Day: September 2, 2022

Acting Public Service and Administration Minister Thulas Nxesi says he believes that the public service has the inherent capacity to “walk the talk” and deliver on its constitutional obligations to citizens.

“We have seen the remarkable progress made in service delivery since democratisation in 1994, and more so, since the Batho Pele programme was introduced in 1997,” Nxesi said.

Speaking at the launch of Public Service Month at Freedom Park in Pretoria on Thursday, Nxesi said the public service has skilled, competent and resourceful officials on the job, working daily at the coalface of service delivery amid serious constraints.

He said as far back as 2013, the Diagnostic Review of the National Planning Commission identified uneven capacity within and between government departments as a challenge and potential threat to the ability of the public service to deliver quality services throughout the country.

“As a responsive government, we have been addressing this specific challenge through a variety of targeted capacity-building interventions by the DPSA in partnership with the National School of Government, including initiatives such as the District Development Model.

“Notwithstanding these interventions, I believe that our public service has the inherent capacity to walk the talk and deliver on its constitutional obligations to citizens,” Nxesi said.

Nxesi said government has the capacity to make even greater progress in improving service delivery and creating a citizen-centric public service.

“All the necessary ingredients are in place. We have supporting legislation, policies and regulations that are reviewed regularly. We have skilled, competent and resourceful officials on the job, working daily at the coalface of service delivery amid serious constraints.

“As government we have introduced the National Anti-Corruption Strategy as a necessary response to this rampant corruption.

“We recognise that this strategy will only succeed if we work in partnership with our compatriots in the private sector and civil society who are as committed as we are to a South Africa characterised by high standards of integrity and respect for the rule of law.

“We also acknowledge that you, our public servants, are our first line of defence against corruption,” Nxesi said, adding “we must defend our freedom against the scourge of corruption that is eroding our democratic values and our dream of being a capable, ethical and developmental State”.

Nxesi said government cannot professionalise the public service in a context where poorly qualified individuals are being parachuted into positions through political patronage.

“These practices, wherever they occur, are inconsistent with the constitutional principles that underpin public administration and they must accordingly be stopped,” he said.

Deputy Minister, Dr Chana Pilane-Majake, explained that Public Service Month is commemorated annually to remind the public about the important role of public servants in order to mobilise political will and resources to address national, provincial and local government challenges.

“The PSM is a country programme meant to promote good governance with the continental programme being the AU Africa Public Service Day (APSD).

“PSM focuses on the public service machinery, how it discharges its constitutional responsibility to deliver services to the citizenry, as well as give recognition to diligent public servants upholding the values and principles of public service and administration,” she said.

This year, Public Service Month is celebrated under the theme: Batho Pele Revitalisation – Walking The Talk.

The Public Service Month serves as a reminder of what it means to serve communities and to also look at the impact government has, especially around issues of service delivery.

This year, government celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Batho Pele White Paper as a framework for the transformation of public service delivery in South Africa, and also celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Constitution that was signed into law by former President Nelson Mandela.

Source: South Africa Government News Agency

Government is working on replacing the current driving licence card with a new card that has more secure design features and will comply with the international driving licence standard.

“The current driving licence card was introduced in 1998 and the production equipment was procured in the same year. The technology has become obsolete,” Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula said on Friday during a media briefing in Midrand.

The Minister is expected to publish the changes to the driving licence card in the government gazette.

“This will then enable us to commence with the procurement process for the new production infrastructure in October 2022. The new card will be piloted from 1 November 2023 until 31 March 2024.

“The current driving licence card and the equipment used to produce it will be decommissioned on 1 April 2024. However, there will be a five-year period of transition from the old card to the new. The current cards will continue to be recognised as valid licence cards until 31 March 2029,” Mbalula said.

As government had earlier committed to a review of the renewal period of the driving licence card, research on the matter was undertaken by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), which also undertook a benchmarking exercise covering 64 countries.

The research revealed that countries ranked above South Africa according to the World Health Organization (WHO), have an average driving licence card validity period of 9.3 years and countries ranked lower than South Africa averaging 4.4 years.

“It needs to be highlighted that many of the poorer road safety ranked countries are still using paper-based driving licences which would explain the lower average validity period in these countries.

“The average driving licence card validity period of almost 10 years is applicable in developed countries, with much better road safety ratios than South Africa.

“This is an important factor in validating a longer renewal period in line with international best practice. Most of the European Union (EU) countries have a five-year validity period for heavy vehicles,” the Minister said.

The Department of Transport is in the process of evaluating the options informed by the South African reality, which includes carnage on the roads, driver competence and prevalence of lifestyle diseases that influence safe driving.

“We have consulted with MECs on the matter and have received full support for the review. Once we have made a final determination on this matter, this will be communicated accordingly,” he said.

More than one million motorists driving with expired licenses

Meanwhile, government has committed to ramp up law enforcement efforts to bring to book 1.2 million motorists who have not renewed their expired driving licences.

"We will therefore up the ante in our law enforcement efforts in order to bring to book these wayward motorists who have no regard for the law or the safety of others on the road. We have determined that 67% of those who have not renewed their driving licences are between the ages of 25 and 50 years; 15% between the ages of 50 and 60 years; 17% above 60,” Mbalula said.

The most compliant group are those 25 years and younger, who account for only 1% of drivers who have yet to renew their driving licences.

“Our investigations have revealed that the vast majority of those who are not renewing their licences have infringements. We remain concerned at the high number of people who have yet to come forward to renew their expired driving licences, [of] which number currently stands at 1.2 million. The implications of this is that we have a sizeable number of motorists driving without a valid driving licence on our roads,” Mbalula said.

Government is introducing a smart enrolment solution to improve the service to motorists and reduce turn-around times at driving licence testing centres (DLTCs).

“This solution has been successfully piloted at the Waterfall and Eco-Park Centurion DLTCs and the Gauteng province will be the first to go live in March 2023, before the full deployment to otherpProvinces,” the Minister said.

The driving licence card backlog that resulted from the COVID-19 restrictions was cleared on 14 July 2022.

“To date, in excess of two million cards have been produced. Not only have we been able to reduce the turn-around time for our card production to pre-COVID levels, we have now improved on those levels. We have successfully reduced the waiting period for a driving licence card from 58 working days in April 2022 to 10 working days in July 2022,” the Minister said.

Source: South Africa Government News Agency

As part of efforts to remove barriers that prevent persons in the deaf community from communicating effectively, the country has developed the first bilingual South African Sign Language (SASL) Dictionary.

The dictionary is available as an app on smartphones to provide standardised SASL lexical terminology.

“This effort will close[ the] communication gap drastically, which affect many facets of a deaf person’s life, including education, limited ability to be understood by most of the South African population,” Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa said on Thursday.

Addressing the launch of Deaf Awareness Month and the first bilingual SASL dictionary in Cape Town, the Minister said the dictionary would further enhance curriculum for learning South African Sign Language, strengthen cognitive function and communication skills.

As part of continued efforts to develop SASL, the Pan South African Language Board (PANSALB) has been working closely with the National Institute for the Deaf (NID) to standardise and authenticate the bilingual SASL Dictionary.

The NID is a registered non-profit organisation that has conducted extensive research in South African Sign Language and develops content targeted at not only the deaf community, but also the hearing as well to bridge the communication gap that currently exists between the two.

The bilingual SASL Dictionary that has been developed by the NID has over 3 000 signs and 2 500 English words, which will facilitate teaching and learning between the two languages.

“This launch of the first edition dictionary will discourage disjointed language, where each fragment had its own accents in the gestures signed which affect the language. This dictionary will further unify the deaf community as a fundamental tool for language learning, allowing the learner to look up unfamiliar words,” the Minister said.

He said sign language dictionaries have been motivated by the dual needs for language documentation and encouraging standardised learning resources, and both purposes have contributed to valorising sign languages.

The launch will play a significant role in both the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, in particular the National Language Service, as well as the PanSALB, in their quest to promote multilingualism and developing languages of South Africa.

“Acting as champions of the project to develop languages, these structures galvanise multilateral energies to forge the partnership arrangements critical for the promotion and development [of] multilingualism in our country,” Mthethwa said.

He said his department is busy developing and promoting South African Sign Language through digital and intelligent systems to facilitate communication between hearing and non-hearing persons.

This launch came at a time when the country is working towards the officialisation of the South African Sign Language as the 12th official language to ensure that deaf Communities use their language freely like any South African.

“It will also enable broader South African society to learn and appreciate the language. At present, it is not yet an official language of South Africa, but it is recognised and protected in various legislative and governmental policies and is even acknowledged as a language equal in status to the 11 official languages in the country,” the Minister said.

Source: South Africa Government News Agency

The Information Regulator has established online portals for public and private bodies to use to submit their Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA) section 32 reports and to register their Information Officers (IO’s).

In a statement released on Friday, the regulator said the online portals intend to improve efficiency, as they will be user-friendly and afford quick turnaround time for submission of section 32 reports and registration of Information Officers.

“Manual applications will continue to be administered to accommodate special circumstances. However, we strongly encourage all public and private bodies to use the portals because it is cost-effective and saves time.

“The Regulator exercises its powers and performs its functions in accordance with POPIA (Protection of Personal Information) and PAIA. Its mandate is to enforce and monitor compliance by public and private bodies with the two pieces of legislation, so as to ensure the protection of information and effective access to information for all persons,” it said.

PAIA section 32 report

PAIA gives effect to section 32 of the Constitution, which provides that everyone has the right of access to any information that is held by the State; as well as any information that is held by another person that is required for the protection of any rights.

Section 32 of PAIA applies to public bodies, which are any departments of state or administration in the national, provincial, and local municipalities or any other public institution exercising power in terms of the Constitution.

Public bodies also include any other institution exercising public power or performing a public function in terms of any legislation.

The IO’s are obligated to submit section 32 reports to the regulator annually.

IO’s are by default the head of departments, administrations, and municipalities, such as Director- Generals, Heads of Departments, and Municipal Managers or heads of any public bodies.

“The purpose of the report is to give an account of the number of requests for access received; access granted in full; access granted in terms of section 46 (mandatory disclosure in the public interest); access refused fully or partially; cases extended; internal appeals to relevant authority; and the number of internal appeals that were refused on the ground that an internal appeal was regarded as having been dismissed,” the Regulator explained.

The annual reports currently due for submission are for the financial period 2021/2022. Public bodies must submit their annual reports by 09 September 2022.

Registration of Information Officers

POPIA was enacted to promote the protection of personal information processed by public and private bodies and introduces minimum conditions for the lawful processing of personal information, and an obligation on Information Officers of public and private bodies to designate and delegate any power or duty to Deputy Information Officers (DIO’s).

“The registration portal is for public and private bodies to register their IO’s with the Regulator before an IO assumes their duties. The IO is responsible to ensure that the body complies with the eight Conditions for Lawful Processing of Personal Information,” the Regulator said.

The Regulator had previously introduced a manual process for registration, which was used whilst it was reconfiguring the online system that had technical glitches in 2021.

“Public and private bodies who had registered using the manual registration and received their certificates are advised not to re-register. The portal has been upgraded and will have the functions to register IO’s, allow for amending, and updating details of the respective bodies.

“Public and private bodies should comply with these requirements and use the portals made available. It is to be noted that non-compliance with these statutory requirements is a contravention of the law.”

For any further enquiries on the section 32 reports, email PAIAComplaince@inforegulator.org.za and for the IO registration email Registration.IO@inforegulator.org.za

The Regulator may also be contacted during office hours 8am - 4pm on 010 023 5200. The portals are accessible on the following link https://inforegulator.org.za/portal/

Source: South Africa Government News Agency