Page 31 - Service Delivery Review

National Development Plan and State Capacity Conference

Forging Ahead with the Professionalisation
of the Public Service

Director-General of the DPSA - Yoliswa Makhasi

The Department of Public Service It has been ten years since the adoption of the NDP.
and Administration (DPSA) and the Yet the nation continues to grapple with the histori-
cal and structural challenges of poverty; inequality;
University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and unemployment, particularly among young peo-
convened a National Development ple. The ultimate resolution to the nation’s deep-root-
Plan and State Capacity Conference ed challenges is everyone’s business. However, the
transformative and developmental role that a capable
to forge a way forward for a capable and capacitated State and Public Service play cannot
and professional Public Service, be over-emphasised.
writes Yoliswa Makhasi, Director- Chapter 13 of the NDP highlights that for the State to
General of the DPSA. realise this, South Africa “requires well-run and effec-
tively coordinated state institutions with skilled public
The COVID-19 pandemic taught us that South Africa servants committed to the public good and capable
needs more of the social wage that the Public Service of delivering consistently high-quality services while
continues to provide by rendering essential services prioritising the nation’s developmental objectives”.
rather than less of it. At a time when all the major
sectors of the economy were on lockdown, the Public State Capacity Project
Service alone shouldered the unprecedented stress-
es of the pandemic. Three years later, the COVID-19 Consequently, by design and not by accident, the
pandemic is a metaphor for the massive challenges goal of restoring public trust is regarded as Priority
that the nation still faces and the pressing need to 1 in the Medium-Term-Strategic Framework (MTSF),
develop an even more capable and professional Pub- which is about building a “Capable, Ethical and De-
lic Service. velopmental State” of which the DPSA is the custo-

SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW | Volume 15. No. 3 of 2023 31