Governance expert, Dr Tim Maake says the problem in the country’s public service started when skills and experience were ignored in favour of patronage.
South Africa is celebrating Public Service Month in September.
Although its citizens rightly expect quality public services, too often they are disappointed at the services they get from different government entities.
They complain of poor services and often bad behaviour from some public servants.
Dr Maake says some of the employees don’t have the necessary skills to do their jobs.
“When we were embarking on the recruitment and selection process, we did not match the skills with the inherent requirements of the job and that’s where we went wrong. You will find a situation where a person has been appointed into a position, where he does not have the required skills.”
Maake adds, “And those are the kind of situations that have led to some public servants to become demoralized, because they feel that they have to develop themselves to a point where they are equal to the task, but now it has become very easy for people to join the public service even when they do not have the inherent requirements of the job. Instead of matching the person to the requirements we turn to match the requirements to fix the person.”
Launch of Integrated Public Service Month aimed at promoting culture of better service delivery:
