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MANY South Africans long for conscientious state workers who understand the responsible nature of their professions.
They want government workers to respect the people they have to attend to every day of their working lives.
In addition, South Africans want government workers to empathise with their electorates and hold them in regard.
But many find these types of government employees are nowhere to be found in present-day South Africa. Most of the currently employed public sector workers have little appreciation for the work they do.
So, the announcement this week that the government is introducing measures to transform the public service to ensure that civil servants give appropriate services came at the right time.
According to the Mail & Guardian, Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu plans to send inspectors to monitor schools, enforce a dress code for teachers and make it difficult for both current and former state employees to do business with the government.
Government employees will be sent for compulsory public service courses at a school of government.
Public servants fired for fraud, financial mismanagement and misconduct will be blacklisted from being employed by any government department or agency.
Disciplinary procedures will be pursued against public servants who resign during the process.
And there are many other proposed new rules that will try to improve the work ethic of South Africa’s public servants.
Sisulu is right and I welcome these proposed new rules. She has outdone herself here and I admire her courage.
South Africans are desperate for government officials who are conscious that their careers should focus on changing people’s lives and helping the public.
But this is not the case in some of South Africa’s most important disciplines.
Go to the nearest public hospital or clinic in South Africa and you will find nurses who do not want to be there at all.
Nurses can be rude to patients, and some only come to work because they want to secure their pay cheque at the end of the month. Stories of nurses assaulting patients in South African public hospitals are not uncommon.
Additionally, South Africa is in need of government officials watchful of their own propensity towards high-handedness, with a strong sense of self-control.
As someone who has been a journalist all my life, I have come across government officials who tried to stop me from publishing damning stories on government corruption.
I once got a call from a government official who thought one of the headlines in the magazine I was editing at the time was not in good taste towards the government and the ANC.
He did not know me or my political affiliation at the time, but he had the gall to think he had the power to pursuade me to protect the government.
Some South African government officials obviously have a moral crisis.
This is in view of the fact that South African department heads do not stress the importance of the need for government workers to look into themselves, or face losing the last remnant of citizens' trust.
Most of us will have to remain more cautious. People can only have trust in a state that has self-control. There is little sign of that at the moment.
And Sisulu is certainly on the right track. I hope she gets all the support she needs.
- Fin24
*Mzwandile Jacks is a freelance journalist. Opinions expressed are his own.
They want government workers to respect the people they have to attend to every day of their working lives.
In addition, South Africans want government workers to empathise with their electorates and hold them in regard.
But many find these types of government employees are nowhere to be found in present-day South Africa. Most of the currently employed public sector workers have little appreciation for the work they do.
So, the announcement this week that the government is introducing measures to transform the public service to ensure that civil servants give appropriate services came at the right time.
According to the Mail & Guardian, Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu plans to send inspectors to monitor schools, enforce a dress code for teachers and make it difficult for both current and former state employees to do business with the government.
Government employees will be sent for compulsory public service courses at a school of government.
Public servants fired for fraud, financial mismanagement and misconduct will be blacklisted from being employed by any government department or agency.
Disciplinary procedures will be pursued against public servants who resign during the process.
And there are many other proposed new rules that will try to improve the work ethic of South Africa’s public servants.
Sisulu is right and I welcome these proposed new rules. She has outdone herself here and I admire her courage.
South Africans are desperate for government officials who are conscious that their careers should focus on changing people’s lives and helping the public.
But this is not the case in some of South Africa’s most important disciplines.
Go to the nearest public hospital or clinic in South Africa and you will find nurses who do not want to be there at all.
Nurses can be rude to patients, and some only come to work because they want to secure their pay cheque at the end of the month. Stories of nurses assaulting patients in South African public hospitals are not uncommon.
Additionally, South Africa is in need of government officials watchful of their own propensity towards high-handedness, with a strong sense of self-control.
As someone who has been a journalist all my life, I have come across government officials who tried to stop me from publishing damning stories on government corruption.
I once got a call from a government official who thought one of the headlines in the magazine I was editing at the time was not in good taste towards the government and the ANC.
He did not know me or my political affiliation at the time, but he had the gall to think he had the power to pursuade me to protect the government.
Some South African government officials obviously have a moral crisis.
This is in view of the fact that South African department heads do not stress the importance of the need for government workers to look into themselves, or face losing the last remnant of citizens' trust.
Most of us will have to remain more cautious. People can only have trust in a state that has self-control. There is little sign of that at the moment.
And Sisulu is certainly on the right track. I hope she gets all the support she needs.
- Fin24
*Mzwandile Jacks is a freelance journalist. Opinions expressed are his own.
