Managers to
stay away from the tenders
Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza has warned members of the
executive, mayors and senior managers in the province to stay away from being
involved in the tender processes.
Speaking on the last day of the provincial senior management
summit held in White River in Mbombela on
Friday [28 November 2014], Premier Mabuza said the involvement of the
politicians and senior management in the tender processes was killing the
efforts of sustaining the small business.
“These quotations for tenders are milking the government,
government’s resources end up not going in the right way. These resources are
meant to deal with the problem of unemployment and empowerment for small
business. Out of these tenders there is a lot of corruption, therefore for the
politicians to be involved in the quotations means that we are deliberately
killing the efforts of small business,” said Mabuza.
The Premier added that he had taken a decision that there
would be consequences for senior managers who delayed payment of the services
providers within 30 days after the service had been rendered to government.
He said for politicians to demand things to go their way
created friction between themselves and senior managers in government. He added
that the administrators however had a responsibility to educate the politicians
on administrative matters.
“The shortcoming on some of the politicians is that we are
not knowledgeable, we are just lay people who are on leadership positions
because we are voted by the people. There are some political leaders who refuse
to learn, some are lazy to think, they can only shout at the people below them
and become arrogant. As politicians, we must learn and create time to read, we
must be knowledgeable about our environment, and otherwise the institutions we
are leading are just leaderless.
“As for the administrators, they should not derive pleasure
if their political principals are blank on administrative matters, they should
help them understand because nobody was born knowing everything. They should
not rejoice on our shortcomings, whether that person is a fool, just humble
yourself before the fool, because that fool is there for a reason,” said
Mabuza.
He explained that the problem with the administrators was
that they spent a lot of time unpacking the problem and how better they
understood it whereas the politicians dealt with it politically. He said South Africa
“If we could be able to deal with this we can be able to
turn the corner. It has been said many times that as this government we are
lacking on the implementation front, this means there is no huge impact that we
are making,” said Mabuza.
Mabuza added that he had been intervening and mediating on
leadership matters between the members of the executive and their heads of the departments,
and between the mayors and their municipal managers on a number of occasions.
He had established that on many occasions the conflict was as a result of the
leaders who wanted to make things happen the way they wanted.
“There is no mercy for the leaders who are ignorant. It is a
reality that not all of us can be the leaders, however we have different
leadership responsibilities. As leaders we are required to develop an ability
to lead, plan and inspire those around us. We must have a positive attitude, as
this will always help us to focus on doing the right things,” said Mabuza.
As a way forward after a three-day summit, the Premier,
mayors and the heads of department subsequently signed a citizens’ charter thereby
committing
themselves that they would ensure the provision of services
to the public according to the highest possible standards.
They
committed themselves that they will uphold the rights of all residents in
accordance with the principles of transparency, integrity, honesty, fairness
and in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa
They undertook to do all in government’s power to ensure that the public service system
was responsive to the expectations, needs and aspirations of the residents.
They undertook to promote and enforce good governance and to ensure that the civil
servants always acted and behaved
in a manner that enhanced
the right of every resident to a better life.
