PRETORIA, April 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged government’s Directors General (DGs) and Deputy Directors Generals to take tangible actions to deliver on their mandates more effectively.
The President held a meeting with the senior government officials on Friday in Pretoria to discuss the continued and accelerated implementation of government’s key priority areas.
“It is urgent that we narrow the gulf between priority setting and effective execution. And in doing so our focus must not be on setting unrealistic goals that cannot possibly be achieved in less than a year, but on a few tangible actions that can move the needle, and meaningfully so.
“The time for half-measures and heel dragging is over. It is time for decisive actions that will lift this country above the many crises we have faced over the course of this administration. It is time for high-impact, measurable interventions that will make an actual difference,” Ramaphosa said.
In a statement, the Presidency said the meeting with the government leaders “covered a wide range of issues that are currently undermining the effectiveness of government”.
“President Ramaphosa expressed concern at the targets that are being missed and implementation failures that continue to cause a credibility deficit for the government.
“The rise of adverse audit outcomes and the failure to arrest them with urgency was identified as leadership weakness that undercuts the progress that government is making in rebuilding the upper ranks of the Public Service. The meeting further reflected on processes of filling vacancies that are moving at a snail’s pace in many departments, causing inefficiencies and complete paralysis,” the statement read.
Moving forward, the Presidency said, clusters will be expected to provide detail on how they will be addressing outstanding actions.
“The Department of Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation will provide data sets to assist clusters evaluate progress in implementing the MTSF 2019 to 2024, as well as all State of the Nation commitments since 2019.
“Importantly, the President further directed that public communication must be strengthened for increased public accountability,” the statement said. — NNN-SANEWS
