THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) yesterday conceded that a campaign to “change the work ethic” in the public service was needed to meet the challenge of poor service delivery.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi told a media briefing in Johannesburg a “social compact” between public-sector unions and the state was needed to implement the transformational agenda.
Public sector unions that shared a revolutionary understanding of transforming the state were also obliged to assist the government to help better the lives of citizens.
Cosatu’s acknowledgement signals an acceptance on the part of labour that it too will have to take some responsibility for improving the state’s ability to provide quality education, health and other services. This means unions in the public service will have to honour agreements on performance evaluation, especially in sectors such as education.
Speaking after a two-day meeting of its central executive committee, Vavi said public servants, most of whom are unionised in Cosatu affiliates, needed to be reminded that they were the “arms and legs” of the government’s reconstruction and development programme .
Vavi’s statement comes amid criticism from senior African National Congress leaders that frontline services in departments such as home affairs, schools, health services and the police are often of a substandard quality and that union members need to come on board to address the problems.
SA has been in the grip of service delivery upheavals with communities taking to the streets .
Cosatu’s central executive committee was addressed by Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini- Zuma, her counterpart in health, Aaron Motsoaledi and Trade and Industry Minister .
Among the many issues raised was corruption in both the front and back offices, often facilitated by “agents” who were paid by staff to use bogus identity documents.
“There is generally a poor level of service, with a lack of a culture of work and service, and managers who cannot manage,” Vavi said. “She gave examples of (staff being) lazy and disrespectful even (during) unannounced visits to offices.”
But the blame could not be placed only at the door of public sector unions , Vavi said. “There is no management capacity in the public service; those who are there are either useless or unskilled or are there because they are deployees, so workers at a lower level are completely not motivated. That is something that needs to be addressed if we are to transform the public service and build a developmental state.”
Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini concurred and said the government’s ill-conceived downsizing of the public service because of privatisation had also contributed.