Public Protector Roadshow targets Eastern Cape stakeholders

Students, municipal authorities, senior provincial government officials and other key stakeholders in the Eastern Cape will this week hear from Public Protector Adv. Busisiwe Mkhwebane about the role they could play in helping to reduce the overflowing caseload in her office.

Adv. Mkhwebane’s visit is part of a nationwide roadshow during which she holds talks with public sector decision makers and other interested parties on the importance of addressing service delivery failure complaints internally before the grievances could be escalated to her office.

She is calling on the organs of state to establish in-house complaints resolution units, customer service units or sectoral ombudsman institutions, and to develop Service Standards and Service Delivery Charters.  

The roadshow has already been to Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North West. It seeks to give effect to Pillar 7 of the Public Protector Vision 2023 – a detailed plan which is essentially about taking the institution’s services to the grassroots. Pillar 7 encourages organs of state to establish effective internal complaints resolution units, customer service units or sectoral ombudsman offices.

While it is true that the Public Protector’s mandate is broad, covering any and every administrative action within state affairs to the exclusion of court decisions, it is also correct that not every case must necessarily be brought to the institution.

“This is precisely why it is critical for organs of state to establish effective complaints resolution units, customer service units or sector-specific ombudsman institutions in the mould of the Health, Tax and Military Ombudsman,” Adv. Mkhwebane said.

That way individual cases that would ordinarily clog her office’s system would be handled by such institutions, allowing her team of investigators to focus on systemic and own-initiative matters.

Her first stop is at the Nelson Mandela University on Wednesday where she is scheduled to have a discussion with students on the role they could play in assisting communities to hold the state to account while vindicating their rights. She will then proceed to meet with municipal, provincial and civil society representatives on Thursday.

The meeting with students will take place as follows:

• Date               : Wednesday, 29 August 2018
• Time               : 16H30
• Venue            : Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth

The meeting with municipal and provincial government representatives is scheduled as follows:

• Date               : Thursday, 30 August 2018
• Time               : 11H00
• Venue            : Nelson Mandela Municipal Council Chambers, Port Elizabeth

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