Cape Town - More than four million South Africans have accessed Thusong Services Centres, which offer government information and services, since April last year, the Minister of Home Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said today.
Briefing journalists on work being done by the government's Governance and Administration Cluster, the cluster's chairperson Dlamini Zuma also provided details of the government's strategy to tackle ailing municipalities and work to root out corruption in the public service.
Dlamini Zuma said the 160 Thusong Services Centres are complemented by mobile units of various departments as well as by community development workers who render services to people.
"Communities no longer have to travel long distances to obtain identity documents, birth certificates, apply for pensions, UIF (Unemployment Insurance Fund) or foster care grants, as the government is also ensuring that mobile units from these departments provide services in an integrated manner," she said, adding that R5 million had been received from the National Treasury for branding and signage for the centres.
More than 1 000 staff from the departments and stakeholders who service the centre have been trained in customer care principles by the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy.
Added to this, Dlamini-Zuma said that up to December last year, 671 participants were trained by the academy on an anti-corruption course.
"The Ethics Management Course is currently being rolled out with particular focus on officials in municipalities," she said, adding that the academy was also busy finalising the development of another course: Anti-corruption for practitioners.
Draft principles of public administration and financial delegations have been set up to boost financial and human-resource management among civil servants.
Dlamini Zuma said her department would help all those who had lost their IDs in the recent floods to obtain another one before the upcoming local government elections scheduled for May.
She also urged all South Africans who had not applied for IDs yet to do so as a matter of urgency so that they could vote in the local government elections.
Meanwhile, the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs is developing a segmentation model for municipalities as part of the Local Government Turnaround Strategy approved by the Cabinet in 2009.
The model will enable the government to tackle the municipalities according to their needs.
Linked to the segmentation model is a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which will assist municipalities with infrastructure support.
Dlamini Zuma said the turnaround strategy had resulted in savings of between R20 million and R80 million in the North West by ensuring that cases were opened against officials that had neglected governance issues.
"For example in Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality, investigations were conducted and criminal charges [were laid] against councillors and officials," said Dlamini Zuma, who added that the matter was currently in court, while investigations were being finalised by the Special Investigations Unit (SPU).
In Mpumalanga, a task team consisting of officials from various national departments had worked to address problems in Dipaliseng Municipality in Balfour.
The engagements had resulted in a balanced budget being approved, the municipal manager and chief financial officer being suspended and disciplinary hearings being held and managers of revenue and expenditure being appointed.
Elroy Africa, the Director-General of the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, said the new local government strategy followed on from Project Consolidate, which was launched in 2004 and targeted 139 municipalities.
"The (new) turnaround strategy is not limited to a particular number of municipalities, it covers all municipalities," said Africa.
"What we have decided to do differently this time, with this turnaround strategy is to adopt an approach that says that we should not treat all municipalities in the same manner," said Africa, adding that the differentiated support would aim to focus assistance depending on the type and size of each municipality.
He said Project Consolidate had been a success, as it had been able to mobilise for first time since 2000, a range of partners from private sectors such as engineers and employ these in a number of areas and municipalities.
Public Service and Administration Minister, Richard Baloyi, said his department's Anti-Corruption Unit has already recovered R44 million from corrupt public officials.
Baloyi said he would provide feedback on how many cases the unit was dealing with in June.
Each department would have to report to the Department of Public Service and Administration on exactly how many vacancies they had after reviewing their organisational structures, he said.
"The unit is meant to make sure that we deal with delays in the finalisation of cases of corruption or misconduct so that you don't have people suspended for a longer time," said Baloyi.
