Briefing
The briefings were presented by Ms G Fraser-Moleketi, Minister of Public Service and Administration, as well as by Dr M Buthelezi, Minister of Home Affairs.
Questions and Answers
Q: Was there any unnecessary intervention by Cabinet regarding the Immigration Bill regulations, which were within the Department’s jurisdiction?
A: Minister Buthelezi replied that it was not an unnecessary intervention. Cabinet was fully within its mandate to review any regulations, even though the Minister had not seen this done over the past ten years.
Q: Was there any specific reason why Minister Buthelezi suggested during his briefing that his term would be coming to an end?
A: Minister Buthelezi clarified that the President had appointed him for five years, and that those five years had almost ended.
Q: Yesterday in the Cape High Court, two Pollsmoor prisoners supported by NEPAD and the Legal Resources Center, challenged the constitutionality of the Electoral Laws Amendment Act. Do you believe that the Act is constitutional? Did Cabinet discuss whether it would amend the Bill to avoid the tedious process of having to take it all the way through to the Constitutional Court? Are you worried that this will delay the 14 April elections?
A: Minister Buthelezi responded that Cabinet had the final prerogative on the matter and his responsibility was to support Cabinet’s decision. It was not known if elections would be delayed.
Q: You said that there are still people who cannot be reached to receive their identification documents. Over the last three years, how many identification documents have not reached their recipients?
A: Minister Buthelezi replied that 78 000 identification documents had not reached recipients.
Q: What kind of policy sectors were taken into account in requiring the State Law Advisors to look at legislation proposed by Cabinet members? What kind of amendments were proposed?
A: Minister Fraser-Moleketi replied that it was not government policy to discuss the details of Cabinet meetings in press briefings. After every Cabinet meeting the head of GCIS held a briefing for the media in which they dealt with these matters. Cabinet had dealt with particular challenges with regard for governmental priorities. It would be preferable to wait for the final product before engaging in further analysis. It was a Cabinet prerogative to look at their engagement in any legislation, regulations and policies. This had nothing to do with who the Minister was at the time. Their concern was reflected through their work to improve the labour market as well as reduce skills shortages. Their entire framework indicated that they would work on these areas. Collectively, they needed to carry their burden, even if there were no easy solutions. This would be accomplished in collaboration with the Department of Home Affairs.
Q: What was the status of Cabinet discussions regarding ongoing employment of public service workers?
A: Minister Fraser-Moleketi replied that Cabinet had completed the process of public servant competency profiling, and had identified extraneous department workers. Over the past two or three months, 2 000 of these excess public servants had been redeployed. The Department was currently investigating skills development programmes for extraneous public servants so that they might be placed elsewhere, perhaps in the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP). She planned to meet with human resource practitioners to learn more about the ‘hard skills’, such as boiler making and welding, that could be used elsewhere. Also, they were in the last stages of developing a programme to counsel employees that had been found to be in excess. In the future, it would be important to review the competency profiles of all public servants. This would ensure greater mobility across the public service sector. Transformation and reform had to be continuous and multi-layered.
Q: Minister Fraser-Moloketi had mentioned that her Department was looking at eliminating ‘red tape’ in governmental rules and regulations. How do you envision that Parliament participate these improvements?
A. Minister Fraser-Moleketi replied that this was an internal public service process to eliminate undue bureaucracy. Currently, departments consulted other departments to help decide how to change their own regulations. There would need to be a general review of how these regulations were handled.
Q: How did the information system fit together with the work of the Public Service Commission (PSC) in regards to management? In the past, the Commission had expressed frustration with its inability to gather data and with the lack of Departmental co-operation.
A: Minister Fraser-Moleketi replied that the PSC was part of the information systems process. Currently, the Commission played an important role on the Inter-Departmental Co-ordinating Committee.
Q: Minister Fraser-Moleketi said that 42% of the 286 Eastern Cape cases of theft and fraud had been dismissed. What happened to the other 58% of the cases? Are there figures on how many of these cases were prosecuted criminally? How much money was recovered?
A: Minister Fraser-Moleketi replied that she did not have these figures at the moment. She wanted to stress that action had been taken on all of these cases. In 58% of the cases, demotions, written warnings, final written warnings or work transfers were issued.
Q: In attempting to reduce red tape, Minister Fraser-Moleketi, are you sure that you are looking at legislation and not just tampering with regulations?
A: Minister Fraser-Moleketi responded that she had received a report on this subject two days ago. A solution would depend on the assessment of business processes within the public service. A team would analyse which regulations created obstacles.
Q: When presenting your Departmental budget to the National Treasury, did you make an application for retrenchment. What did you ask for?
A: Minister Fraser-Moleketi replied that appointments were no longer centrally determined. This was more progressive than its counterpart policies in developed nations. For example, Canada was still debating how a Commission should make their appointments. In the process, they were expending large portions of their budget on this matter because every Department had its own expenditure. In South Africa, no part of the budget had been allocated for retrenchment.