KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli has pledged that under his watch, the government will only employ officials who are fit for purpose when it comes to service delivery.
Delivering his State of the Province Address (Sopa) in Pietermaritzburg on Friday, Ntuli said the government was “vigorously” rolling out training programmes through the Provincial Public Service Training Academy (PPSTA) and the National School of Government (NSG) to improve its employees’ attitude towards service delivery.
Both PPSTA and NSG were launched in 2007 and 2013 respectively, but there has been little tangible outcome in improving service delivery.
“We realise that no amount of training will help if we do not change the culture and professionalise the public service.
“This also entails strengthening recruitment processes which are based on experience and skill so that we attract government officials who are ethical and fit for purpose,” said Ntuli.
Ntuli said the strengthening of public institutions should result in a better service delivery and rooting out corruption.
He also announced that a Service Delivery Charter will be distributed to all departments, outlining “standards that our people should expect when they receive the service”.
He said the provincial government had last year signed the service delivery agreements with all MECs.
“These agreements contain clear targets that each MEC is expected to deliver, including time frames, and are linked to the Performance Agreements of Heads of Departments,” he said.
He was expecting public servants to be accountable, transparent and not to serve their own interests.
In addressing fraud and corruption, the departments had embarked on lifestyle audits for managers.
“Furthermore, fraud awareness campaigns are being conducted – this initiative is a joint effort between government and various law enforcement agencies,” he said.
He stated that, through a Consequence Management Framework, some misbehaving officials have been held accountable for their actions, while others have been dismissed..
The province had, according to Ntuli, achieved significant improvement in the audit outcomes, but he would use the Audit Improvement Plan to address the departments that were still behind.
“There has been positive progress in the implementation of interventions aimed at eliminating irregular expenditure.
“We will be implementing a Provincial Financial Recovery Plan to ensure that we reduce waste and eliminate inefficiencies, including office accommodation,” he said.
The government was currently engaged in a “high-level” discussion with Vodacom and Telkom to launch the KZN Digital Fund in June 2025 in a drive to connect the internet to every household.
“In the coming weeks, we will define the structural nature of our collaboration with both Vodacom and Telkom, ensuring that our partnership translates into tangible benefits for the people of KwaZulu-Natal.
“We are determined to ensure that every citizen, no matter where they reside, can connect, learn, and engage with the world through high-speed internet,” he said.
He said through the SA Connect project, 1132 wi-fi hotspots have been implemented, the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA) programme has connected 688 sites in the province and 27 broadband sites have been connected for traditional authorities, amounting to 90% of the sites being completed.
ANC provincial spokesperson Fanle Sibisi welcomed the speech, which he said derived strength from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address.
“This affirms that there is progress in the government of national unity and government of provincial unity, which makes us not to be far from each other.”
“If you look at pointers that the premier has highlighted in particular within the department where there are MECs deployed by the ANC, you could sense that there is cooperation and collaborativeness in what they do,” said Sibisi.
However, he called for the incentivising of hardworking public servants as “we cannot expect output when we are not investing in the incentives for the employees”.
However, unimpressed EFF MPL Mongezi Twala said the speech was a cut and paste of what Ntuli said during his inaugural speech.
“No tangible solution in terms of curbing corruption in the municipalities,” said Thwala.
uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) MPL Musa Mkhize said Ntuli should have tackled the challenges facing the province soon after being sworn in.
“Every time there is a speech, he talks about potholes but they are not fixed. They talk about jobs for youth, the youth at ward level are not participating due to a lack of funding.
“He needs to tell us where the money has been spent for the whole financial year, as things are not done,” said Mkhize.
MPLs would debate the SOPA on Tuesday.
