Led by the Director-General (DG), Ms Yoliswa Makhasi, the Department of Public Service and Administration’s (DPSA) Provincial Engagement Programme (PEP) hit the shores of the Western Cape Province on a two-day engagement with the executive and administrative leadership of the Western Cape Government (WCG), starting on 17 October 2023.
In her remarks on the purpose of the visit, DG Makhasi said the PEP is a mechanism to ensure that the DPSA provides ‘a single window’ in how it engages and supports provincial departments. Consequently, the PEP is one of several initiatives seeking to reduce compliance and time burdens on provincial departments by integrating and coordinating the DPSA’s provincial engagements and support activities as much as possible.
Specific to the two-day WCG engagement programme, DG Makhasi provided an outline of public sector reforms and policy developments, including the Public Service Professionalisation Framework, the 2023 Public Service Regulations (PSRs) and the directives on Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Data and Knowledge Management that are in the pipeline.
“There has been a lot of [policy] development work behind closed doors. But I believe now is the moment to put some of this work out there,” DG Makhasi explained.
The DG of the Western Cape Government, Dr Harry Malila, who welcomed the DPSA and National School of Government (NSG) PEP team, took the opportunity to provide an overview of some efforts of the WCG in the professionalisation public servants and the premium they put on training across all sectors of the provincial administration. Moreover, DG Malila underscored the importance of provincial engagements in ensuring two-way communication between national departments and provinces for sharing ideas and good practices.
“At the end of the day, we are South African first, even though we live in the Western Cape province, and if one province fails, the entire system fails, and we cannot allow the system to collapse because of capacity issues,” said DG Malila.
On day one, the PEP received and engaged in the presentations from the Department of the Premier of the WCG, the DPSA and the NSG. These focused on the Value-based Leadership Programme, the Public Service Professionalisation Framework and the 2023 Public Service Regulations.
Day two of the programme received a presentation for the DPSA’s Acting Deputy Director-General for Electronic Government Services and Information Management, Mr Zaid Aboobaker, followed by site visits to the WCG Contact Centre and the IT Infrastructure and Network Nerve Centre.
