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Laziness and inefficiency in the public service have reached such epic proportions that the problem is expected to be the focal point of March’s public service summit.
Sources in the government told Business Day that the situation is so bad President Cyril Ramaphosa has urgently tasked ministers in his executive to deal with productivity in the state.
Public service minister Ayanda Dlodlo and deputy finance minister David Masondo have confirmed the matter will come into sharp focus at the summit, which will involve organised labour as well. A social contract on how to get SA working is expected to be forged at the summit.
Poor service delivery in departments such as home affairs, social welfare and education negates the government’s Batho Pele principles, an initiative first introduced by the Nelson Mandela administration, to ensure efficient delivery of goods and services to the public.
The crisis, worsened during the state capture years of Jacob Zuma’s presidency, may have contributed to the ruling ANC losing votes in the national and local government elections as the electorate sought to punish it for nondelivery.
Dlodlo said performance management of public servants is now a priority. “If we generalise, we run the risk of losing complete confidence in a system that can work. What we need to look at is a performance management system and that can be achieved in the short term,” Dlodlo said.
The failure of managers to fill vacancies, the abuse of sick leave and the absence of information technology systems “that talk to each other” were factors too.
“The issue of systems is what I am talking about when dealing with capacity of the state. Eighteen months, that is the projected timeline to fix all of that,” Dlodlo said.
Masondo concurred, saying the productivity of public servants is a “serious” issue.
“What we need to measure is the performance of one home affairs office compared to another, for example, why the revenue service is able to perform optimally and other departments are not. That is an urgent task for government,” Masondo said.
There is political will to get SA working, he said. “That starts with getting the state working optimally. Productivity of public servants also affects the regulatory environment in which business operates.”
A year ago, then public service &administration minister Senzo Mchunu decried the performance of the public service. He said the low levels of professionalism, innovation and productivity, lack of skills and qualifications, laziness, incompetence and corruption were rampant in the service. Mchunu was reported as saying the public service lacked the capacity to translate “public pronouncements” into “actionable policy” and delivery in the interests of the people.
Investors have often cited too much bureaucracy and lack of responsiveness by government offices as being among the main reasons preventing them from doing business in SA.
Masondo said ministers need to set the example in terms of a work ethic for the rest of society — which includes public servants. “How we behave impacts on those who report to us,” he said.
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