Teach our civil servants well

29 October 2014 - 02:01 By Penwell Dlamini
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File photo.
File photo.
Image: Gallo Images/Thinkstock

Three to five years - that's when South Africans will see the impact of the National School of Government.

This is according to the principal of the school, Professor Lekoa Mollo.

Performance of public service has always been a thorny issue for the government as taxpayers believe they do not get value for money when they visit police stations, hospitals and schools.

But the government spends nearly 40% of its budget on the salaries of public servants.

Mollo said changing the attitude of public servants would take a longer time but the school would try to make an impact.

With just R200-million, the school trained 33000 people in the financial year ended March. This included the training of public servants, unemployed graduates and even members of parliament and provincial legislatures.

Mollo said to change the direction of the public service, it will target 20000 new recruits through its induction programmes.

Those who are already in the system will have to undergo "re-orientation" programmes.

Training at the school is done by former public servants, experts and academics.

"You can go to any university in the country, whatever qualification you get does not make you a public servant. What we want to inculcate are the values of ubuntu, teaching every public servant what attitude they should have when they serve others," Mollo said.

It has forged ties with the Universities of Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand.

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