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17 February 2009

Programme Director
African Union (AU) Commissioner Joiner
Members of AAPSCOMs Executive
Distinguished delegates
Ladies and gentlemen

It is an honour for me to be speaking at the closure of this historic occasion of the launch and first general assembly of such an august organisation, the AAPSCOMs.

Let me from the outset congratulate the newly elected office bearers and secretariat of AAPSCOMs. I am sure that all of you will be able to lead AAPSCOMs to greater heights, and for that we need top put our hands together for what promises to be a great team. Congratulations.

As you assume the reins of this new baby, know that you have accepted a great responsibility and that on your shoulders rests the success or failure of our people throughout the continent, in the area of good governance.

The road leading up to this historic moment has been a very long and arduous one. But today we proudly enjoy the fruits of our years of struggle and intense working. In this, permit me ladies and gentlemen to take this opportunity to thank those Founding Members for creating such an important initiative as it will really go a long way in contributing to the renewal of Africa.

More importantly, this Association will without a doubt give Public Service Commissioners in the continent an opportunity to engage in a structured manner and share best practices in public administration. Let me remind the incoming executive and all members of AAPSCOMs that one of your first tasks is to work towards the eradication of the widely held notion that the public service in Africa is a corrupt, bloated, underachieving entity made up of people who display a care-less attitude.

Most of you have always worked hard to give guidance to the millions of public servants whose mission is to deliver speedy, courteous and empowering services to all regardless of race, colour or creed.

Ladies and gentlemen, a new era has dawned and I am confident that the new leadership of AAPSCOMs is ready to take this organisation to the next phase of growth.

As custodians of good and sound governance we need to ensure that we are equipped to meet the challenges and demands of a modern public service.
In doing so we need to build on the established foundations of a professional public service, its management culture, its efficiency and its capacity to serve our people effectively.

Our guiding principles should be an insatiable desire for professionalism; financial management; greater transparency and accountability and ensuring that as we forge greater regional co-operation we create a developmental public administration.

Partnerships are essential in the execution of our professional duties. We need to stand side-by-side with organisations that uphold the principles we hold so dear, and AAPSCOMS will play a leading role.

In South Africa we realised quite early that in order to, amongst others, attain the goals of greater transparency and accountability, we needed to team up with civil society organisations, business and labour. We also established network fora with academic institutions.

Side by side we have been able to develop mechanisms to detect corrupt practices and foster participative governance. But as much as we cannot claim that we have taken care of the problems that bad evil the public service, we are proud that we have gone a long way in acting in unison with all those who put the plight of their people first.

We recently returned from Addis Ababa where we participated in the assessment of progress made by six African Union (AU) member states who have recently been peer reviewed in terms of the voluntary instrument of the African Peer Review Mechanism. We did this alongside with Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Benin and Algeria. At this review summit we presented our first annual report against the programme of action developed as a response to the country’s review report in the areas of democracy and good political governance, economic governance and management, corporate governance as well as socio economic development.

It will be a proper and fitting expectation by African nations that have acceded to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to have their public service commissions ensuring that government departments include APRM related deliverables in their agenda of governance. Most importantly, it will be a proper and fitting responsibility of high note for AAPSCOMs to align their activities alongside the activities of the African Peer Review Mechanisms so that the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) programme of the AU and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals can be realised.

Programme Director

Let us assist one another to facilitate legislation and policies that would make our oversight role as Public Service Commissions worthwhile. And as we roll-out our plans as AAPSCOM, let us at all times ensure that our efforts are co-ordinated instead of operating in silos.

The AU has paved the way for us to act as one, because we are, after all, one continent. We need to share experience across historical colonial identities and regionalism, the likes of the so-called Franco-phones, Luso-phones, Anglo-phones and other forms of segregatory identity.

Let the high ideal of working for the good governance of Africa be the single creed that guides you and all of those you work with. Don’t despair. Work harder. In your individual interaction, be an embodiment of AAPSCOMs’ good intentions and purpose, and your face be the book from which AAPSCOMs message the people shall read. Be like the direct opposite of the words of poet Rudyard Kipling “But the glory of the garden lies in more than meets the eye.”

Instil in those men and women a work ethic that will make them realise that what they are doing is not just a job, but responsible nationhood. Let me thank all of you for attending and wish you a pleasant journey back to your respective areas of deployment.

Until we meet again, farewell and God be with you.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
17 February 2009