Address by Public Protector Adv
Thuli Madonsela during the Institute of Municipal Personnel
Practitioners of Southern Africa”s International Conference
on Effective Human Resources Management in Cape Town:
Thursday August 25, 2011
Inspiring People’s Hope through
Effective Local Governance Leadership
Programme Director;
President of IMPSA- Mr Nick Pullen;
The President –Elect of the International Public Management
Association-HR (USA), Ms Kimla Milburn;
Mayors;
Municipal Managers;
Councillors;
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
I’m sincerely honoured and indeed grateful to the
organizers of this conference, the Institute of Municipal
Personnel Practitioners of Southern Africa (IMPSA) for the
opportunity to address this important gathering.
It is inspiring to see a professional organization such as
the IMPSA taking the lead on promoting excellence in the
rendition of services at local government level. As we all
know this is the most important sphere of governance in
regard to public service delivery. Indeed this is the only
face of government that many of our people will ever
interface with directly.
Seventeen (17) years ago our people from all walks of life
patiently joined long snake-like queues with hope written
all over the faces. They were driven by the hope that was
the dawn of a new day, where government was going to be in
accordance with the will and needs of all and not just some
of the people. That hope was inspired by the then Interim
Constitution, which promised them a better life for all.
That hope was indeed reinforced when we adopted our
Constitution in 1996, which promised a new society based on
among others, human dignity, equality and freedom to all. It
also guaranteed us a bill of rights that includes social and
economic rights that signaled an end to the indignity of
poverty, among other things.
Where are we now? Is that hope still with us?
In my culture we say “Ithemba alibulai”, which means
“Hope
does not kill”. Indeed a gentleman by the name of Carnegie
Chapman (1859-1947) once said “Hope is the waking dream”.
But as we all know, “hope deferred kills the heart.”
Do the acts of those who exercise public power in a manner
that impact on people’s lives on a day to day basis inspire
the hope that the vote for change in 1994 and the
Constitution of 1996 inspired?
Let us talk about a few local government service examples
that my office is confronted with on a day to day basis.
The story of Gogo Nkosi comes to mind.
Inspired by the hope I’m referring to, Gogo Nkosi applied
for a house, under the government’s social housing scheme,
in 1996. Since then Gogo Nkosi has seen many applicants,
young and old, apply and get their homes while she waits
endlessly for hers. I must also mention that Gogo Nkosi was
once informed that her name was on a list of houses to be
allocated in a few weeks time. But when the time came Gogo
Nkosi was given one story after another. She was later asked
to “renew her application”. As we speak, 15 years since her
hope inspired application for a house of her own, Gogo Nkosi
still lives in a single room in someone’s back yard in
Soweto.
I must say I’m interested in whether or not we are talking
about a renewed application or a new application. I’m
further wondering if indeed Gogo Nkosi is not a victim of a
systemic malady of corruption that is afflicting social
housing management. The story of Mrs N, whom I met at the
airport a few months ago centres on this malady.
She lodged a complaint with my office regarding what is
commonly referred to as an RDP house. Inspired by hope, she
too applied for a house under government’s social housing
scheme. After many years of waiting and in the meantime
living in a squatter camp, she was confronted by an employee
of her local municipality. The municipal employee asked:
“Mrs N why are you still living in a shack given the fact
that you got your RDP house a while ago?” Mrs N denied ever
getting a house. The municipal employee insisted that Mrs
N’s name was on the list of recently allocated houses and
duly promised to bring a list of recently issued houses. Mrs
N’s was indeed on the list. She alleges that through
wrongful conduct by a councilor the house had been
unlawfully allocated to someone else.
Mrs N said that she had confronted the municipality to no
avail until she got help from a councilor from an opposition
party. Threatened with a lawsuit, the municipality relented
and gave her the house but not without threats of
retaliation. She was promptly harassment by locals aligned
to the councillor and related wrongdoers. Her complaint is
that since then the people involved in the corrupt
allocation of her house have never been brought to book and
that her house has been subsequently burnt down forcing her
back into the indignity of squatting. She further alleged
that despite numerous requests no one in government was
stepping in to help.
If there was a hope barometer, I wonder what level of hope
the scale would reflect in respect of Gogo Nkosi and Mrs N.
Considering that you represent part of the strategic
leadership in local government, you be the judge.
Can our people’s hope be sustained under these
circumstances?
More importantly though, Mrs N’s case, and potentially, Gogo
Nkosi’s too, raise the ugly question of corruption in local
government and the public sector as whole. This cancer,
which has been appropriately referred to as a crime against
the poor, is eating our public resources at the speed of
lightning.
If the stories we have heard from our road show themed,
The Public Protector dialogues with the Nation, are
proven to be true, then as a nation we are in trouble. We
may have reached the tipping point after which trying to end
corruption will be like trying to bring water up from the
bottom of a waterfall.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the most serious crisis
lies in our state procurement system. It appears that if we
don’t take drastic action there will soon be no money for
service delivery. Billions of Rands that are meant to
deliver on the constitutional promise of service delivery in
pursuit of a better life for all are unlawfully and greedily
siphoned into the private pockets of persons within and
outside government.
Even where there is no proven corruption, billions of Rands
are still wasted through lack of diligence in public sector
procurement management. It’s a well known joke that if you
want to sell any goods or service at multiple market value
-from pencils to multibillion construction projects, target
government. Who hasn’t heard about the pens that are bought
from stationery shops for three Rands and sold, in bulk to
government for R15 or more? How about stories that lap top
computers that are purchased from retail outlets at the cost
of R5000 or so bought by government through bulk purchasing
at R40 000 per laptop computer? Ordinarily bulk purchasing
gives you leverage for lower pricing but that does not apply
to our government.
During our stakeholder consultations last year, a municipal
leadership implored us to ask provincial and national
government to step in with about R130 000 to fix street
lights as the municipality’s budget had been exhausted. An
investigation into allegations of corruption within the same
municipality in an unrelated manner revealed that millions
of Rands had been wasted in a contract issued irregularly
and without due diligence in regard to pricing control. We
get these kinds of cases at all levels of government,
including state entities such as Transnet, Telkom and Eskom.
In one of the provinces, during the current stakeholder
consultations we were told about a company that was paid R8
million for building one RDP house.
What worries me and my team most, are ill considered
projects that will bind this nation for years to come and
whose cost keep escalating to the point that they may
bankrupt us as a nation. The possibility of national
bankruptcy is not a farfetched possibility. It is a real
threat. National bankruptcy has afflicted a few nations
recently. Think about Swaziland and Greece among, others.
Back to the question of ill considered projects. Two weeks
ago, I visited a residential area in one of the provinces
where people live in squalor in half built homes. The people
were poor and looked hopeless and despondent. My team and I
were told by the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO)
and locals that residents had been given “RDP” houses from
which they were later removed due to irreparable structural
defects. They were meant to temporarily relate while new
houses were being built for them. During that period
government did not provide alternative housing, they had to
rent their own homes regardless of the fact that many are
unemployed. When we visited the people had occupied the new
incomplete homes as no construction was proceeding. We have
since established that the project was a result of poor
planning and contract management from the start. An untested
idea was experimented with and didn’t work out. As a result
people have suffered and the state is paying more for the
same service.
Regardless of the above, your initiative gives me and many
South Africans hope that local government in this country
will turn the corner and deliver the service that our
Constitution promises the people. This gathering indicates
that there are leaders in this important sphere of
government who are concerned about mainstreaming leadership
in people management in pursuit of service excellence.
Indeed the service ethos of any organization depends on
human resources management and leadership. All aspects of
the human resources management value chain matter from
recruitment, development and the values we inculcate
particularly through rewards and sanctions. Needless to say
that the service ethos of our public sector, including the
local governance sphere is heavily influenced by human
resources management and leadership practices.
That is why I am deeply encouraged by your efforts in
pursuit of service excellence in local governance, create an
inspiring basis for a partnership between, my office, the
Public Protector and you as key role players and leaders in
public sector service delivery.
As many of you know, my office exists to support and
strengthen democracy by ensuring meaningful service delivery
and good governance in the public sector. The Public
Protector is directed by section 182 of the Constitution to
investigate report and take appropriate remedial action in
respect of any conduct in state affairs or the public
administration, in any sphere of government that is alleged
or suspected to be improper or likely to result in any
impropriety or prejudice.
The Constitution states that the Public Protector has
additional powers as assigned by legislation. The key legal
instrument that gives such additional powers is the Public
Protector Act of 1994 (PPA). The PPA gives the Public
Protector wide discretional powers to resolve any disputes
relating to administrative acts of government through
investigation, conciliation, mediation, negotiation or any
appropriate. Like many, you are probably only familiar with
the investigative powers and not the other dimensions of my
office’s role in strengthening and supporting constitutional
democracy.
Many of the complaints my office gets are from local
government entities. The complaints include billing
problems, failure to provide infrastructure such as water,
electricity, social housing and other basic services.
We investigate and try to resolve these bread and butter
matters expeditiously in line with our strategic objectives
of prompt remedial action and acting as a catalyst for
change in pursuit of good governance as an overriding
objective. In order to do our work effectively, we need your
cooperation and that of others in government. For example,
when we don’t get answers, we cannot deliver promptly.
Similarly, when my findings and pronouncements on remedial
action are not implemented or are not implemented promptly
my office cannot fulfill its constitutional responsibility
of taking appropriate remedial action or statutory
obligation of resolving administrative disputes between the
people and the state.
In our stakeholder dialogue this year we are highlighting
the appropriate responses we expect from government when the
Public Protector discharges the responsibility of exerting
accountability in the exercise of public power. We say that
without remedial action or redress for transgressions, the
Public Protector cannot ensure administrative justice or
accountability in the exercise of public power, including
control over state resources.
As apparent from the above, my office’s ability to add value
to our people and government depends on cooperation from
those within government, like yourselves. Although as an
oversight body the image you have of my office and others
like it is that of a watchdog, we see ourselves as a support
structure for you to deliver on what you already intend to
do in pursuit of your constitutional, legal and policy
obligations. As my colleague, the Ombudsman of Ontario,
Andre Marin said yesterday at my office, “We are here to
oil the machinery, no to create the machinery. Government
creates the machinery”
This brings me back to you. Your gathering is hope
inspiring. I hope it yields value based leadership and an
ethos of service first beyond the local governance sphere.
It was not only the act of voting together as a nation for
the first time in 1994 and the adoption of the Constitution
in 1996 that have anchored the hope of our people.
Pronouncements by the leadership within government have also
inspired the same hope.
During his inauguration, for example, the first president of
South Africa, President Nelson R Mandela said:
“Today, all of us do, by our presence here, and by our
celebrations in other parts of our country and the world,
confer glory and hope to newborn liberty.
Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster
that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all
humanity will be proud.
Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an
actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's
belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility
of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious
life for all.”
Those that have come after him have made similar
pronouncements. The question is can our people’s hope
continue to be anchored on promises?
In my view the ethos that makes it possible to deliver on
the constitutional promises that have inspired hope can’t be
one where the customer is always wrong. There’s a tendency
in the Public sector and other non-profit entities to treat
service failure complaints as a bother rather than assertion
of rights by citizens as shareholders in our democracy. In
my office, the top leadership team tries to inculcated is
that of public service delivery that is accountable, based
on integrity and always responsive to all our people. A
prerequisite for this is that the message from the top must
be consistent.
This brings me to the question of how do we provide the
necessary leadership to transform our human resources
management process to deliver the caliber of people and
managers that deliver services that continue to inspire hope
among our people. That doesn’t mean delivering all our
people’s needs at once. It means delivering on a steady pace
towards the constitutional vision of a better life for all,
while treating our people with equal consideration and the
respect for human dignity that is promised by the
Constitution.
How do we deliver the right caliber of people? One of the
human resources measures available for this purpose is that
of fair treatment of all our people and rewarding
excellence. Equally important is ensuring that poor
performance is dealt with effectively.
But if sanctions for both great and poor performance are not
directly linked to the quality of service to our people,
we’ll continue to reward people who kill hope among our
people. For example, it’s never been clear to me why we are
not prepared to impose the same sanctions for the violation
of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) on those that
violate Batho Pele Principles and the public management
principles in section 195 of the Constitution.
Think about the men and women within our employ who fail to
implement plans to deliver desperately needed infrastructure
for residents. What about the official who refuses to
professionally assess a complaint from a resident who has
received a ridiculously high bill and simply insists that
the resident must pay or make an arrangement to pay? That is
not only unjust but inspires anger and despondency which
easily convert to riots at the slightest provocation.
In fact the main source of anger among our people is the
feeling of being ignored as if you did not matter. Often
when there is feedback and a sense of being heard, there is
calmness among residents even when there is service failure.
Indeed when my office conducts systemic investigations or
interventions, we ensure that the solution includes the
immediate strengthening of internal complaints mechanisms.
This for example, is the approach we took when we assisted
the City of Jo’burg with the systemic billing problem the
city was experiencing earlier this year.
On the issue of managing our people fairly as part of the
exceptional leadership essential in effective management of
human resources, the following story should provide food for
thought to you as local government HR practioners and
leaders.
Together we can rebuild our people’s hope. Indeed despite
everything, many of our people still harbor the hope that
institutions such as the Public Protector that the
Constitution has placed at their disposal when they seek
justice, are their last resort. They do not have money to go
to court. Last Friday, a group of recently unemployed mostly
young men and women patiently waited for me at my office
until I had concluded my business for the day. When I
finally saw them at about 17h30 they patiently said it was
simply an honour that I could see them and that they could
have waited until midnight if a need arose. They
passionately told their story and how they had dedicated
themselves to the public service despite poor conditions of
service because they loved their jobs and that some had
taken injuries on duty for granted as they loved their jobs.
These are people about whom reference was made by a human
resources practitioner who like you and me is guaranteed a
salary at the end of each month about the spirit of
entitlement. When they engaged with me, I saw no such spirit
of entitlement. All I saw were human beings in search of
justice and human dignity. Strangely, they appeared to be
still firmly grounded on hope as inspired by the
Constitution and the avenues of justice that the
Constitution promises.
In ending, I hope the following words from Marriane Wright
Eldeman will add impetus to your efforts towards achieving
the noble vision that brought you here:
“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a
big difference, ignore the small daily difference we can
make which, over time, adds up to big differences that we
often cannot see.”
Thank you.
Adv TN Madonsela
Public Protector of the Republic of South Africa
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