President Cyril Ramaphosa and his deputy Paul Mashatile at the swearing-in ceremony for members of the government of national unity in Cape Town last month. Picture: Ayanda Ndamane/Independent Newspapers
THE Public Service Commission (PSC) has urged government employees working in departments with ministers and their deputies from other political parties following the May 29 national and provincial elections to remain non-partisan and loyal.
The PSC’s call comes as President Ramaphosa’s Cabinet concludes the first two-day lekgotla of the government of national unity (GNU) which started yesterday (Saturday) at the Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House in Tshwane.
The Cabinet lekgotla is expected to adopt the GNU’s programme of action or medium-term strategic framework, which Ramaphosa will announce during the opening of Parliament on Thursday, July 18.
Despite the GNU’s national executive being made up by several political parties it has insisted that Ramaphosa and individual ministers are duty-bound to take to the Cabinet issues of policy and significant decisions such as decisions with financial consequences exceeding a department’s approved budget and any matter the Cabinet has decided should be referred to it.
The ANC, DA, IFP, Patriotic Alliance, Freedom Front Plus, United Democratic Movement, GOOD and Al Jama-ah have been told failure to refer matters to the Cabinet could undermine the validity of such a decision.
The governing party lost significant support during the polls and was forced into the GNU with other political parties after it only managed to garner just over 40% of the electorate.
This week, the PSC said the elections ushered in different governments with changed priorities and programmes which may differ from previous regime. “Public servants are nevertheless required to serve the elected government of the day in a dedicated, skilful and professional manner in executing priority policies.
“Loyalty to the government of the day is a fundamental requirement for all public servants. In this regard, the PSC would like to caution public servants to maintain loyalty and support to the new leadership,” the commission cautioned.
The PSC added: “Public servants ought to focus on moving forward and respecting the choices made by the citizens and supporting those elected into office in a non-partisan way”.
According to the commission, the outcome of the past elections reminds the country that the weakening of government institutions can be ascribed to massive failures of integrity resulting in phenomena such as corruption, the looting of public resources, state capture and poor service delivery.
It further called on leaders elected and appointed in the national cabinet, deputy ministers and provincial executives after the elections to be foregrounded on issues of poverty, unemployment, inequality and corruption and delivery of quality services.
In addition, the commission emphasised that political leaders set the broad development agenda and accounting officers (directors-general and heads of departments) advise and deploy the policy tools towards its attainment.
”In effect, the role of the political leaders concerns the ‘what’ while that of the administrative leaders concerns the ‘how’ ... This division of labour is such that political leaders treat bureaucrats as professionals who will use their technocratic expertise to devise the policy tools to achieve broad development goals set by the former,” the PSC stated.
Trade union federation Cosatu called on Parliament to ensure that the government at all levels – departments, municipalities, entities and state-owned enterprises – delivers on its mandate, which it maintained remained anchored on the ANC’s election manifesto.
The federation also urged committees in Parliament to hold the government accountable for meeting their targets and spending their budgetary allocations correctly.
”The days of Parliament remaining quiet when municipalities fail to pay their workers or deliver municipal services or infrastructure funds left unspent must come to an end,” Cosatu said.
Dr. Zizamele Cebekhulu-Makhaza, chairman of the Popcru Group of Companies and the Cosatu affiliate’s former president, has demanded a GNU free of cadre deployment, which he said has been a disaster.
”Appointing public servants to positions of power primarily based on political affiliation has been detrimental to the country’s attempts to create a functional government that serves to protect the interests of the people and the economy. The practice must be eliminated with immediate effect,” he said.
Cebekhulu-Makhaza said even the recently promulgated National Health Insurance Act will require a competent and experienced guiding hand in the government.
”This means we urgently need an effective Department of Health headed by qualified medical experts and not cadre appointment politicians and bureaucrats who are under equipped to address the country’s complex healthcare needs,” he explained.
Marking the third anniversary of the start of the July 2021 unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng following the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma for contempt of court, GOOD secretary-general Brett Herron said as the GNU designs its governing plan for the next five years the protection of whistleblowers must be a top priority in the fight against corruption and crime.
He added that resourcing the criminal justice system must be prioritised so that justice can be seen to be done much more successfully and quickly.
Additionally, Herron explained that whistleblowers are key in the fight against corruption but the justice system places them at serious risk and continues to fail them when swift action is not taken after they have risked their jobs and safety by coming forward as the current laws do not protect them.
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said she would not entertain talk of absence of an agreement on the National Health Insurance (NHI).
”The NHI is law in this country and there is agreement across everybody that there must be universal access to health in the country, it’s the machinations of how we get there. We all agree that there must be an improvement in the health infrastructure.
“We need more health professionals so that even the rural areas can have access to those. So the work on universal access to health is ongoing and is part of the discussions we are going to have,” she said.
Ntshavheni explained that the GNU would not be focusing on economic growth just to grow the economy but also to deal with the high cost of living that is affecting South Africans and reduce poverty meaningfully so that South Africans can have a prosperous future and present.
She said the medium-term strategic framework would now be referred to as medium-term development plan and that the set of action would be guided by nine priorities identified by political parties in the GNU.
Some of the priorities include inclusive economic growth, job creation, water, electricity and energy.
Ntshavheni said the GNU wants to ensure that there is alignment and not implementation of ANC or DA programmes but the GNU’s programme of action.
loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za