Managers to stay away from the tenders

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 needed to shift from understanding the problem to dealing with it.  

“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 and the law.

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.