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Cabinet held its mid-year review and planning session from 23 to 25 July. A detailed progress report was considered by the Governance and Administration (G&A) sector Cabinet Committee and was tabled at the Cabinet Lekgotla. Two areas were selected for detailed discussion at the Cabinet Lekgotla: the restructuring of the public service and community development workers. A number of decisions were taken on the way forward.

Restructuring

Cabinet Lekgotla noted the good progress overall that has been made in the implementation of Resolution 7 (Restructuring of the Public Service). The majority of departments have completed their internal matching and placing process and the inter-departmental matching and placing is proceeding.

Current figures show that there are approximately 24 000 employees in excess and 15 000 vacancies. Eighty percent of the vacancies are at skilled levels, especially in the health sector, while 70% of the employees in excess are at the lower levels.

To maximise the redeployment chances of lower-level staff, Cabinet Lekgotla approved that a closed advertisement system be retained for levels 1 to 4 for the last three months of the agreement.

In addition, Cabinet considered the position of employees who are unsuccessful in the redeployment process and decided that they would be placed in a special programme and retained within the public service for a further nine months until June 2004.

These employees will be assessed and retrained and where possible absorbed into posts that become vacant within the nine-month period. Only at the end of this period will employees who have not been redeployed be retrenched.

Cabinet Lekgotla also approved that a new framework for ongoing restructuring be developed, which may be utilised by departments once Resolution 7 has come to an end.

This present phase of restructuring is expected to be concluded at the end of September 2003.

Community development workers

Cabinet approved the rollout of community development workers. Community development workers are an additional type of a public servant (different to the mainline public servant or local government official) who will be a skilled facilitator; filling the gap between government services and the people. This will be a public servant who is able to assist citizens with matters such as birth certificates, ID and social grants applications, and small business start-ups, at their doorstep and in their own communities.

The recruitment and training of community development workers will start in Gauteng, the North West Province, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo and thereafter continue to other provinces. The main focus will initially be on the thirteen nodes of the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme in these provinces.

Community development workers came about as government's response to the experience of the Imbizos and other direct engagements between government and citizens. These engagements clearly demonstrated that in many rural villages and urban townships, citizens have for various reasons not been able to access the services and benefits offered by government.

Community development workers will be valuable in assisting people who are unaware that they are entitled to certain benefits and services. They will also assist those who experience difficulty with the sometimes-complex procedures required by government.

Community development workers are located within government's efforts to increase access to services and to deliver services in a more integrated way.

Integrated service delivery

A. The e-Government Gateway, a multi-access, electronic system that provides a single point of access to information on government services, will be launched in October 2003.

This multi-access electronic system will comprise an Internet access portal, a call centre, a service point such as Multi-purpose Community Centre (MPCCs) and existing government offices and other mobile service units. The e-Government Gateway is Government's drive to improve access to services to all South Africans in their most convenient and affordable manner.

Due to the new technology challenge presented by e-Government Gateway, the Department of Home Affairs has begun a total overhaul of its countrywide internal information technology system. This overhaul will support the essential data transfer and verification elements of Gateway.

B. The Cabinet Lekgotla also noted progress made in the intervention to improve service delivery in selected departments in the Eastern Cape. The Interim Management Team is implementing a turnaround strategy in key service delivery departments and the Joint Anti-Corruption Task Team is tackling corruption in the administration.

Issued by Ministry of Public Service and Administration

4 August 2003