ProAddress by Public Protector Adv Thuli
Madonsela on the occasion of a stakeholder consultation
meeting in Johannesburg, Gauteng
19 March 2010
Programme Director,
Executive Mayor of Sedibeng District Municipality; Cllr M
Mofokeng,
Executive Mayor of Metsweding Municipality; Cllr A
Mlondobozi ,
Chairperson of the General Council Bar; Adv PM Mtshaulana
SC,
Commissioner of the Public Service Commission; Commissioner
JJ Matsumela,
Commissioner of the Commission on Gender Equality;
Commissioner T Matsie,
Deputy Director General of the Department of Local
Government and Development; Ms Pricilla Peterson,
Head of the Infrastructure and Development department; Mr G
Martins,
Acting CEO of the Health Professions Council of South
Africa; Ms MM O’Reilly,
Representatives of various government departments,
Representatives of Chapter 9 and other state institutions,
Political Parties present,
Members of the media,
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Allow me to start by extending my warmest greetings to all
of you this morning and also thank you for your positive
response to our invitation.
You could have been anywhere today but you chose to be here
with us because you realise the importance of the Public
Protector in a constitutional democracy like ours. I truly
appreciate that.
On 10 February 2010, I began a seven-week stakeholder
consultative process, during which I visit provinces,
spending two days in each of them to meet key stakeholders
and interface with ordinary people.
This consultative process began here in Gauteng with a
meeting with the community of Alexandra. Today I am back in
this province to engage you, the decision makers from
various quarters, including public, political and civic
sectors.
While my meeting with the Alexandra community focused on
raising awareness about the existence of the Public
Protector and the role of this institution, our engagement
today will take a slightly different direction.
The purpose of our meeting is to introduce myself and engage
you on the Public Protector Vision 2020, our proposed vision
for the next 10 years, with the aim of sourcing comments and
inputs so that we can jointly path the direction this
institution will follow during my term of office.
I am also here to establish what your expectations are
regarding the services of the Public Protector, obtain your
views regarding the legislative and constitutional mandate
of the Public Protector. I would also like to discuss
cooperation for purposes of enhancing the responsiveness of
my office to the people of this country.
Our expectation is that at the end of these meetings,
together, we must have come up with suggestions on how we
can have and maintain an accountable public administration,
which is responsive to needs of communities and acts with
integrity.
Programme Director;
Before I go deep into, let me indicate that I am aware that
most if not all the people gathered here, this morning, are
fully knowledgeable about the existence of the Public
Protector and its role.
However, for the benefit of those in our midst, who may not
be aware, I am going to briefly discuss what the Public
Protector is and what role this institution plays in our
country.
The Public Protector is established by the Constitution to
receive and resolve complaints about the services and
conduct of organs of state. Alleged and suspected corruption
and other forms of maladministration in the public sector
can also be investigated by the Public Protector.
The Public Protector is empowered to investigate, mediate,
negotiate, conciliate and take remedial action to ensure
that all components of the state are accountable and
responsive to the needs of all.
I conduct investigations and resolve complaints in terms of
the Public Protector Act. In addition to that, my
responsibility includes enforcing the Executive Members
Ethics Act and playing a role in enforcing anti-corruption
legislation and a few other laws that regulate the conduct
of public authorities.
As the Public Protector, I am independent of government and
political parties and therefore carry out my
responsibilities impartially without fear, favour or
prejudice.
I must indicate that my independence from the state and
politicians does not make me an attorney for the public. I
am therefore more like a referee who looks at both sides of
the problem, make findings and take remedial action that is
fair and just.
This means should my investigations against any government
department or agency find no wrong doing on the part of the
state; I will say so in my reports just like I do when the
opposite is the case.
Programme Director;
My office in this province, located at Women’s Jail,
Constitutional Hill, opened its doors to communities in
December 2004. During the 2009/10 fiscal year, we received
up to 1 578 complaints from this province alone.
We all know that even though it is, geographically, the
tiniest province in the country, Gauteng has the largest
population in the country, with more than 10.5 million
people.
The number of complaints received from the people of this
province is therefore not enough. Even if we were to add
this number to the 2 130 complaints received, during the
same period, by our Head Office, which also in Gauteng, it
will still be low.
This calls for an intensive public education and outreach
programme. However, on our own and with the little resources
at our disposal, it is difficult to raise awareness about
the service s of the Public Protector in such a way that the
number of complaints we receive can mirror the population of
this province.
It is for this reason that we are appealing for cooperation
and where possible, partnerships with you to ensure that
Public Protector services are accessible to all persons and
communities as required by the Constitutions.
The types of complaints we get from this province mainly
relate to delays in the provision of low cost housing,
SASSA’s alleged refusal to grant disability grants and
delays in considering appeals and the Department of Home
Affairs’ delays in processing ID applications and late
registration of births. Other complaints relating to Home
Affairs include lack of public awareness on processes and
procedures that are applicable to the provision of its
services.
We also receive a lot of complaints against the City of
Joburg regarding allegations of excessive billing for
services.
One of the biggest challenges we come across when executing
our mandate is a general lack of cooperation from government
departments. This has got a negative impact on our
turnaround times.
I do hope that after our discussion today, we would have
tried to address these challenges.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Vision 2020 I referred to earlier
includes the following:
Vision
A trusted, effective and accessible Public Protector that
rights wrongs and consistently acts with integrity to ensure
fair, accountable and responsive decision-making, service
and good governance in all state affairs and public
administration in any sphere of government.
Mission
We serve the public in accordance with our constitutional
mandate by rectifying and redressing any improper or
prejudicial conduct in state affairs and resolving related
disputes through investigation, mediation, conciliation,
negotiation and other measures to ensure fair, responsive
and accountable public sector decision-making and service
delivery.
Values
- Independence and impartiality;
- Human Dignity;
- Equality;
- Ubuntu and Empathy;
- Redress;
- Accountability;
- Integrity;
- Responsiveness;
- Transparency; and
- Justice and Fairness.
In addition, we are guided by three main principles
namely accountability, integrity and responsiveness. We have
also proposed strategic objectives for the next three years
as the mechanism for ensuring, among other things, that
there is prompt remedial action for all wrongs committed by
public authorities and that good governance generally is
achieved in the conduct of all state affairs.
Programme Director, we are also making several improvements
with the aim of serving complainants more effectively and
responsively. The key improvements include improving
turnaround times, primarily through an early resolution
mechanism we have just created.
We have also shifted our operational emphasis from
focusing on investigations to resolving complaints against
public authorities. We resolve the complaints through using
various powers I am given by the Constitution, which include
investigations, mediation, conciliation, negotiation and any
other competent action as I have already indicated.
I’m also in the process of implementing measures to
strengthen our capacity especially on the areas of rigour
and forensic investigation. These are critical for
investigating corruption and other forms of
maladministration.
Another area of focus is that of systemic interventions to
identify and address the system malfunctions that lead to
poor service delivery.
In conclusion, Programme Director, I trust that we will have
fruitful discussions this morning so that we can realise the
ideal of an accountable and responsive public sector that
puts the needs of the public first.
Thank you.
Adv TN Madonsela
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