Mahikeng – The North West MEC for Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Manketsi Tlhape, has committed to fast tracking the upliftment of women employees within the department by up-skilling them and ensuring equity.
“It’s a serious concern that in the senior management structure, we have only a few women managers and that most of the cleaners in the department remain older women.
“We need to transform and give women preference to become drivers of our programmes. General cleaners… must be up-skilled and given lighter positions such as registry or admin positions, which do not require specialist skill. Our Human Resource unit must fast track and implement that as soon as possible,” said Tlhape while addressing over 300 employees in her department.
Tlhape said the employees were a crucial part of ensuring the proper functioning of a service delivery machine.
“We are at the driving seat of the development and we are the face of government services, and for that we cannot afford to fail. We need to have an improved usage of money as well as better accountability and control systems in place, a situation that will translate into better provision of services.
“In the same breath, it’s also critical that challenges and concerns raised by ordinary employees, such as backlog of appraisals and wellness programme, be addressed as soon as possible. We can’t expect to have good performance from an unhappy and sick workforce,” she said.
Since assuming her position in June, Tlhape has met members of North West House of Traditional Leaders and further visited and met with members of Ruth Segomotsi Mompati and Ngaka Modiri Molema Local Houses of Traditional Leadership.
“Traditional leaders have a huge role to play as they remain the key pillars of development and services to our communities. A harmonious relationship between municipalities and traditional authorities is vital in ensuring this, as we are operating within their territories and we need their support going forward” she said.
She urged all employees to, in the few remaining months of the current government administration, work towards getting municipalities to function better and to fast track services to communities, work together with all traditional leaders in creating viable institutions of traditional leaders and deal with all challenges that might arise.
Tlhape, the first female MEC to lead Local Government and Traditional Affairs Department, said she was aware of the challenges ahead but was looking forward to taking the department to greater heights. – SAnews.gov.za
