Presentation to the Annual Public Management Conversation 2005

Trevor FowlerThe Presidency

Governance System for South Africa

National

9 Provinces

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Brian Levy and Sarh Kpundeh, in their book on “Building State Capacity in Africa” clearly indicate that building the capacity of African states is at the top of the agenda for the agenda of the continent.

• Reducing poverty and forging productive partnerships with donors, investors and academic institutions depends on strong public capacity:

» To formulate policies» To build consensus» To implement reforms» To monitor results, learn lessons and » adapt accordingly.

• It is important to note ahead of time that learning how to build democracy and develop country capacity is an ongoing and very complex process and a formidable challenge.

• It is important to note ahead of time that learning how to develop a country capacity is an ongoing and very complex process and a formidable challenge.

• The book on Building State Capacity in Africa has drawn from a number of experiences of public sector reform implementation in more that a dozen of African countries to address topics such as the relationship between governance and economic development, public expenditure and accountability, anticorruption reform, decentralization, political structures and delivery of public services.

• Dele Olowu and Soulana Sako have concluded in their book on better governance and public policy that governance is now an important term in developing policy discourse, yet its relationship to development, as institutional reforms and public policy process, or even its definition remain ambiguous.

• In the recent years, a number of African States INCLUDING South Africa have launched new style programmes to strengthen the public sector. These efforts were trying to address the following issues:

• How can the country be innovative in the reform process?• How can the country harness the energies of local elites?• How can the country learn from the past reforms?• How can the country harness the political will as a partner in the reform process?

• Governance issues can be discussed in relation to different political systems that exist including the democratic governance system that South Africa is in. The premise of a paper written by Anders Hanberger is that, since governance and democracy are changing phenomena, evaluation and frequent reviews should be embedded in their structures. Governance, democracy and evaluation are therefore interdependent phenomena which affect one another in different ways.

• For South Africa, it is highly important to forge partnerships with the intellectuals, researchers, academia and other learning networks to deal with the ambiguity of governance and its contribution to the development agenda of this country.

• There is a need for a comprehensive development plan for the country, learning from countries that have gone this route e.g Ireland (small as it is). Development plans for countries should underpin the attainment of a goal to grow the economy and eradicate poverty in 2014.

• Its aim should encompass building on the unprecedented economic progress that South Africa has made in the recent years and to strengthen the foundations for further strong And sustainable progress.

• Central to the development plan for this country should be implementation of public policies which will increase the capacity of South African economy to maintain strong and sustainable output as well as employment growth.

• Governance issues can be discussed in relation to different political systems that exist including the democratic governance system that South Africa is in. The premise of a paper written by Anders Hanberger is that, since governance and democracy are changing phenomena, evaluation and frequent reviews should be embedded in their structures. Governance, democracy and evaluation are therefore interdependent phenomena which affect one another in different ways.– For South Africa, it is highly important to forge partnerships with the

intellectuals, researchers, academia and other learning networks to deal with the ambiguity of governance and its contribution to the development agenda of this country.

– There is a need for a comprehensive development plan for the country, learning from countries that have gone this route e.g Ireland (small as it is). Development plans for countries should underpin the attainment of a goal to grow the economy and eradicate poverty in 2014.

– Its aim should encompass building on the unprecedented economic progress that South Africa has made in the recent years and to strengthen the foundations for further strong And sustainable progress.

– Central to the development plan for this country should be implementation of public policies which will increase the capacity of South African economy to maintain strong and sustainable output as well as employment growth.

• Democracy presented government with twin challenges: – institutional transformation and the introduction of new policies in line with the

democratic Constitution

– dealing with the legacy of Apartheid in South Africa while integrating the country in a rapidly changing global environment.

• From 1994, the State has set out to dismantle Apartheid social relations and create a democratic society based on equity, non-racialism and non-sexism. New policies and programmes have been put in place to dramatically improve the quality of life of all the people. This process, defined in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), has been elaborated in all post-1994 policies. The RDP identifies the following key objectives:

» meeting basic needs» building the economy» democratising the State and society» developing human resources» nation-building.

• The RDP objectives were elaborated to include more specific priorities of different clusters and departments.

• In 2003, government conducted the Towards a Ten Year Review to see how it had met these objectives through the work of its five clusters, and to assess the challenges of the Second Decade of Freedom.

• The first years of democracy saw a new constitutional and legislative framework introduced. The Constitution was adopted in 1996 and an average of 90 Acts of new legislation was introduced per year in the first 10 years.

• New global standards of governance are emerging, these include governments reforms and performance areas. Citizens of developing countries are demanding better performance on the part of their governments, and they are increasingly aware of the costs of poor management, corruption and lack of delivery in certain areas. South Africa is no exception.

• A compendium of development indicators was listed as one of the result areas for the proposal on Government wide monitoring and evaluation to measure the performance of the South African government both in the medium and long term.

– These developments have led to new interest in measuring the performance of government, using indicators for:

(i) Governance & institutional quality;(ii) Social development and poverty alleviation;(iii) Economic development and growth Indicators;(iv) Justice, Peace & Security; (v) International Relations

These indicators are deemed most appropriate to South Africa’s particular purpose and will be refined over time.

• Participatory Democracy with a constitutional imperative to create a non-racial, non-sexist united and democratic society

• Good Political Governance is based on Accountability, Transparency and development that redresses the wrongs of the past – inequality, poverty

• Minister Moleketi gave some attributes of governance as follows:– Increasing agreement that the challenge of the new millenium is to increase the

levels of public involvement in governance… it improves planning, implementation etc.

– Capacity of “The Governed” to contribute is contingent on many factors – Ability of those “Governing” to listen and change is also dependent on many

factors including culture and history

• The following slides are quick review of efforts to create effective, efficient and clean government.

• The integration of Bantustan and central government civil services into an integrated public service has been a great success. Plans to create an integrated public service including local government are underway.

• Integration increased the number of personnel and expenditure and resulted in the implementation of Resolution 7 of the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council Agreement to address the restructuring of the Public Service.

• The Public Service has also come close to meeting its targets ofrepresentivity – previously disadvantaged people, mainly Africans, were estimated at 72% of the Public Service by the end of the first decade.

• The introduction of a Senior Management Service improved conditions with the aim of retaining and attracting skilled personnel in the Public Service. There is more stability in the top echelons although a general lack of technically skilled personnel at all levels is a matter of concern. This is particularly acute in provincial and local government. Career-pathing, especially at the highest levels of the Public Service, is not yet fully developed.

• In the 11 years of democracy, government has established public entities to allow flexibility in conditions of service, to retain income from revenue raised, to expedite systems such as procurement, to ensure operational autonomy and to implement commercial principles and practices. They receive considerable State funding and employ more than 288 983 people. The challenges facing them, which government is addressing, relate to performance, corporate governance and in some cases orientation to the Government’s overall development objectives.

• According to the latest figures, 11 April 2005, there are 280 registered public entities. This figure can be broken down as follows (using the classification in the PFMA):

– Major public entities: 18– National public entities: 138– National government business enterprises: 30– Provincial public entities: 81– Provincial government business enterprises: 13– Total: 280

• Please note that this figure excludes constitutional institutions of which there are 9 and which are not regarded as public entities. It also excludes any subsidiary entity or entity under the ownership control of any other entity.

• Introduction of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) in 1999improved accountability in government and to Parliament. Implementation of the PFMA and the change to a medium-term budget cycle has improved budgeting as well as national and provincial financial management. – The challenge remains to include local government within government’s

budgeting and planning cycles.

• The national planning framework is a government tool that is meant to ensure that the strategic priorities of government are held in view by all the three spheres and public entities.

• The Review of the national planning framework was completed recently and presented to Cabinet Lekgotla in July 2005. PCAS is in the process of updating the national planning framework and will communicate the documents to all the three spheres of government in 2006.

• The national planning framework is a government tool that is meant to ensure that the strategic priorities of government are held in view by all the three spheres and public entities.

• The Review of the national planning framework was completed recently and presented to Cabinet Lekgotla in July 2005. PCAS is in the process of updating the national planning framework and will communicate the documents to all the three spheres of government in 2006. The reviewed national planning framework gives clarity to the alignment of fiscal, strategic and political cycles of government as indicated below.

• Minister Mabandla raised issues relating to constitutional democracy, human rights, separation of powers, the legislature, anti-corruption measures, protection of the rights of women, and vulnerable groups.

• The National Spatial Development Perspective (NSDP) was developed to facilitate dialogue between and within spheres about the country’s spatial priorities for infrastructure investment and development spending.

• Provincial Growth and Development Strategies developed and implemented at Provincial level are informed by the IDPs and the National Spatial Development Perspective to ensure harmonisation and alignment ofplanning tools across the three spheres of government.

• Introduction of Integrated planning and implementation has seen strides towards positive recognition of Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) as local reflection of both provincial and National programmes.

• The Presidency is leading a process on aligning the NSDP, PGDSs and IDPs. Guidelines for the formulation and implementation of Provincial Growth and Development Strategies were drafted. This is being used to conduct an assessment of all PGDSs through a self and peer review mechanism.

– Through this process municipalities should have clearer direction in respect of economic development and spatial restructuring of their areas. The review and update of the National Spatial DevelopmentPerspective is underway.

– IDP hearings and Forums (National, provincial and Local) have involved civil society and all stakeholder relevant for decision making processes required by government

• Inclusion of Premiers and SALGA in the broad planning sessions of government through Cabinet Makgotla has improved coordination and decision making across the spheres of government.

• The Cluster approach, the Forum of South African Directors-General, the Presidential Co-ordinating Council and the restructured Cabinet committees have all contributed to better co-ordination of policy-making and implementation.

• Sustainable Rural Development Programme nodes.

• The e-Government Programme will also help improve service to citizens.– Phase One of the Batho Pele e-Government Gateway was launched in

August 2004, with a portal at www.gov.za and the call centre number 1020.

– Nine In efforts to improve service delivery, Multi-Purpose Community Centres (MPCCs) have been set up to provide information and services to the public. The aim was to establish one per district/metro by the end of 2004/05 financial year and then expand them to each municipality in the next decade.

– There are about 66 MPCCs that are currently operational and only four districts still lack MPCCs and these are based in Eastern Cape (3) and Northern Cape (1). The Second Generation MPCC Business Plan is currently being implemented and the research studies to assess the impact and challenges is underway in the MPCCs

• This is being complemented by the decision taken in 2003 to introduce Community Development Workers (CDWs) to enhance access to the benefits of government’s socio-economic programmes. – The key function of these multiskilled CDWs is to maintain direct

contact with the public. There are currently 1367 Community Development Worker learners that are enrolling for the learnershipprogramme.

– 577 learners have completed the learnership and 199 CDWs have been deployed into the public service as government employees. They have been recruited particularly in Urban Renewal and Integrated MPCCsand 55 Citizen Post Offices have so far been linked to the Gateway Portal.

• Promulgation of the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Bill has facilitated understanding of the implementation roles and responsibilities across the spheres of government. This includes measure for dealing with disputes, powers and functions in brief and need for intergovernmental structures for decision making

• Premiers and Mayoral committees have been established to forge participation between provinces and local government structures

• Ward committees are the link between government and communities at local level. Therefore, all stakeholders need to ensure that interventions geared at communities need to involve those. Communities in the Public Participation Policy Framework drafted by dplg, each of the ten ward committee members is responsible for a sector. These sector heads have to ensure that they form a sub-committee of the ward.

• Each sub-committee will include relevant stakeholders drawn from civil society structures, community based and non-governmental organizations. These subcommittees of the ward will be linked to relevant business units of the municipalities in order to track service delivery.

• School governing bodies have been established in schools to integrate parents and education service providers around the welfare and quality of education for learners across the country.

• Participation of Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) have forged practical partnerships towards the broad implementation of the PEOPLE`S CONTRACT.

• Since 1994, government has initiated various anti-corruption programmes and projects. In March 1997, the departments responsible for the South African National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) initiated a programme to work on corruption in the criminal justice system (CJS).

• In June 1997, the Code of Conduct for the Public Service became part of the regulations for every public servant. The National Anti-Corruption Forum is a national structure that brings the public, business and civil society sectors together to further national consensus against corruption.

• The Second National Anti-corruption Summit was held in March 2005 and the Summit adopted 27 resolutions as the basis of a national strategy to fight corruption.

– The Summit involved representatives from all sectors of the society including Government, Parliament, national, provincial, local administrations, unions, business, NGO’s, CBO’s, academia, research institutions and CDWs.

– The National Anti-Corruption Programme (NAP) was has been developed based on the 27 Resolutions that were agreed to.

– An Implementation Committee has been established and has commenced with its first project on the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.

• One of the most significant changes since 1994 is the increased participation of women in Governance. South Africa has ensured that at least one third of political representatives in all spheres are women, ahead of the Millennium Development Targets for correcting gender discrimination.

• The public service also demonstrates an improvement in the participation of women in management although the state has yet to achieve its targets for women and people with disabilities.

• In the economic theme, it was evident that women are making progress in the professional and technical categories but as still lagging when it comes to senior management.

• In the Social theme, evidence was presented to show the dramaticimprovements that have come to the aged and to children from social grants. There is also evidence from research that whilst there were 13 disability grants per 1000 in 1993, there are now 29 per 1000.

• The racial bias that existed in 1993 no longer applies. Other evidence from the social theme indicates that health, education services are now strongly focused on women and children. Indeed, South Africa has already surpassed the Millennium Development Goals for gender in education.

• Housing, land redistribution and other services also show significant improvements in gender bias, although the majority still go to male headed households.

• It is also evident that the focus on sexual crimes and the institution of special courts will ensure that women and children receive better treatment by the criminal justice system.

• Although the levels of such crimes has stabilised, they remain unacceptably high by international standards.

• To promote effective implementation of government’s Programme of Action, the first phase of a government-wide Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) System was launched through implementation of POA

• Government departments report every two months on progress against set deadlines and targets in the Programme.

» This information is also available online to promote public accountability. This phase of M&E has been functional for almost 2 years and is proceeding as planned to assist government in accounting to the citizenary.

» Review of implementation of POA was conducted in November 2005 and shows great improvement in collegial relationships amongst the executive.

• The proposal on the Government-wide Monitoring and Evaluation System (GWM&ES) was presented to the G&A Cabinet Committee and the July Cabinet Lekgotla.

• The first phase of the implementation of the GWM&ES has commenced with the formulation of minimum standards and the establishment or improvement of contributory systems. The initial draft report on reporting norms and standards will be completed by the end of the year 2005.

» The pilot of IT infrastructure for Cabinet support (CabEnet) is nearing completion and implementation in the remaining departments is being planned.

• Enhancing our Democracy Through Participation• The voice of the resourced is still most evident in our institutions

despite a greater flow of information:– Methods and systems of outreach historically baised to the

resourced eg. Media– Under-resourcing of people-centred communication– Insufficient communication based on dialogue

• Transformation to meet democratic & governance demands • Valuing the contribution of indigenous institutions such as restorative versus

retributive justice;• Getting the Basics right in the criminal justice system while addressing

strategic matters. • Balancing representivity, skills, understanding the challenges and solutions

• Shared vision of Development• Acceptance of the balance between speed and cost of

implementation with levels of service• Political & civic education, skills development to enhance

participation in development and governance processes

At the time of the 2004 national elections

Noticeable signs of distress and under-capacity in 47% of the 284 municipalities had begun to emerge.

Sporadic but isolated civic unrest arose in response to municipal service provision failures.

A degree of municipal distress was inevitable given

the scale and complexityof local government

transformation.

Underestimation of the complexity of transformation & the kind

of dedicated support that municipalities will require From

national & provincial govt for it tobecome a fully effective sphere of government in its own right.

Municipal managers operate in an environment in which they must contend with a vast and complex array of internal and external pressures.

To perform their role effectively as champions contend with a vast and complex array of fundamental change

They must possess a combination of managerial competence, organizational savvy and political sensitivity.

Core skills and competencies for municipal managers would thus include:

•Leading transformation and change as an important organ of the developmental state

•Leading and investing in people

•Results and impact-driven with complementary modes of operation

•Financial and economic development acumen; and

•Building partnerships within the context of government’s contract with the people

• Government continues to assess its level of organization and capacity to implement development programmes for economic growth and poverty alleviation

• This is being complemented by the current task on accelerated and shared growth (ASGI)

• Measure for improved capacity and service delivery include project consolidate and addressing service delivery issues arising from the municipal izimbizo

• Identification for interventions towards improved skills and sustainable pools for management will be prioritized

• Improvement of the Human Resources Management and development remain crucial

• ASGI (SA) will provide strategic direction for improved capacity for the state to grow the economy including infrastructure development and investments strategies

• Improvements in the social aspects for development will be enhanced through measures dealing with social exclusion, improved cohesion and provision of basic services

• This will include implementation of social infrastructure programmes• Evaluation of social programmes will be enhanced

• Transformation of the Judiciary system and crime prevention continue as priorities of the Justice system

• Work on the Consolidation of the African agenda, NEPAD and SADC will continue

• Most institutions are operating effectively although the stabilisation of the intergovernmental system needs improvement.– More flexibility in a single or uniform Public Service will make

it more responsive to public needs.

– Government must continue with what it has started, only more diligently and more vigorously. Improved capacity of the State to deliver social services requires greater capacity in national departments and attention to some provincial and local weaknesses.

– Compliance with regulations is high, but there are some weaknesses with regard to government’s capacity to involve the informal sector in adhering to their civic obligations. Success in fighting corruption is slow but notable.

• The key challenges for the next decade include:

• using the NSDP to focus government’s attention on localities with greatest potential for development and poverty alleviation whilerebuilding other areas

• improving the capacity of provincial and local government especially where it impinges on service delivery and financial management

• improving accountability to, and contact with, citizens by all levels of government should include mechanisms to enhance the oversight role of parliament and the Office of the Leader of Government Business and the presidency

• developing and maintaining partnerships with civil society with the emphasis on practical programmes

• providing leadership to social partners through the articulation of an encompassing framework for South Africa’s development in the next decade and beyond

• build capacity for implementing the Government-wide M&E system– the alignment of strategy not only within government but with civil

society including business, labour, civics requiring greater substantive engagement leading to shared objectives.

• In line with the principles of deepened democracy and participatory governance, government has put in place a number of interventions. – These include the Project consolidate meant to improve the capacity in

136 municipalities that need assistance. – This process is complemented by the municipal imbizo programme

where the President and Deputy President interact directly with the communities and masses in the municipalities to draw on issues of service delivery.

– Building partnerships with communities and civil society to participate in governance through ward committees, SGB’s, CPF’s etc