4 November 2004

By Mogale City reporter

THE Gauteng government has developed a five-year plan to create jobs and fight poverty for the people of the province.

This was announced by Premier Mbhazima Shilowa in his keynote address to the Public Sector Summit held in Mogale City on Friday, 28 October.

However, Shilowa emphasised that the government's first partner in improving service delivery and making the strategic plan a reality were public service workers.

"We therefore need to identify what it is we can do together. Our failures are your failures. So no one should be happy when problems are pointed out in hospitals, schools, pension pay-points or at other state institutions. We should all be concerned if the image of the government that we cherish and want to succeed is being tarnished," Shilowa said.

Agreements reached should not only be with the trade union leadership but should also carry the support of the entire public service workers in order to achieve progress, Shilowa said.

The premier of South Africa's economic powerhouse was addressing some 100 delegates from public sector unions and government at the Misty Hills Conference Centre in Muldersdrift.

The summit, he said, will assist in developing a shared perspective on the role of the state in social transformation within a developmental state.

This shared vision will include agreements on the type of manager needed in the public service and the type of employee required to achieve the goals of government.

Job creation, Shilowa said, was something he worried about constantly - and public servants should share the same concern.

He added service delivery should not only be about achieving the Batho Pele principles of providing quality services to residents in a timeous and humane manner. "Public servants should look at how their work of disbursing social grants, for instance, contributes to the goal of alleviating poverty."