Minister for the Public Service and Administration, Senzo Mchunu, has called on the National School of Government (NSG) to assist in promoting ethics, productivity and innovation in the country’s public service.<\/p>\n
In an address on Tuesday (20 October), the minister said the goal of government is to build an ethical, developmental and capable state and reminded the NSG to enhance its role towards the achievement of this goal.<\/p>\n
He said the public sector has an important role to play in building a developmental state that would be able to intervene and contribute to building an environment in which the economy would grow and create jobs.<\/p>\n
“We need to bring back people\u2019s trust of government and the public sector. As you train public servants, instil in them that we want to achieve an ethical, capable developmental state,” he said.<\/p>\n
The minister also called for a ‘hard-working civil service’. He said government had no tolerance for lazy, unproductive public servants who spend hours doing nothing.<\/p>\n
“As public servants, you need to ask yourselves what you have achieved each day when finishing a day at work. Part of being ethical is being conscious about your work.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Some people spend four hours on a Monday morning reviewing the weekend activities instead of working.”<\/p>\n
Innovation needed\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Mchunu also\u00a0raised concerns about the inadequate access to tools of trade for public servants below senior management level.<\/p>\n Many public servants are unable to enrol for online courses as they do not have laptops or data, he said.<\/p>\n “This problem became more pronounced during the Covid-19 lockdown period. It needs to be corrected.<\/p>\n “We need to invest in such gadgets for all public servants; they need to have these tools for self-development and also because the era we live in demands that we use such gadgets to deliver services for the people,” said Mchunu.<\/p>\n Mchunu also made a strong call for innovation in the public service, saying public servants need to be innovative and be able to solve problems using new ICT tools. They should also be flexible and creative in providing solutions and not only focus on identifying problems.<\/p>\n \u201cLet us declare war on the lack of innovation in the public service. Innovation is not only required in the private sector. We need it in the public sector as well\u201d.<\/p>\n Mchunu said that there were fewer people working during the lockdown but the productivity was high due to innovative methods that were used through digital technologies to get the work of government done.<\/p>\n
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