Yesterday at a meeting of the JMC (that’s a forum of Presidents, General Secretaries & negotiators of COSATU public sector unions) we agreed to have a discussion on the role of public sector unions in ensuring that the government of President Zuma delivers on its electoral mandate! This will top the agenda at the next JMC meeting. We would welcome inputs ideas and/or views from the yclsa comrades.
The public service is the delivery arm of the developmental state so public servants have a constitutional duty and in my view a revolutionary responsibility to deliver services. According to the Public Service Commission (PSC) many of the concerns regarding service delivery can be attributed to the poor performance of public officials. They go on to say that “…Heads of Department are guilty of being lenient on their managers by not holding them fully accountable for managing poor performance.” In his statement on the appointment of his cabinet, President Zuma stated that, “…we will not tolerate laziness and incompetence…”, he also said “…the era of hard work has begun.” I do not want to be naïve and assume that everybody in the public service, especially at the upper echelons, wants the Zuma administration to succeed. There are still bitter people there! The starting point in my view therefore is to ensure that the five priority areas of our manifesto must be translated into measurable Key Performance Indicators and/or Key Results Areas for the Heads of Departments, they must then sign binding Performance Agreements with their political heads in terms of which they may be fairly dismissed for poor or non performance. This can then also assist Minister Collins Chabane who is the Minister in the Presidency responsible for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation. Mthimkulu Mashiya GENERAL SECRETARY South African State and Allied Workers Union - SASAWU 4th Floor COSATU House P O Box 30654 Braamfontein 2017 Tel. +274035631/4031753 fax +273393406 Fax2PC 0866500031 Cell +27826571143 _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Wonder Nkosi (PTA) Sent: 13 May 2009 01:31 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Re: Congratulations to Minister Motshekga and Minister Ndzimande to lead Basic and Higher Education and Training Comrade Sabelo. i do agree with you 100% that we need to discuss the role of public servants. i would also add that we need to divide this category into two. the management and junior staff as they operate in different environment altogether. also the role of the ministers and their deputies where they exist. i am of the view that the president was meaning the dg's and executive managers and those based in ministries when he said " the public servants will not loose their jobs". this is because most senior managers and employees in the minister's office terms of office are aligned with the term of office with the political leadership term of office. officials in lower ranks will not be expelled because there is a change of political leadership, unlike the DGs. most of the challenges that we are facing in service delivery is 100% in the management. almost every month there are workshops, trainings and meetings to discuss and evaluate service delivery and we still face the same challenges everyday. as much as it is good to train managers but also it is highly important to train an entry level employee. this is where the ministers need to act harshly. in all this meetings, cars, venue and catering is offered for free but the service delivery doesn't change, surely this is fruitless expenditure according to public finance management act and it must change. monthly or quarterly reports validity needs to be probed. this is because year after year departments get qualifications from the auditor general's office. how will they be qualified if the are performing their duties? the department of labour was in the media three years back of senior managers getting huge performance bonuses while the junior staff got nothing. the matter of performance and pay progression was raised in the 2007 public service strike. this matter was arrogantly kicked out by the representatives of the employer with a mandate and blessing from Fraser moleketi, i believe this team needs to be revamped also, in order to proactively find solutions that will last. resolution 1 of 2007 is not yet implemented 100%. for instance, the osd is still a banning issue, as you had noted latest protest by doctors and court order awarded to NEHAWU. housing subsidy not yet finalised. only salaries yearly are increased. by the way all this matter affect service delivery and are handled by the people who will not loose their jobs as president Jacob Zuma promised. i respect the decision of the president but people must be released of their duties if they contribute towards the impoverishment of south africans. how many times do you hear about corruption, surely, if junior staff are involved, a senior employed/manager is involved. how will you expect junior staff to be performers while you don't know what high performance is and they are not rewarded? the tendency is to look for what is wrong than to evaluate individuals contributions. ministers must at all times have interest in what is happening in the work force they are leading. they had created the impression that labour matters don't need them and this had led to a situation of people victimised not to raise matters that affect them. how many time will you hear that an employee is suing the department for unlawful and illegal act of senior managers? other will easily say, there is a bargaining council to resolve this matters, but also we need to understand that a chairperson is a human being that can be swayed away from the facts outside the formal hearing. i will not exhaust all matters now but hope my contribution will add towards a positive discussion. comrade mdu vilakazi, i haven't forgotten about you. i had arrived at home but had not stored your number in my cellphone. comrade funky and smanga collected me at home for a lunch at endumbeni and please note that my number had changed to 072 3046 338 to our national secretary, congratulations for you been elected to parliament and the contribution you made in the safm program today. we need to revive the secretariat meeting that was tasked to mount the campaign until barney had left. we need to be able to maintain movement started. communist at work for socialism in our lifetime wonder _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of sabelo gina Sent: 12/05/2009 06:29 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Re: Congratulations to Minister Motshekga and Minister Ndzimande to lead Basic and Higher Education and Training Comrade Norman, Nice piece indeed, should we not start a debate on the role of government employees in the new administration since a progresive call was made by President Jacob Zuma that our comrades must change their mindset towards doing their work. My view is that our comrades in the public service, on many occassions, let us down by not understanding their roles of servicing our members. Comradely, Cedric Gina. On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 9:03 AM, Norman Mampane <[email protected]> wrote: Fellow Members It is with great pleasure to embrace the announcement as ushered by JZ Adminstration.As part of the ANC Election Manifesto five priorities,Education has being elevated to become a societal instrument to revolutionarise and maximise education and skills development delivery.It is incumbent for All of us to rally around our ministers to deliver the expectations of 22nd amazon turn-out at all voting stations. Our point is that on Basic Education Ministry,emphasise should be towards entrenchement and consolidation of Mother Tongue Instruction in levels of pre and primary education as it has been proved that we have registered limitations in that arena.Educator Support and Development should be maximised as we have not done well it that area given the harsh-harsh introduction of Outcome-Based Education(OBE) and ensure that intensive in-service training centres are revived to accelerate delivery on same.Infractural revolution is needed in areas formerly disadvanataged to jerk uniformity of education provision in the country.We wecome what we have seen in some provinces such as Limpopo with the opening of classy schools in rural areas,that should continue.Class Size will also be addressed in the fact that number of learners contribute towards quality basic education. The Ministry must deal with Promotion Policies at lower levels as a result of compulsory promotion at Grade R-3 has posed problems.How can we promote learners who are not competent to higher grades??This breeds failure rate in higher grades and that should be avoided.And No-Fee Schools indeed should be increased as expected projections suggest to 60% to aliviate poverty as key barrier towards basic education.It does not need a rocket scientist to prove that and destroy in the true sense School Drop-outs and child illiteracy in the current conjuncture. Togetherness of All Stakeholders will deliver on All the expectations.School Governing Bodies(SGB's),Educator Unions,Education Officials,Universities supporting Basic Education,Colleges of Education,Management of Schools must come to the party to share best practices to deliver. Learners and Students coming out of our schools,FET's must be relevant to the current skills expected for our country. The Ministry of Higher Education and Training must march forward to deal with the hard issue of exclusivity towards higher education in the country.The amount payable to most universities are not reachable to All learners/students alike.Only kids from affluent communities are privy to the cake.Student Barsaries must be augmented to cover all students across provinces to access higher education.University Councils must come into the picture and play a prograssive role than what we have seen before the elections at TUT etc. Racism is a Trade Union issue and the kind of uncultural,uncivilised behaviours of other institutions applying discriminatory tendencies towards admission should be stopped,disallowed and out-lawed. Our Academics,Intellectuals must not the fence sitters,critisizing but not reagarding themselves as part of the solutions.We need to consolidate a view that Young Workers,"Your Unions are waiting for You" and make them shape and consolidate working class power at staff-room level/workplace level and that will enhance our delivery of public services to all citizens.We can't have a disjointed analysis of our limitations if we are waek to organise ourselves. Workplace Learning should become the centre of worker education and skills provisioning at all workplaces;schools,FET's,Colleges,Universities,Police stations,Courts,Prisons,Factories etc.We must provide workers opportunities to learn and advance through their career paths to avoid courses where a cleaner is made to become a better cleaner than making him/her a supervisor of a plant,instution etc. Acceptance of Workers to sudy at All Institutions of Higher Learning should be encouraged to enhance service delivery.Learning about new and different ways of doing things at workplaces. Mentoring and Coaching should be enhanced to accelerate best practises of public service delivery.The SETA's must deliver more numbers on skill development and provide opportunities for unemployed learners to be placed for employment.All social ills will be eradicated through that as no one will idle without any activity. STATS SA should be used towards our favour and avoid analysis that suggest that a person selling sweets at a corner is deemed to be employed and provide decent jobs for all. Given the background of our ministers in the understanding of what the poorest of this country need,we have a firm believe that we won't fail to deliver. Unions at institutions of higher learning must take an advantage and organise more than before as we have seen limitations around Institutions Councils running the show,firing and hiring.That should be dealt with. Engagement and consultation of All Stakeholders have being a glue that have delivered good governance in South Africa,a case in point is the delivery of the election machinery through institutions such as IEC. Bravo for All Ministers!!!! It is not yet Uhuru Mampane Norman National Educator POPCRU (He writes in his personal capacity) <BR --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. This footer can help you. 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