionon contested terrain. This interventionwould help to preserve peace and pro-mote settlement to inter-state disputeson the African continent.

To understand the value of theAfrican Peer Review Mechanism(APRM) process for South Africa it isimportant to get a sense of the broaderAfrican agenda for the APRM. It hasalways been South Africa’s foreign poli-cy to play a leadership role in Africa’srenewal and accelerated economicgrowth. That is why South Africa takesa keen interest in and actively partici-pates in the APRM process.

The APRM is one of NEPAD’sinstruments specially tooled to revitaliseAfrica’s institutions and revamp thedilapidated infrastructure in order toengender greater economic growth. Theunderlying rationale is that onceNEPAD succeeds in creating viableinstitutions and building the right cli-

mate of positive thinking, then the restwould lie with market forces.

It is easy to see that the peer reviewarchitect did not simply emerge fromyonder. This was a process painstaking-ly negotiated by vintage African states-men concerned at Africa’s deterioratingeconomic prospects and its unforgivablemarginalisation in the global economicsystem.

Quite clearly the philosophy under-pinning the setting-up of the peerreview mechanism is the need to find apermitting political environment, whichguarantees human rights, and the obser-vance of the rule of law that wouldensure high standards of probity andaccountability, particularly on the partof those who hold public office.

The value of peer pressure for nation-al policymakers to follow best practicesresides in the reality that this incident ismore likely to become a standard norm.Peer reviews have enhanced competi-tion for better macroeconomic and tradepolicies among the Organisation forEconomic and CooperationDevelopment (OECD) members.

Similar benchmarking has begunwith respect to structural policies, espe-cially those relating to the regulatoryframework. The complexity implicit insuch vast policy shifts renders themmore susceptible to procrastination, andthe same problem has been observed inthe European Union (EU).

This hinders institutional change andmakes corporate and political gover-nance more difficult.

The African peer review process isanchored in the NEPAD strategic visionthat dares to eradicate poverty and toplace African countries, individuallyand collectively, on a path of sustainablegrowth and development, and at thesame time to participate actively and onan equal footing in the world economyand body politic.

The NEPAD peer review procedureshould be viewed as comprising like-minded people which carries over tothat of a group of like-minded countrieswhose commitment to democracy, mar-ket economy and sustainable develop-

ment is reinforced by mutually agreedprocedures for policy review and evalu-ation.

Contrary to the donor-engineeredlabel, the truth of the matter is that theAfrican peer review audit is a veritableinstrument that seeks to identify capaci-ty deficiencies in specific thematic areas.The process further seeks to estimate theresources required to build the capacitiesof these critical social institutions toenable them to make and implementpolicies that promote good governancein each of the four realms of democracy,economic management, corporate gover-nance and socio-economic development.

Importantly, too, this initiative wouldenable African countries to amongthemselves and within the set frame-work share best practices and learn fromeach other.

Africa’s problems are legion. There isno gainsaying that stark reality. Thepeer review exercise is therefore a mon-umental undertaking that calls for con-siderable human and capital resourcemobilisation.

The peer review process is an audit ofthe entirety of a country’s national life.The peer review architect is based on thethinking that Africa is indeed an eco-nomic patient that is wallowing in thecloud of enormous potential.

The peer review mechanism is aninstrument specially tooled to diagnosethe malignant cancer that is gnawingaway at the continent’s otherwise abun-dant resources. Once the canceroustumour has been identified correctivesurgery would be applied to remove thetumour and thereby throw a lifeline to acontinent that has been in a deep slum-ber for a considerable length of time.

In areas where reviewed countries areclearly wanting in systems and deliverymethods the findings of the review willbe a wake-up call to that country to fighton for a better society. On the whole thereview exercise is a clarion call toAfrican countries to stop being lazy andunfocused, or paying lip service to criti-cal governance issues.

The review process should indeedinspire African countries to diligence

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and excellence; particularly in areas theyhad done a sterling job. In areas wherethe subject countries are performingpoorly and deserve to be sanctioned, thereview verdict will provide such coun-tries with an honest and true assessmentof their failings, whether deliberate orby negligence.

Aware of these failings, the subjectcountry would be persuaded to take upthe challenge, and fulfil its obligationsand responsibilities as best as it should.

What the African peer reviewprocesses proposes to do is to audit theexisting structures and systems, and sub-sequently reinforce them by identifyingwhat capacity needs are required fortheir successful implementation. Thisall-encompassing exercise seeks to assesswhat policies and mechanisms are inplace to implement the desired pro-grammes, how effective the institutionsar,e and the outcome of the policies.

The next logical step would then be toidentify the deficiencies and through theNational Programme of Action (NPA)identify specific and clear pathways ofaction to fill the identified gaps. In viewof these far-reaching measures the alle-gation that the donor community hangsover the African peer review processlike the sword of Damocles is simplisticand a grossly misleading viewpoint.

The kind of products the APRMdesign promises are of great interest tothe donor community. It is not for noth-ing that Africa’s development partnersare keenly watching the unfolding peerreview processes.

Donors may ultimately have to judgethe political will and vigour evidentfrom the APRM as part of their consid-erations in funding the various countryaction plans that will emerge from theprocess. It is common cause that donorshave long agonised over the dilemma offinding prudent ways and means inwhich to lend money to African govern-ments.

A country that receives a positive rat-ing through the review exercise wouldobviously attract donor attention andpossibly more project aid. Such a spin-off should then not be interpreted as the

ultimate goal of these otherwise com-plex processes.

One of the key attractions to the suc-cess of the peer review process is theunambiguous show of political will toreform and implement commitmentsmade in the NPA. All of these positivedevelopments are a welcome boon forthe reform-starved donors. Manydonor-funded projects turned out to bewhite elephants; a fact that remains asore reminder of failed programmes andmoney gone to waste. In the peer reviewprocess donors expect to be presentedwith not only rich data upon which tobase funding decisions, but also an envi-ronment of willingness and even ameasure of enthusiasm in implementinga focused development agenda as set outin the NPA that is the product of the col-lective will of the people.

Donors should therefore be seen asbeneficiaries of, rather than the motiva-tion for, the peer review process.

Highly skilled experts on variousaspects of governance give leadership inand are tasked to undertake the peerreview processes. The reviewed coun-tries stand to benefit immensely fromthe critical mass of the assembledknowledgeable peer review assessors.

Importantly, however, once the peerreview report has been submitted to theAPR Forum, it will be used as a basis tomobilise resources from AU memberstates and the international communityto help the reviewed country address thegovernance gaps identified during thebasic and periodic review processes.

The repeated interaction that the peerreview process creates among Africanstates is important both for the institu-tionalisation of standards of conduct, aswell as for the socialisation of possibletransgressors or newcomers within theAU.

The peer review processes will alsoinstall benchmarks and discursivelyclarify the borderline between accept-able and inappropriate demeanour. Thisinnovative interaction will also exposeparticipating member states to regimenorms and, by means of repeated inter-action and “socialisation”, eventually to

reshape their identities and preferencesso that they become supporters of thenormative tradition of good governancethat would evolve.

More importantly for the peer reviewexercise, the reviewed states can beexpected to avoid being shamed and tothis extent forestall looming or actualshaming which may constitute a partic-ularly powerful compliance pull.

It is appropriate to pause here andclarify that no one is under any illusionthat the APRM processes would be easysailing all through. Mistakes will bemade along the way. There are plentifulopportunities in the African setting forsuch pitfalls to befall a process of thismagnitude. Such mistakes should beacknowledged in a gracious manner andrelevant lessons collected and stored inthe armoury for tomorrow’s fight.

There are myriad challenges aheadfor the APRM process. Such challengesare, nonetheless, not uncommon to aprotracted knowledge-intensiveprocesses of this nature.

Conclusion

Time has been ripe for creative waysand means to sanitise the African gover-nance systems in order to create aninvestor-friendly climate where busi-nesses would thrive. Peer review is oneeffort among many interventions need-ed to resuscitate Africa from its econom-ic slumber.

This is a process whose net worth interms of its potential impact on gover-nance processes in Africa is consider-able. Prudent governance practices areknown to act as a magnet for local andforeign investors. This is the kind ofinvestor-friendly climate Africa needs tobe able to instill fresh impetus in localand foreign investor community.

Empty rhetoric waxing the old andtired clichés pleading with foreigninvestors to ride on the back of charityand come knocking will avail nothing.It is in this sense that the APRM inter-vention promises to yield substantialconfidence building prospects forAfrica. •

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Siyabonga Msimang, DPSA,

looks at Public Service Week

2006 and the lessons that can be

learned for 2007

The 2006 Public Service Week:

A Batho PeleRevitalisation

Initiative

The Public Service Week conceptwas crafted in 2001 with the objec-tives of establishing a platform that

can be used to review imperatives andchallenges related to public servicedelivery; enhancing the quality and effi-ciency of those services; and assessingthe efficacy and implementation of theBatho Pele Revitalisation Programme.

Public Service Week is an annualevent facilitated by the Department ofPublic Service and Administration,which is usually celebrated during thefirst week of November. The theme for2006 was “Shona phansi msebenzi” for aseamless and efficient public serviceechoing a new age of hope, whichencourages senior managers to get downto the coalface of service delivery.

Public Service Week is a flagshipproject of the Batho Pele RevitalisationProgramme and is intended to reach allpublic servants at national, provincial

and local government levels as well as allstakeholders that have direct influenceon the way in which public services aredelivered.

The objectives of the Public ServiceWeek are to take the implementation ofBatho Pele principles to a much higherlevel by encouraging public servants tocontinuously strive to render qualitativegovernment services and information tothe public.

Public Service Week happens in con-junction with the other Batho PeleRevitalisation flagship projects, ServiceDelivery Watch – MinisterialUnannounced Site Visits and ProjectKhaedu, which focusses mainly onequipping senior managers with effec-tive problem diagnostic and servicedelivery management skills.

During Public Service Week,Khaedu-trained senior managers aredeployed to the coalface of service deliv-

ery to address backlogs and other servicedelivery challenges. They are thenexpected to give feedback and come upwith a plan of action to address and con-tribute towards improved service deliv-ery.

In 2006 Free State, Limpopo,Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, NorthWest, Eastern Cape, Gauteng andKwaZulu-Natal took part in the cele-brations.

The focus was on critical public serviceinstitutions: health care facilities (clinics,hospitals), Home Affairs offices, licens-ing stations, social grants pay-points andmulti-purpose community centres(MPCCs). It is believed that the servicebeneficiaries supported the approach asthe improvements made during PublicService Week will benefit them.

The Free State was identified as theDPSA’s main hub (nerve centre) for2006.

I s s u e s S D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

128Vignettes from the provinces

In the Eastern Cape the Public ServiceWeek was held at Cecilia MakiwaneHospital in Mdanstane. The launch drew1 500 participants including members ofthe public. Public servants handed over amemorandum to Premier NosimoBalindlela that pronounced their com-mitment to service delivery.

The campaign labelled “government atwork” – where civil servants engaged inactivities that support the servicing ofclients at that institution, including clean-ing of the environment – was conducted.This was attended by political leaders ofthe provincial administration, the headsof departments, representatives ofnational departments that operate withinthe province, officials from the local gov-ernment level, and members of the pub-lic. This assisted the province in height-ening awareness regarding Public

Service Week and Batho Pele in general. As part of the launch the participating

officials, including political leaders,joined the “government at work” cam-paign and were allocated to various workareas such as wards, administration andthe hospital kitchen to render hands-onsupport.

In some areas such as the kitchen thisexercise managed to reduce backlog oncleanliness but in some areas it providedan opportunity for engagement/discus-sions regarding various challenges of thework area and identifying some solutions.

This further had a benefit of providingofficials, in particular those coming fromhead office, with a full picture of theenvironment in which the hospital staff isoperating. It is trusted that the learningabout the environment will create differ-ent perspective thereby facilitatingchange in the manner in which theprovincial Department of Health renders

support to the hospital.This was coordinated by the Office of

the Premier and the deployment list wascentrally-driven. Senior managers thathad been trained on Khaedu weredeployed at Cecilia Makiwane Hospitalto assess service delivery challenges. Thisteam included officials from DPSA andother national departments’ officials.

During Public Service Week in theEastern Cape we found that accessibilityof front line offices, signage and way-finding both inside and outside the build-ings, is relatively poor and in someinstances is not available. We found thatgenerally no information is displayed inthe front office for clients and customercare desks are generally not in place.

We also discovered that most of thedepartments do not have suggestionboxes. In instances where they are avail-able they are not properly managed.There is no clear maintenance policy

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regarding the periodical managing ofsuggestions including giving feedback tocomplainants.

Although generally staff members dowear name tags, it was noted that nation-al departments are taking the lead andare committed in this initiative.

The Batho Pele Principles, ServiceCharters and Service Standards are notvisibly displayed and in most offices donot appear to exist. Still on Batho Peleissues, we found that most of the facilitiesdo not have ramps and there is generallylack of facilities such as chairs for usewhile waiting to be served.

Service points, even those that servepeople with disabilities such as SASSA,do not have the services of sign languageinterpreters. This renders the servicesinaccessible to the people with disabili-ties.

Lastly, in general, the grounds in mostoffices are not properly maintained. Mostbuildings are old and they need signifi-cant renovations in some cases, this fixingwall cracks, painting, sun shields on win-dows and air ventilation. There is mini-mal access to toilets for clients, if they areavailable at all. The state of cleanliness ofsuch facilities remains an issue of con-cern.

Waiting areas are small and do notprovide the required comfort for elderlypersons who have to wait for a long timebefore they are served. In some servicepoints drinking water is not readily avail-able for clients.

In the Northern Cape Public ServiceWeek was launched on November 6 2006at Phillip Mpiwa Park in GalesheweTownship. The park was also used for aflurry of activities for the whole week.The Premier, who delivered the keynoteaddress, together with Members of theExecutive graced the occasion.

The launch was covered through livebroadcasts by community radio stationsthat have a presence in all the districts,during and after the launch. The DeputyDirector-General of the Office of thePremier, Mr T Moraladi, led the discus-sions on the live radio broadcast slots,together with other departmental offi-cials.

To ensure that citizens accessed essen-tial services that were well coordinatedand integrated, the following depart-ments rendered services on-site:• Health tested the blood pressure and

sugar levels of members of the commu-nity as well as public servants;

• Home Affairs issued identificationdocuments. A total of 628 IDs, deathand birth certificates and passportswere issued during Public ServiceWeek;

• Community members could makeenquires and initiate the process ofaccessing social grants assisted bySASSA, the Department of SocialServices and Population Develop-ment; and

• Departments such as Economic Affairsand the Provincial Treasury providedinformation on the services that theyrender.

In Mpumalanga three categories ofservice delivery points were identified:Home Affairs, Justice and Municipalitiesincluding a few MPCCs in the province.Senior managers and middle managerswere deployed in 71 sites. In this provincethe problems experienced in most depart-ments include the fact that they are stilloperating in silos, are still plagued bybureaucracy, and that public servants arediscouraged and disillusioned.

It was discovered that in Mpumalangamunicipalities staff members are notassessed on a regular basis and there is noproper communication between staff andmanagement. There is a shortage of staffand computers in the licensing depart-ments.

There is no formal service delivery cul-ture. Office hours are not kept and thereare no regular staff and feedback meet-ings.

Furthermore, it was established thatemployees do not wear name tags. Staffmorale is low due to lack of performancemanagement systems. Most managerslack management skills. Some of the ITsystems are outdated, e.g. computers andprinters. Batho Pele Principles are dis-played, but not implemented.

Most officials, it was found, are raising

complaints of interference by councillorson administrative issues, e.g. appoint-ment of staff. This leads to the appoint-ment of inexperienced managers and ill-disciplined staff.

Many officials are not willing to dis-close corruption because they fear intim-idation from the managers. Skills devel-opment programmes only cater for man-agers and do not cater for lower ranks.Officials are employed on a temporarybasis for extended periods. Lastly, there ishigh labour turnover due to the existingnegative working environment.

In Gauteng, Public Service Week wascelebrated mid-September. However,there were major events on the WestRand in November facilitated by theMinistry and the Department of PublicService and Administration.

In the Free State, the Department ofProvincial Treasury deployed two SMSmembers to frontline offices at theMPCC in Qwa Qwa. The centre wasfound to be accessible via public transportand on foot. SMS members from theDepartment of Agriculture visited theirfrontline offices in Sasolburg, Kroonstad,Welkom, Bethlehem, Qwa Qwa,Trompsburg and Thaba Nchu. It wasdiscovered that most offices are not acces-sible to people with disabilities.

The Department of LocalGovernment and Housing deployedthree senior and two middle managers toBothaville to identify service deliverychallenges facing the municipality. TheDepartment of Public Safety, Securityand Liaison deployed SMS members toKagisanong, Parkroad and BloemspruitPolice Station as well as the mobile unitdispatch in Hobhouse.

Officials at the Kagisanong PoliceStation complained about the buildingaffecting their performance. Apparentlyit is always overcrowded and the privacyof complainants is compromised in state-ment taking. The investigation unit doesnot have a safe office that meets the stan-dards of safety regulations for sensitivedata protection.

At the Bloemspruit Police Station itwas found that although it serves a largenumber of people it is not easily accessible

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to most community members. There is,however, good progress with regard toimproving the police-community rela-tions.

The Department of Health deployedSMS members to the MUCPP Clinic, theEmergency Medical Services, EMS CallCentre, National District HospitalPharmacy and the Casualty Departmentat Pelenomi Hospital.

In Limpompo the Office of thePremier facilitated Public Service Weekactivities with the assistance of BathoPele Coordinators from various depart-ments. The targeted number of atten-dance was 350, however approximately500 stakeholders attended the event.

About114 trained SMS members weredeployed in five districts concurrently.Twenty service delivery points weremonitored (four per district), coveringfive departments i.e. Health and SocialDevelopment, Justice, Roads andTransport, Home Affairs and SAPS.

Monitoring sessions were scheduledfrom 6-9 November 2006.

Findings emanating from monitoringsessions were released on 10 November2006. Issues raised during the Khaeduevent were consolidated and interven-tion strategies were proposed. TheOffice of the Premier will monitorprogress on implementation of proposedstrategies.

Deployed SMS members in consulta-tion with the Office of the Premier weretasked with the responsibility of ensuringthat gaps identified are addressed. A pro-posal is to be made to the Director-General for trained and deployed SMSmembers to adopt institutions. AProgramme of Action on issues raisedduring Khaedu visits was developed andwill be monitored.

Data was collected (organisationaldata, people data, financial data andphysical data) and some of the visits wereconducted during the night and the earlyhours of the morning to check the statusof delivery at all times.

Lastly, in KwaZulu-Natal we used thefirst day to brief deployees and to finaliselogistics for the rest of the week. Thebriefing session was led by the Deputy

Director-General in the Service DeliveryImprovement branch in the Office of thePremier in the province.

Both days were used to confirmappointments at various points likeMkhanyakude District Municipality,Home Affairs in Richards Bay, Healthdistricts offices where Mosvold andHluhluwe hospitals are located. TheMEC for Health also visited Hluhluwehospital on the fourth day of PublicService Week.

Service Delivery Watch

Service Delivery Watch activities, includ-ing ministerial unannounced site visits,took place during Public Service Week2006. The Service Delivery Watch tofrontline offices and state institutions on7 November was conducted by theMinister for Public Service andAdministration in the West Rand regionof Gauteng, and SMS members madeunannounced visits to MPCCs and otherservice delivery points.

Challenges

Due to the usage of the already existingbuildings with no budget allocated formaintenance, the general observation isthat they are not disability friendly. Theyare not well equipped with toilets, andreception areas are not well designated.Performance Management Systems arestill lacking.

The confusion around political man-dates and administrative duties is stillpervasive. Higher staff turnover is alsoevident which leads to high workloads,low staff morale and absenteeism due tosick leave taken.

We also established that there is poorcoordination and integration of servicesby clustered departments. Examplesinclude Home Affairs, Health, SocialDevelopment and Magistrates Courts,which operate mostly in isolation, yettheir services interrelate.

Budgets allocated for staff develop-ment are inadequate. Priority in thisregard is still given to managers.

Recommendations and wayforward

It is recommended that the NationalTask Team for Public Service Weekshould be established at least four monthsbefore the event, and all stakeholdersmust be part of meetings from the initia-tion phase. Also important is thatKhaedu training should be implementedfor SMS members in the province beforethe forthcoming Public Service Week.

Provinces and departments mustinclude Public Service Week in theirbudgets for the next financial year. Itmust rotate in the province to accommo-date all the regions/districts and be con-sistent with the decision of the ExecutiveCouncil. More important is that localgovernment should be involved at anearly stage of planning for Public ServiceWeek 2007.

Moreover, departmental Batho Pelecoordinators and communication officersmust meet in advance when organisingactivities, and posters for Public ServiceWeek in their respective departments.Furthermore, SMS members to get moreinvolved in the activities during PublicService Week.

Lastly, all departments must submit areport on the activities held duringPublic Service Week as well as on serviceareas that need improvement.

Conclusion

Public Service Week is just one of thestrategies to strengthen culture changeand improvement of service delivery.Leadership is afforded the opportunity toknow what challenges the clients andthose operating at coalface service deliv-ery points are experiencing in the servicedelivery value chain.

Critical to this aspect is to give effect tothe implementation of identified chal-lenges without delay so as to turn aroundthe negative effects to those that are set tobenefit from the service. This will be sup-ported by the accelerated finalisation ofthe development of departmental ServiceStandards and Service DeliveryImprovement Plans. •

B o o k R e v i e w sS D R V o l 5 N o 3 2 0 0 7

131By Muzi KuzwayoR148

There’s a Tsotsi in the Boardroom takes bewildered advertisersand marketers on a guided tour of exactly what makes the

South African market tick. It’s a story as old as history itself.Everyone wants to be a chief – whether it’s in a boardroom, aparliament, a church or on the streets. Despite the odds hav-ing been stacked against them, many people in South Africastill made it. And many more didn’t wait for opportunities toopen up – they simply broke down the doors. You may findthis title, at times, a little uncomfortable and a bit raw, but theauthor says “what do you expect? I am a product of Bantueducation I can only tell it like it is. But not because my vocab-ulary is limited. And I don’t understand big words like ‘diplo-macy’.”

Theres a Tsotsi inthe Boardroom

By Robin SharmaR174

Robin Sharma, one of the world’s top success coaches andauthor of the international bestseller The Monk Who Sold

His Ferrari, offers 10 high-impact lessons for success. TheGreatness Guide is a strikingly powerful and enormously prac-tical handbook that will inspire you to get to world class inboth your personal and professional life. Written by RobinSharma, a man whose ideas have been embraced by celebrityCEO's, leading entrepreneurs, rock stars and royalty, as well asby many FORTUNE 500 companies, The Greatness Guide con-tains a proven formula that will help you meet your highestpotential and live an extraordinary life. Discover the personalpractices of spectacularly successful people, potent ideas to getyour organisation to greatness, specific strategies to turn set-backs into opportunities, revolutionary tactics for peak per-formance, how to attract true wealth along with real happi-ness, breakthrough ideas to generate excellent health and anenergy explosion, and tools for work-life balance and ways toexperience a lot more fun.

The Greatness Guide

132

OddsEnds&

Dress Code:You are advised to come to work dressed according to your salary. If we see you wear-ing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, we will assume you are doing well finan-cially and therefore do not need a raise. If you dress poorly, you need to learn to man-age your money better, so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therefore you do notneed a raise. If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and thereforeyou do not need a raise.

Sick Days:We will no longer accept a doctor’s statement as proof of sickness. If you are able togo to the doctor; you are able to come to work.

Personal Days:Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called Saturdays andSundays.

Bereavement Leave:This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead friends, rel-atives or co-workers. Every effort should be made to have non-employees attend thefuneral arrangements. In rare cases where employee involvement is necessary, thefuneral should be scheduled in the late afternoon. We will be glad to allow you towork through your lunch hour and subsequently leave one hour early.

Bathroom Breaks:Entirely too much time is being spent in the toilet. There is now a strict three-minutetime limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toiletpaper roll will retract, the stall door will open, and a picture will be taken. After yoursecond offense, your picture will be posted on the company bulletin board under The“Chronic Offenders” category. Anyone caught smiling in the picture will be sectionedunder the company’s mental health policy.

Lunch Break:Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch, as they need to eat more, so that they can lookhealthy. Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to main-tain their average figure. Chubby people get five minutes for lunch, because that’s allthe time needed to drink a Slim-Fast.

Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positiveemployment experience. Therefore, all questions, comments, concerns, complaints,frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contem-plations, consternation and input should be directed elsewhere.

Cordially,Management

As of 2007/2008 financial year our new office policy is as follows:

The reason isiZulu isa tricky language!

It is standing: iMileIt has stopped: iMileIt is stationery: iMileIt is waiting: iMileIt has paused: iMileIt is upright: iMileIt is motionless: iMileIt has halted: iMile

Invitation forcontributionsThe Service Delivery Review islargely seen within the publicservice as a tool for sharing expe-riences and therefore for learn-ing. The journal is a forum fordebate and continuous exchangeof views. We therefore encouragepublic servants and beyond, tosubmit to us responses to articlesor any other service deliveryissues that they feel triggerdebate and require engagement.Responses/letters should not bemore than 500 words. The editorreserves the right to edit the longresponses/letters.

E-mail: [email protected]

Postal Address: Department of Public Serviceand AdministrationPrivate Bag X916Pretoria,0001

SDR Vol5 No3 2006.qxp - DPSA

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Transcript of SDR Vol5 No3 2006.qxp - DPSA