Speech delivered by the MEC for Health and Welfare Mr. Seaparo Sekoati on the occasion of Service Excellence Awards Ceremony Westernburg hall

14 September 2004

Thank you Programme Director
Executive Mayor of Capricorn
Mayors from various districts and Councillors
Traditional Leaders
Government officials
Ladies and gentlemen

Today marks an important milestone in our endeavor not only to improve our service delivery standards, but also to recognize efforts, sacrifices and dedication by those amongst us who are ready to serve with pride, commitment, passion and dedication.

This has become more than a ritual as it is done with a sense of sincere gratitude for the contribution you have made towards the realization of improving the quality of care at all levels of the system, ensuring that our people also have a say with regard to the services rendered to them. It is through your endeavors that much progress has been achieved, for that we applaud and celebrate your efforts. Its your selfless efforts that continue to reinstate confidence and trust in the hearts and minds of our people, that whenever they are in a dire need, our public health institutions will be there to save lives and not serve as marques.

It is mostly not only the apparatus that we have in these institutions, but our attitude that count most. Our communities expect to be treated with respect and dignity, they might be illiterate but they know that our freedom and democracy has returned their dignity and humanity and expect to be treated as such.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and the policies on transformation of public service confers constitutional mandate to public service to respond to the people’s needs by being responsive, courteous, accountable, transparent and informative.

Due to this responsibility the department needs to recognize exceptional commitment by the individuals, districts, institutions and teams who go beyond the scope of duty, promoting efficiency, effectiveness and excellent service delivery.

Because of this excellence service delivery our Risk Management was successful in investigating a recent fraud case involving R1, 6 million. The case is now under the South African Police Services. This is an encouraging sight, to make sure that none of us take advantage of our positions for self-enrichment.

Programme director, over the past few months we have traversed what can be aptly called an epic journey across space and time. The year 2004 has seen us through a mixture of fortunes as we faced overwhelming challenges with the potential to undermine our service delivery imperatives. You may recall that at the beginning of this year the department acted with commendable speed and efficiency in reacting to the issue of corruption and malpractices. The department managed to beef up security and to also extend this to other health institutions as a preventative measure before we encounter such problems again. This will also enable us to extend our services to our communities.

As we celebrate this day we know that there are those people who do not honour some of the principles of “Batho Pele”. We have people who still want to benefit from the resources of government by misusing them.

We want to applaud the Capricorn district by managing to stop the misuse of Ambulances by some of the government employees. We know that Ambulances were sometimes used as taxis furring people to various places during working hours. It is circumstances like this ones that render us ineffective and non-responsive to serving our communities.

We need to applaud the Capricorn district in being exemplary towards zero tolerance of non-acceptable behaviour.

We appeal to the community members to be vigilant in their own surroundings, to stop buying stolen goods and report these kinds of malpractices to relevant authorities.

It is only ourselves who can and have the power to change our environment for the better, us acting as individuals and collective, who can build the image of our public health institutions.

Much as it is true that government has to provide more resources to be envied by all, there are those resources, which cannot be bought, they call on individual conscience, love, compassion, ubuntu, dedication, respect and understanding.

These awards speak volumes about the high performance standards internally, they tell us how we measure each other. What also becomes important is to check as to whether these awards speak to the perceptions that our clients have about us.

Our people will judge us on how we treat them in the wards, pay points, and how soon we respond to their concerns. They will not judge us on how often our committees meet, how neat our files look. They need more of our understanding and compassion. If indeed we have that, lets show it to our people, they will appreciate it. If we do not have, then we have a responsibility to develop it

We expect health and welfare workers to treat patients with compassion and dignity. We should give no room in our institutions to members of our collective to neglect their duties and engage in activities, which can only dent the image of our institutions and professions.

As from next year April we will see the introduction of SASSA with a sole mandate of providing social security grants to the beneficiaries under proper conditions. We are proud of the improvement that we have made as the district in the provision of these grants.

We are aware that one of the future plans of Capricorn district is to train Social Workers in Sign Language in order to cater for people with disabilities. These will without question add value to the service we are providing to those beneficiaries.

Our policy within the department is that we should treat all people equally irrespective of their social background hence we are emphasizing the issue of access within government structures. We applaud the initiative taken by the district to capacitate our officials with the intention to improve service provision.

The true test of our successes lies in our ability to improve the quality of life of the entire people in our province. We have received successive mandates from the people to implement programmes and make interventions that will address the issues of, among other things, poverty, underdevelopment and socio-economic needs of our people.

We are able however, to achieve some of our objectives largely because of the extra efforts by some of our staff members to whom we are saying today, many thanks for all your contributions, and sacrifices. You make us proud.

With each passing day we do a lot better and we are convinced that the future will offer us even much more strength to conquer the challenges that lie ahead. We are able to achieve some of our objectives because of the support we get from stakeholders in both the health and welfare sectors.

We are very proud of your efforts to distinguish yourselves in your daily work. We are aware that all of you have been doing a wonderful work, but our special congratulations will go to those who have given it more sweat. We congratulate you the winners, with a profound belief that these awards do not belong to you alone but share these with your colleagues who have been there lending a hand.

Now we know, we can do much better, because we are the best.

We thank you.

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