Description
The advent of democratic rule in South Africa signaled a strong commitment to promoting effective governance and improving the quality of life for all citizens. As the implementing wing of government, the Public Service has had to undergo significant transformation to ensure that its structures, systems, processes and orientation are properly geared to effectively deliver services to the public. Government introduced the principles of Batho Pele (means ‘people first’ in Sesotho) to serve as a framework that would
guide the transformation of public service delivery. Since that time, government departments have done much to address the demands of citizens, but they have also been faced with a number of challenges in expanding service delivery and often doing so within an environment of human resource and other constraints.
Section 196 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996), mandates the Public Service Commission (PSC) to,
amongst other things, promote the values and principles of public administration, set out in section 195 and to propose measures to ensure effective and efficient performance within the Public Service. To this end, the PSC monitors the level and quality of government services and promotes a culture of access, openness and transparency that in turn, should build more confidence and trust between the Public Service and the public it serves. In terms of this mandate, the PSC began evaluating the implementation of Batho Pele in 2000 by undertaking research into compliance with the Batho Pele framework. During 2005, the PSC commissioned the current study to evaluate the performance and compliance of national and
provincial government departments with the Batho Pele principle of access.
Aim of the Study
The aim of the study was to evaluate the performance and compliance of departments in implementing procedures intended to improve and deal with access to government services as required by the White Paper on Transforming Service Delivery (1997) (Batho Pele). More specifically, the study sought to:
• Assess the degree to which departments’ performance complies with the access principle as required by the Batho Pele White Paper;
• Benchmark access and implementation models;
• Draft best practice models for access; and
• Make generic recommendations on implementing access for service delivery improvement.
