Keynote Address by the Honourable Jeff Radebe, MP, Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and Chairperson of the National Planning Commission

 

Acting Director-General of DPME, Mr Tshediso Matona

Delegates from national departments and Offices of the Premiers

DPME officials and the Frontline Service Delivery Monitoring team

Media fraternity

Ladies and gentlemen

Introduction

It is a great honour and a privilege to welcome you to the Sixth Frontline Service Delivery Monitoring (FSDM) Workshop. We host this event on an annual basis to reflect and review the management and implementation of the FSDM programme.

This occasion also serves as a platform for knowledge sharing, learning and mutual engagement between the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) and its partners from Offices of the Premiers and its counterparts from different ten (10) sector departments that are currently being monitored through the FSDM programme.

It is appropriate that this year’s theme is about: “Institutionalisation of Frontline Service Delivery Monitoring to improve service delivery across all sectors of government” including the participatory role in monitoring the implementation of the National Youth Policy.

After five years of implementing the programme in all provinces, I am pleased that the workshop programme reflects your intention to institutionalise the work of FSDM in government departments including Offices of the Premiers. It is fulfilling to note that the good work you are doing as frontline monitors leads to visible, positive and lasting changes in the lives of our people.

Like with any developmental or transformational programme, it is important that you take time to reflect and review what you have achieved and that where you have identified gaps you use this gathering to find corrective measures.

I encourage you to take this moment to have robust, candid and constructive discussions so that you can learn from each other. You must reflect and learn from both the achievements and challenges that you have experienced during the implementation of the programme throughout the years.   

Reflection on Frontline Service Delivery Monitoring

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Let me take this opportunity to remind you about the importance of the work that you are doing. We have made commitments in the NDP to “Building a capable state” that is “an efficient, effective and development oriented public service and an empowered, fair and inclusive citizenship” – the public will of course, experience the type of public service we are when they engage with us at frontline facilities.

This is the integral part of the work of this programme in ensuring that citizen’s experiences of government improves and that our citizens receive quality services. The FSDM is at the coalface of service delivery as it is in direct service of the people.

Since the inception of the programme in 2011, we have monitored more than 850 facilities. The number could increase quite significantly if we were to include the monitoring that Offices of the Premiers conducted without DPME. We have also continuously facilitated improvements in more than 150 facilities that were selected on the basis of poor frontline performance.

There is a popular public demand to see more of us on the ground. This is a clear demonstration of the confidence that the public have in us and that they recognise the importance of the work that we do to improve their lives. The importance of being a responsive and caring government cannot be overemphasised. You all understand all too well the risk of not being a responsive and participatory government.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Whilst there is acknowledgement of the systemic challenges that hinder optimal effectiveness of our systems, proper and efficient management of queues is crucial given the nature of our clientele in frontline facilities.  It is important to serve our people with set quality standards in order to foster the relationship and trust of the public in the government services with local office managers taking leadership.

Shortage of medicine and other basic supplies in a health facility cannot be tolerated. The importance of having links with other provinces (interprovincial transfers) like Gauteng for a competitive advantage in improving the overall health care for the province particularly access to much needed services cannot be overemphasised.

Social Development plays an important role in uplifting the social justice of our people through various grants that are administered by SASSA as its agency and main stakeholder.  Therefore, the cited lack of cooperation between SASSA and Social Development in reviewing the applications process for foster care grants through the court orders is not a good reflection of cooperative governance. 

Safety and security is of paramount importance and issues of absenteeism and misuse of state cars by some members of SAPS were noted as matters of grave concern.  It is crucial that station commanders, branch commanders and other senior officers in the high echelons of the police force, instil a culture of responsibility and discipline among the members of the police force in order to regain respect and trust from the public.

Monitoring the Implementation of the National Youth Policy

Distinguished guests:

The NDP sets long-term goals and targets to be achieved by 2030 as well as policy proposals on how to achieve these goals. As part of our role as custodians of the national youth policy, we moved quickly to consult extensively on the National Youth Policy and ensured that it is fully aligned with the NDP by prioritising actions that will help address youth unemployment and other challenges facing young people in our country.  

However, the youth of our country still face massive unemployment, and are particularly affected by other social ills like substance abuse and crime. Access to post-school education is a major challenge for young people from poor backgrounds.  The #FeesMustFall movement is partly a reflection of our failure to address the legacy of our divided past and the inequalities that are prevalent in our society today.

The destruction of property and facilities during service delivery protests, including schools and libraries, which are the sources of education, cannot be justified. We must condemn in the strongest terms both the violent student protests and police brutality.  It is encouraging to note that there is relative stability in most institutions of higher learning at the moment. 

Going forward, the FSDM programme is expected to monitor and facilitate the implementation of the National Youth Policy. It should be noted that we want to optimise the youth development machinery by establishing funded youth desks at national, provincial and local levels where they do not exist.

The office the Deputy Minister plays an oversight role on the work of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) to ensure that adequate capacity is established at policy implementation level to take forward the NDP and MTSF through the development and implementation of a range of high impact youth programmes.

I must put emphasis on the purpose and objectives of embarking on monitoring evaluation activities. The monitoring that you do is a not a hollow exercise that you perform only because you are expected to do it. It is a fundamental aspect in our efforts to enhance service delivery and improving the living standards of our people. We need to take decisive steps to address all the arising matters as the result of our monitoring. I trust that one of the outcomes of this workshop will be a clearly defined mechanism of addressing urgent service delivery issues that are often raised at platforms such as Izimbizo. It is highly unacceptable that we go to communities, year after year, and we listen to the same problems over and over again.

I trust that as you deliberate in this workshop, you will be mindful of the fact that initiatives that exclude the development of young people are not likely to add any meaningful value to the future of South Africa. The youth are the future leaders of this country and history will judge us harshly if we do net give them a firm foundation to take the baton from us.

Concluding remarks

Distinguished guests:

We have a responsibility to ensure that through our efforts, our citizen’s experience at our frontline facilities are of quality and that they also receive the services as envisioned in the NDP.  We operate in a space that requires us to be innovative agents of change: let us take this responsibility with the honour and humility it deserves. Our actions should be imbued with a revolutionary spirit that is not complacent with the present, but always seeks to collectively devise better solutions and interventions to overcome underdevelopment in our respective provinces and departments.

Service delivery improvements are an integral part of Frontline Service Delivery Monitoring. You must use this opportunity to efficiently and effectively forge a strategic focus for the Frontline Monitoring in our country bearing in mind that the key to tackling complex problems is through adaptive management with consideration to experimentation, feedback and adjustment. I expect and urge that as you deliberate in these two days you prioritise the mechanisms of ensuring that the NDP, NYP and Vision 2030 become a reality.

In those few words, I thank you for being part of the “Sixth Frontline Service Delivery Monitoring Annual Workshop”. I trust that you will have fruitful deliberations that will take South Africa forward. Remember, as the NDP slogan says, everything we do here is about Our Future – Make it Work!

Thank you.

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Enquiries: Tshegofatso Modubu on 083276 0786/ Tshegofatso.Modubu@dpme.gov.za or Mmabatho Ramompi on 076 480 3513/ Mmabatho.Ramompi@dpme.gov.za

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Issued by Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME)

21 November 2016