In the past 10 years, punctuated by poor governance and state capture, the public sector has lost skilled, experienced public servants needed by any effective government committed to serving public needs.
Fixing the problem will take time but the solutions are simple.
Most of the 1.3-million public servants have chosen the public sector as their career, often after investing in qualifying for their professions.
They are upright professionals who work hard, often under very difficult conditions. They include teachers, nurses, doctors, police officers, social workers, prosecutors, engineers, town planners, economists and accountants.
Many have accumulated years’ experience in their fields and are experts. This is contrary to the image that is often painted of public servants as uneducated, clueless and lazy people who live off our hard-earned taxes and provide no value in return.
Many public servants who have left the public sector over the years have gone on to enjoy thriving careers in various fields including as corporate executives and small-business owners, as well as playing a part in social enterprises and nonprofit organisations.
This raises the question: what is it about the public sector that constrains people and makes them achieve less than what they are capable of? The answers are many and include red tape that stifles quick decision-making, lack of resources and low employee morale.
The only department that since the dawn of democracy has appointed directors-general from within is the Treasury
One of the biggest problems in the public sector is poor leadership, especially by its political heads. They often do not know how to nurture talent, acknowledge effort, respect professionalism and appreciate the dedication of many public servants. Instead, politicians frequently interfere in the work of professionals and cause confusion and dysfunctionality.
Not too many institutions in the government have succeeded in creating supportive environments for professionals to grow, feel appreciated and plot clear paths for themselves in the service. The only department that since the dawn of democracy has appointed directors-general from within is the Treasury.
Instead of being celebrated and used as a model for strengthening the public service it was targeted by politicians and officials who were aggrieved by the decisions it had taken regarding their budget allocations. And as we know from the evidence presented at the state capture inquiry, there was a deliberate and concerted effort to weaken it.
The disrespect many public servants have to endure from politicians was revealed in the infamous “combi-courts” incident, in which Gauteng MEC for sport, arts, culture and recreation Faith Mazibuko threatened and ranted at public servants, to force them to take decisions and actions that they knew to be illegal and against the ethics of their professions. Such disrespect and abuse forces many to exit the service, leaving it poorer in skills.
Notorious ‘workstreams’
Politicians tend to think they know it all and micromanage their departments, getting involved in decisions they know very well to be outside their mandate. These types of politicians tend to hire senior staff because they are required to do so by law, only to frustrate them and set up parallel structures to do the work of public servants.
Who can forget the notorious “workstreams” appointed by former minister Bathabile Dlamini at huge cost, to do the work that should have been done or overseen by officials in the department of social development and the SA Social Security Agency?
In the early years of the Jacob Zuma administration, some ministers came into the government who did not want to work with the officials they inherited, often asking: “How can anyone hunt with somebody else’s dogs?” They then proceeded to purge heads of department and hired their own people.
This kind of treatment led to an exodus that has robbed the country of skills and experience. Unlike as in 1994 when many activists were keen to join the government and contribute to fixing the country, many skilled professionals now have had their fingers burnt in government departments and state-owned enterprises and are unwilling to return to the public service.
The solution is simple: ministers who want to succeed in their portfolios must treat public servants with respect; recognise their experience and knowledge of the laws and functions applicable to portfolios; act within the law and desist from forcing public servants to perform illegal acts on their behalf; and create an environment in which public servants can do their job properly and as required by public service prescripts and the codes of ethics of their professions.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has led by example in keeping many senior officials he inherited in the presidency. These people know what protocols must be observed, how different state institutions function, and what the president’s role as leader of the executive and head of state is. Had he fired everyone upon assuming office, there would have been chaos.
The president has said that he is committed to correcting the wrongs of the past nine years. He must instruct his ministers — the new ones who have limited or no experience in the executive, as well as those who have been moved to other portfolios — to avoid destabilising the public service further by purging officials they found in those departments.
This does not mean that officials who are fingered over wrongdoing, especially in the various commissions of inquiry, should not be held accountable.
• Mathe is the head of financial inclusion at Banking Association of SA and a former secretary of the National Planning Commission. He writes in his personal capacity.
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