Statement on the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent unrest, destruction of property and loss of life in the country and the implications for the public service

South Africa has been afflicted by two unprecedented challenges since the dawn of our democracy, namely the global COVID-19 pandemic and recent violence in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. These challenges have tested our state, particularly the public service’s ability to anticipate and respond to disasters. It is for this reason that the Public Service Commission (PSC) is issuing this statement with observations about the state’s capacity in the face of this calamity. It is a considered view of the PSC that this crisis, difficult as it is, provides a unique opportunity to seriously review our systems and processes with a sense of urgency, decisiveness and creative imagination that will set us on a new path of repositioning our fledgling democracy into a capable, responsive, innovative and developmental state.

After 15 months of enduring the effects of COVID-19, which has left South Africa in the top 10 global list of countries worst affected by the pandemic, the country has in the past two weeks experienced unprecedented levels of unrest and destruction of property, coupled with violence and looting. While these acts of violence started in KwaZulu–Natal and spread to parts of Gauteng, they have a socio-economic ripple effect throughout the country. The Western Cape, on the other hand, continues to experience taxi violence which has grounded public transport to a halt in densely populated parts of the Province. The cyberattack that has paralysed some of Transnet’s critical logistics is also noted as another compounding factor in the midst of these challenges. The PSC witnessed with shock and regret as the violence took place amidst the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the middle of government’s vaccination programme that desperately seeks to mitigate the pandemic and save lives.

While the destructive conduct may have a complex genesis, the PSC strongly condemns the looting and destruction of property. While we commend communities organizing to protect properties from destruction, we condemn, in the strongest terms, acts of vigilantism that targeted innocent people and even killing some. The reported incidents in Phoenix and Chatsworth, which led to killing of people, are a matter of grave concern that needs urgent intervention and justice. We send our sincere condolences to those families that have lost their loved ones and wish a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured. Furthermore, the PSC commends South Africans who in the midst of the crises stood up and ensured that the protest and violence did not spread to other parts of the most affected provinces and the rest of the country.

COVID-19 and the recent violent lootings underscore the need to urgently address the underlying deep structural challenges of inequality, poverty and food insecurity, youth unemployment as well as the cancer of corruption. This will ensure that the poor and vulnerable are not prone to being manipulated by opportunistic criminal elements. The convergence of the “Virus and Violence” has laid bare the urgent need to decisively address South African problems of corruption, poverty, unemployment and inequality. At the heart of this is the National Development Plan’s (NDP) promise of a capable state. This implies a state that is able to deliver a well-oiled public service machinery that is agile, responsive, caring and innovative, which does not rely on a mechanistic approach to addressing challenges and yet operates within the framework of policy, regulations and legislation. It is a strong capable developmental state that can fulfil its constitutional mandate, particularly to the most marginalized and vulnerable people.

A capable state would require, among others, a demonstration of strong leadership as well as strong and coherent institutions in a time of crises. The incapacity of the state to communicate and create one source of truth is indicative of a state which lacks the capacity to respond appropriately in a time of crisis.

As a constitutionally mandated Chapter 10 institution, the PSC ought to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the Public Service in delivering services under the changed circumstances. Public servants are both infected and affected by the COVID-19 virus and are not spared from the effects of COVID-19 as a high number of officials at various levels have lost their lives, including senior officials with decades of experience. This will have a long-term effect on the required skills and general capacity of the state to deliver services to the citizenry. Very little consideration has so far been given to the psycho-social impact of the pandemic and the manner in which it has caused further alienation of persons and communities in society. Government has not adequately responded to the psychosocial impact and the long-term effects of COVID-19 on its employees and the delivery of services. The PSC encourages all public servants to vaccinate and government to dispel the negative myths about the vaccine.

The PSC has noted the rotational working arrangements that have been implemented to save lives. However, it is concerned at some of the worrying tendencies by some public servants whose non-availability compromises service delivery. A simple example is telephone calls in some government institutions that are not answered, despite the modern technology of attending to such remotely, thus compromising the delivery of services. COVID-19 requires a complete rethink in the way we work and relate across the board. A big part of this change is the new ways of communicating, working and delivering services to the citizens. Public service managers in particular ought to ensure that rotational work arrangements do not negatively impact the delivery of much needed services.

Observations by the Public Service Commission

Notwithstanding the deleterious effects of the pandemic and the civil unrest, the PSC draws attention to some of the continuing crises that beset the country. These include, drought, taxi violence, increasing incidents of armed intimidation in the form of the construction mafia, “business forums”, and the unmanaged influx of illegal foreign nationals and the competition they bring in the economic space, which could be better managed through stricter border controls. If not managed carefully, these could be the next trigger points for violence, community vigilantism and unrest as people become more desperate. The inability to decisively address some of these challenges has fundamentally increased perceived disenfranchisement, disillusionment and the trust deficit between the citizenry and the state. The urgent building of a capable public service/state will go a long way in addressing the legitimacy crisis and trust deficit that is pervasive.

It is clear that fundamental capacity deficiencies exist at all levels of state, with the security cluster serving as a stark example in the recent unrest. This calls for a proper reconfiguration and reorganization of state machinery to realize the fundamental rights and values of the Constitution. In particular, the capacity of the state must be addressed urgently with emphasis placed on professionalization of the public administration which includes a return to proper consequence and performance management; the prioritization of state resources in accordance with the NDP; working with and empowering communities; and building of partnerships to enhance the state’s capacity as is envisaged in the NDP. The stance taken by many communities to defend and protect their infrastructure has served as a reminder that state capacity also means the ability to enable and work with communities so that such communities play a significant role in their own development.

COVID-19 has taught us many lessons, one of which is the need to have mechanisms in place to continue service delivery in the event of emergencies. Government requires strong business continuity plans. Government ought to draw on these lessons so as to be able to respond adequately to any crisis or disaster. This includes a crisis that could potentially impact on communication systems. The question may be asked whether government will be able to ensure the continued supply of goods and services to citizens in the event that IT systems are compromised. This requires a serious relook at the operational models of various government entities. We need new sets of toolboxes for rapidly changing situations.

Generally, coordination, collaboration and cooperation with key stakeholders at various levels emerged as critical across all sectors in ensuring effective and efficient service delivery. Departments across the clusters recognized the need for the District Development Model as an instrument to revolutionize planning, remove bottlenecks and fast track service delivery. This included a broad range of systems and measures put in place to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on businesses, communities and individuals. This joint responsibility and accountability by all three spheres of government contributed to an effective response to the needs of citizens in some areas. For example, the Department of Water and Sanitation introduced the water tank system, which enabled it to fast-track the provisioning of water to communities to address the persistent water infrastructure backlog. This resulted in about 10 mega litres of water per day being carted to vulnerable communities in 158 municipalities, which enabled the communities to comply with COVID-19 hygiene requirements.

Despite the pandemic reducing the gap between the physical workplace and digital space, it has also highlighted the disparities and inefficiencies in the ICT systems used in government. This brought to the fore the gaps and weaknesses of the State Information Technology Agency SOC Ltd. (SITA) agreement with government to render an efficient and value added ICT service to the public sector in a secure, cost-effective and integrated manner, contributing to citizen convenience.

It was found that technology systems in government required strengthening to ensure effective and efficient delivery of services and prevent unethical practices. In particular, the departments of Small Business Development and Employment and Labour were concerned that the technology systems they used lacked the functionality to validate and screen applications against the eligibility criteria to ensure that only deserving cases were validated.

Proposals

Realising the goals of the NDP, 2030, remains the highest priority of the state in order to improve the capacity and capability of the Public Service. The state exists to serve the needs of citizens and therefore there is a need to have ethical and competent leaders both politically and administratively who are guided by the constitutional values and principles (CVPs) in their daily activities. The PSC will play a critical role in ensuring that the CVPs, including ubuntu, unity, non-racialism, non-sexism, democracy, prosperity, supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law, are embedded throughout the Public Service. We hope that this will ensure that there is transparency and accountability and that organized civil society is involved in processes of planning, monitoring and evaluation to build and restore trust and goodwill which has been eroded over the past few years.

Government’s priority of building a capable, ethical and developmental state should include a project to redesign all aspects of the organization and administration of the Public Service to ensure that it is also values-driven rather than only rules-driven. This will promote public servants and communities taking ownership of public service infrastructure.

The PSC is of the opinion that the capacity of the state needs to be addressed along the following lines and adopted by relevant stakeholder departments such as the Department of Public Service and Administration and the National School of Government:

• Professionalization – this is not about qualifications but becoming a specialist at a job and certification that set requirements have been met;

• Prioritisation with limited resources; the state cannot have capacity for everything. What is required is rigorous prioritization; however, prioritization is meaningless without the reallocation of resources in accordance with the priorities;

• Working with communities – the Public Service has become distant from communities, which is a big contributory factor in the unrest. Capacity needs to be built to work with and empower communities; and

• Partnerships (capacity of the country) – capacity needs to be thought of as the capacity of the country. Partnerships need to be built to capitalize on capacity wherever it exists.

For the public sector to repurpose itself to be responsive and bring the sector into the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) there is a need to review and assess the role of SITA, how it is organized to facilitate the transformation of the state into the 4IR. This should include an audit and in-depth assessment of systems available and offered by SITA to government to render an efficient and value-added ICT service to the public sector in a secure, cost-effective and integrated manner, contributing to citizen convenience.

Government must put in place a system to mediate differences of opinion, conflict and crisis between public servants and executive authorities. Emphasis should be placed on an interface characterized by the principles and values of integrity, professionalism, respect, openness, learning, dialogue, feedback and ethics.

In respect of teachers and non-teaching staff in the Education Sector, the deadline for vaccination was 14 July 2021. The PSC urges the Department of Basic Education to consider an extension to allow those that missed the deadline to vaccinate and to identify dedicated sites for this purpose.

In due course, the PSC will brief the South African public on its monitoring of the situation and concrete steps it will take in consultation with relevant institutions of government.

Source: Government of South Africa