Qualified people earmarked for senior management positions

Government is amending legislation and strengthening the role of the Public Service Commission to ensure that qualified people are appointed to senior management positions and to move towards creating a single, harmonised public service, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.

Delivering the 2023 state of the nation address on Thursday night, Ramaphosa said too many municipalities, 163 out of 257, were dysfunctional or in distress due to poor governance, ineffective and sometimes corrupt.

“Government is implementing a number of interventions to address failures at local government level and improve basic service delivery.

“These include enhancing the capacity of public representatives and officials, maintaining and upgrading local infrastructure, and invoking the powers of national government to intervene where municipalities fail to meet their responsibilities.

He said a professional public service, staffed by skilled, committed and ethical people, was critical to an effective state and ending corruption, patronage and wastage.

Ramaphosa said as a response to the State Capture Commission and in line with the framework for the professionalisation of the public service, integrity assessments would become a mandatory requirement for recruitment to the public service and entry exams will be introduced.

Ramaphosa further praised Chief Justice Raymond Zondo for his handling of the State Capture Commission.

“As a country, we owe Chief Justice Zondo, the commission staff and all those who provided testimony a huge debt of gratitude for their extraordinary public service.”