We marched against state capture. We shouted against cadre deployment. We went through five years of the Zondo state capture commission. We laid the blame for most of this country’s ills at the feet of an incapable state.
Yet one of the most seminal documents setting out the path to a better public service, the National Framework Towards the Professionalisation of the Public Sector, released in October 2022, continues to be overlooked.
Given the crises we are facing — from longer, daily bouts of load-shedding and worsening employment figures to increasing natural disasters — it is understandable. It is also understandable given its clunky title and bureaucratic language.
However, recognising that SA’s responses to these various challenges, and more, depends on a capable, ethical state, this framework document is essential for SA’s renewal.
The state touches just about every aspect of our lives — from the issuing of birth, matric and death certificates to issuing licences to ply your trade or practise your profession and the provision of innumerable services.
Referring to the framework document in his recent state of the nation address (Sona), President Cyril Ramaphosa said its vision is “a professional public service, staffed by skilled, committed and ethical people”, which “is critical to an effective state and ending corruption, patronage and wastage”.
As many of us have watched the steady erosion of infrastructure, housing, education, health and criminal justice system, we have tended to become wary of having anything to do with the state, let alone serve in it.
This can be changed if we recognise that the state isn’t some abstract concept: at its heart is an army, called the public service, of about 1.2-million people. It’s a mixture of some great public servants, some corrupt individuals and a majority of average staff whose reputations have been sullied. However, endemic and systemic as the corruption may be, it cannot be apprehended by simply ignoring it.
Noble one
We need to start with a reminder of the centrality of the public service and the spirit that should guide it. In the words of Nelson Mandela in April 1998 at the opening of a hospital: “Whether you change the linen or stitch up wounds, cook the food or dispense the medicines, it is in your hands to help build a public service worthy of all those who gave their lives for the dream of democracy.”
Another president, the US’s Herbert Hoover, a wealthy businessman before he entered politics, said: “Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a noble one.”
Among the measures to address the rot in the public service, since April 2021 lifestyle audits have become compulsory across all levels of government. According to the new framework, integrity assessments and exams are mandatory for entry into the public service.
Ramaphosa further pointed out that the Public Service Commission’s role is being strengthened so that “qualified people are appointed to senior management positions” and “to move towards creating a single, harmonised public service”. In the Sona debate acting public service & administration minister Thulas Nxesi described the framework “as setting the foundation for a meritocratic public service”.
SA has endured no fewer than 10 ministers in the public service ministerial portfolio. Ramaphosa should send a strong signal during his presidential years by according the ministry the same respect as that enjoyed by finance and foreign affairs. Having a senior, permanent appointment will go far towards the full implementation of the framework document.
Bringing in a minister who is young and energetic will help attract a younger, critical-thinking and better-educated cohort of public servants. Such a minister could have an effect similar to that of Barack Obama, who said: “One of the things I can bring to the presidency is to make government and public service cool again.”
A cool and capable state imbued with the noble ethos of Mandela: I am sure we could all live with that.
• Abba Omar is director of operations at the Mapungubwe Institute.
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