Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu has called on the National School of Government (NSG) to enhance its role in assisting government to promote ethics, productivity and innovation in the public service.
“We need to bring back people’s trust of government and the public sector. As you train public servants, instill in them that we want to achieve an ethical, capable developmental state,” the Minister said.
The NSG forms part of the portfolio of the Minister, and is responsible for the training of public servants in the national, provincial and local government spheres as well as State Owned Entities in terms of its expanded mandate.
On Tuesday, the Minister was in Pretoria addressing the National Strategic Planning Session taking place under the theme: “Delivering on our Mandate in a Rapidly Changing World”.
Mchunu 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.
“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. Some people spend four hours on a Monday morning reviewing the weekend activities instead of working,” the Minister said.
The Minister expressed concern on the inadequate access to tools of trade for public servants below senior management level.
Many public servants are unable to enroll for online courses, as they do not have laptops or data.
“This problem became more pronounced during the COVID-19 lockdown period. It needs to be corrected. 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,” the Minister said.
He said public servants need to be innovative and be able to solve problems using new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools.
The Minister noted that fewer people worked during the lockdown but productivity was high due to innovative methods used through digital technologies to get the work of government done.
Accenture Africa CEO Vukani Mgxathi emphasised the need for digital transformation of higher education in order to meet the demands of the new digital economy.
“We must radically rethink the skills we need and transform how we teach people to learn and apply them throughout their careers,” Mgxathi said. – SAnews.gov.za
