Honourable Speaker

Honourable Chairperson of the NCOP

Honourable President

Honourable Deputy President

Honourable Deputy Speaker

Honourable Premiers of different Provinces

Honourable Chair of Chairs

Honourable Members of Parliament

Members of the Media

Ladies and Gentlemen

All distinguished guests

DEL:

Social Compact for a New Consensus

Madame Speaker, in his State of the Nation Address, the Honourable President, announced several social compact initiatives to promote employment creation to ensure that 'we leave no one behind'.

There is broad agreement from the social partners on eight priority interventions. We anticipate that 5 or more Economic Sector compacts will come out of this process, as with the ESKOM social compact.

Employment Retention and Creation:

The expanded mandate of the Department to include employment is reflected in the following:

• Consultation with relevant government departments on the National Employment Policy will be finalised by September 2023, where after it will be submitted to Cabinet for approval.
  
   
  
   
  
   
• As Minister of Employment and Labour, we are establishing an Employment Creation Coordination Committee that is to be chaired by the Deputy President and will include Economic, Infrastructure and Employment Ministers, Organized Business and Labour, and Community Organizations.
  
   
  
  The Committee is tasked with ensuring:
  
  - Intergovernmental alignment guided by pro-employment policies;
  
  - A relevant skills and educational framework;
  
  - The extension of social protection to workers and support for work seekers;
  
  - An ecosystem that promotes sustainable enterprise development, self-employment and positive regulation for the informal sector; and
  
  - A labour migration policy and a legislative framework that manages migration to and from South Africa to benefit the economic needs of our country.
  
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  In support of the Presidential Employment Stimulus, the Department and its entities continue to contribute to employment in the following manner:

• Coordinating the pathway management network with the Presidency to support young people.
• UIF has partnered with a number of institutions in creating and retaining jobs. Our focus is on supporting SMMEs.
• Productivity SA will accelerate its Enterprise Development and Support Programmes, with a focus on company turnarounds.
• The implementation of a Rehabilitation and Return to work framework in the COID Act will promote the reintegration of injured workers into employment. We also support employment of people living with disabilities through our thirteen factories, and subsidies to designated organisations.
  
   
  
   
• As part of eliminating red tape, the Department has tabled labour law amendment proposals to NEDLAC to reduce the regulatory burden on small business.
• In the proposed amendments to the Employment Equity Act (EEA), measures will be introduced to enhance the prohibition of unfair discrimination whilst improving the competitiveness of small businesses employing less than 49 employees.
  
   
  
  Enforcement and Inspectorate Services

• At the beginning of the year, I visited farms in different provinces as part of enforcement and inspection of adherence to labour and National Minimum Wage laws.
• As at the end of quarter three (3) we have conducted 236,000 inspections and referred 5,100 cases for prosecution.
• Our inspectorate recovered R150 million owed to vulnerable and migrant workers – who are often employed exactly to exploit their vulnerable status as migrants.
  
   
  
   
• Combating child labour is part of the daily work of the inspectorate. The Durban Call to Action, adopted by the 2022 ILO Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, is a landmark in the movement against child labour.
• To deal with the high number of work related injuries, we are amending the Occupational Health and Safety Act (1993) to increase fines and penalties to deter unscrupulous employers.
• The findings by our dedicated inspectors has resulted in the Department of Employment and Labour developing a National Labour Migration Policy which seeks to balance between four principles:
  
  o Perception that employment of foreign workers is being done at the expense of citizens;
  
  o The economic need to sources and acquire global scarce and critical skills needed by the economy;
  
  o Protection of rights of migrants in line with international treaties and our Constitution; and
  
  o Locating all these within regional integration and cooperative imperatives.
  
   
  
   
  
  DPSA
  
  Professionalization of the Public Service
  
  Let me now speak in my capacity as Acting Minister for Public Service and Administration.
  
   
  
  The National Framework towards Professionalisation of the Public Sector has been introduced to ensure that only ethical, qualified and competent individuals are appointed into positions of authority. We have already introduced a vigorous process of pre-screening as we lay the foundation for a meritocratic public service. A meritocratic public service which is staffed by capable, ethical, qualified and professional public servants.
  
  Ethical recruitment processes include formalised integrity assessments that are mandatory, with tightened occupation-based competency assessments and pre-service entry exams for the public sector.
  
   
  
  The overall objective is to improve the capacity of government to efficiently deliver on public goods and services.
  
   
  
  The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into allegations of state capture, corruption and fraud laid bare some of the irregularities and criminal activities that the Professionalisation Framework seeks to address.
  
  President Cyril Ramaphosa responded to the recommendations of the Judicial Commission, outlining a number of steps and actions to ensure their implementation.
  
   
  
  The National Framework includes:
  
  - The strengthening of the role of the Public Service Commission (PSC) especially as it relates to performance management and recruitment;
  
  - Appointment of the Head of Public Administration to manage the political-administrative interface; and
  
  - Managing the career incidents of accounting officers.
  
   
  
   
  
  To further strengthen administrative stability in public sector institutions, the DPSA will, before the end of this month, announce mechanisms to be followed in the extension of tenure of HODs to 10 years, which will be governed by performance reviews with clear exit clauses for poor performance.
  
   
  
  The Gazetting of the Public Administration and Management Act (PAMA) Regulations provides for enforcement of compliance with Norms and Standards to provide a uniform standard of access to quality services and governance of the public sector.
  
  Madame Speaker, the process to revise the performance management system for all levels in the Public Service has commenced. This will include linking the performance of the HOD and DDGs to that of the institution they lead. 10
  
   
  
  As government we remain committed to ensuring that there is a balance between the wage bill, expenditure on services and investment in infrastructure.
  
  It is important to ensure that public service wage negotiations are aligned with the planning and budgeting cycle of government – both to strengthen labour relations and to prevent any risk to the integrity of the fiscus.
  
  Government has improved its ability to detect, prevent and discipline acts of maladministration and lapses in ethical conduct within the public service. In line with this, the GSCID Cluster (Governance, State Capacity and Institutional Development) has introduced the following:
  
   Strengthened whistle-blower protection with fast-tracked access to the Witness Protection Service.

• The Anti-Corruption Task Team is now functional; and
• Lifestyle Audits are now compulsory across the public service.
  
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  Working with the National School of Government and the Public Sector Education and Training Authority (PSETA), the DPSA will support departments to conduct skills audits to ensure that training is in line with the Professionalisation Framework.
  
  We are proud to announce, Mr President, that the United Nation's e-Government Survey Report for 2022, recognised South Africa as a digital government leader in the continent.
  
  Coordinated by the Presidency, the DPSA is working with the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI), National Treasury and the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies to address the inefficiencies that exist in digitisation and establishing viable eService and eGovernment.
  
  The President's theme of 'Leaving no one behind' - is important given our history of exclusion, repression and exploitation. The challenges faced by the people of South
  
   
  
  Africa require a professional and capable public service that is driven by ethics and Batho Pele Principles. It is after all, when we put people first, that we can serve them!
  
   
  
  Qhuba President!
  
  Ndiyabulela!
  
   
  
  Notes on Cadre Deployment
  
  • Marieta Aucamp, the Chief of Staff, in the office of the former Mayor of the City of Tshwane, Solly Msimang, was fraudulently appointed to her position illegally earning a R1.2 million per annum salary despite not having the required qualifications.
  
  • Tim Harris, a former Member of Parliament for the DA, was appointed as the CEO of Wesgro, a state-owned company promoting Trade & Investment in the Western Cape.
  
  • Dr. Wallace Mgoqi, a capable and highly qualified professional was removed as city manager of the City of Cape Town, when the DA took charge of the city. His only sin was that he was perceived to be ANC and not DA! Many capable professionals have suffered at the hands of DA's cadre deployment. 14
  
   

• In April 2021, Bonginkosi Madikizela was forced to resign as Transport MEC and DA Western Cape leader as it was proven that he fraudulently claimed to be in possession of academic qualifications. As a trusted cadres of the DA, Madikizela was rewarded by deploying him to be the Special Advisor to the Premier of the Western Cape, Honourable Alan Winde. So it is apt that the DA is obsessed with cadre deployment because they are experts in it!​