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Batho Pele Campaign
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Speeches and Media Releases
 Premier's Office

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EASTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

Speech by Premier Makhenkesi Stofile

Batho Pele Campaign

26 June 1998



BATHO PELE: FORGING A NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT WITH OUR PEOPLE

(Salutations)

Today I am reminded again about a passage written by our President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela more than three decades ago: No Easy Walk To 
Freedom! Indeed.

Our quest for freedom, which began so long ago, still continues. We have won the battle for political freedom. No-one can question this. 
But the struggle for economic and social equality remains our most potent challenge. And to this goal we are totally committed.

It is this vision that must inform our understanding of the Batho Pele campaign. It is about putting people first - and this means 
literally that the needs of our people must take priority over any other consideration we as government officials must have - including our 
jobs.

For it must be remembered that the right to govern is a sacrosanct right. Indeed, it is more than a right - it is a privilege. And this 
privilege does not last forever. It is borrowed from the people who, after all, remain the true and only custodians of our democracy.

Batho Pele is about forging a new social contract with the people - a contract pledging our desire to bring government closer to the 
people. Batho Pele is a commitment to &#145;serving’, as opposed to simply ruling. It is about the needs of communities as opposed to the 
needs of government. It is about putting &#145;service’ first, and not about putting pay packets first. Batho Pele is a radical new social 
contract between government and the people.

1. A NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT:

Our vision is to see the frontiers of democracy expanding to include all our communities as citizens of the new nation. Citizenship is this 
new nation does not only mean the right to vote. It also means rights of access to education, to housing, to healthcare, and to material 
well-being in every facet of social and economic life. These rights are guaranteed in our Constitution. And they define the content of 
democratic citizenship in South Africa.

Batho Pele is about deepening the meaning of this concept of citizenship. We are not merely paying lipservice to the notion of citizenship. 
This is a luxury liberals indulge in - as they have no real interest in truly empowering people. But &#145;empowerment’ for us is the 
essence of democracy, the very reason we have so long been fighting for.

Batho Pele is a new social contract between elected leaders in government - Ministers & MEC’s - and our communities. It is also a new 
social contract between our civil servants and the people they are to serve.

And, like elsewhere, any contract has its rights and its obligations. The rights and expectations of the citizens and communities are about 
the highest possible standards of service our people should expect from government departments; whether this is in number of schools or 
clinics we build, the number of textbooks we provide, the land we settle people, the roads we build, the pensions we pay, and so on. It is 
about giving better value for money. It is about the most efficient ways of meeting basic needs. Its about treating people with dignity and 
respect. It is about being accountable; about being responsive; and it is about government from below.



2. BRINGING GOVERNMENT CLOSER TO THE PEOPLE:

For government to effectively play this role, we are moving away from the idea of top-down management. This is far different from the days 
of Nationalist Party rule when Pretoria ruled, and everything else simply followed in line. If we are to provide better services to the 
community, we need to empower the agencies through which delivery takes place.

For this reason, the decentralisation of decision making and implementation has become a

critical necessity. Of course, decentralisation is a process, not an event. And it has to be done in a responsible manner.

A decentralisation process should be managed in stages, each stage defining specific targets, time-frames and conditions which must be met 
before authority is decentralised. But the purpose should be clear: to significantly empower the frontline offices to be in a position to 
allocate resources more effectively and speedily.

For it is there, not in Bisho where they best understand the day to day needs of the public, where contact with the public is made, and 
where our people's perceptions about the meaning of democracy is made.

To empower the &#145;delivery frontline’ really means looking at the way we have been making decisions, at the regulations which govern 
decision making, and find ways to de-concentrate power from the centre.

Policy control will, and should, always remain co-ordinated at the centre. This will ensure a sense of strategic purpose and cohesion in 
what government does. This imperative is important if we are to promote transformation throughout government - both in its internal 
composition and the manner in which it serves communities. But there is no reason why implementation should be centralised.

My vision, as I have stated before, is a Bisho which operates as a kind of policy and strategic centre - a tight network of agencies whose 
basic function it is to facilitate operations taking place in our regions and districts. Through this, we plan to take government right 
down to the lowest level of public organisation. Here, I am talking about schools, clinics, rural extension offices, youth centres, etc. 
where citizens come face to face with government on a daily basis.

We must learn how to facilitate, instead of wanting to do everything ourselves. The role of our central offices in Bisho is to support the 
delivery processes taking place in the regions, districts and institutions of delivery. For this reason, head office must see its own role 
as internal service providers - providing support services for the frontline offices.

This means frontline managers and their staff should not be treated as if they are simply &#145;doers’ and subordinates. Head office 
managers and their staff must &#145;serve’ the needs of these offices, as they are the main engines of service delivery; without them, 
nothing will take place.

Indeed, we may have to re-examine the powers of regional and district offices in order to determine whether it might not be necessary to 
increase their level of authority as more powers and functions are devolved in future. In a future dispensation, it is possible for more 
senior appointments to be made in regions and districts, in the process drastically lowering the number and levels of senior ranks sitting 
in Bisho.

3. KNOWING WHO WE SERVE:

A new service orientation is a critical imperative if we are to get government to focus on the right things. Each department must clearly 
define it's service constituencies - who does it serve and the various types of service they provide.

Over time, each departments must have an electronic database of information, providing 'constituency profiles' (population size, age, socio-
economic levels, locations, etc) This

information is crucial for management of departments to study changing trends, for predicting new needs, and therefore is important for 
planning purposes.

What we are talking about is an outward-looking Government. We cannot look at ourselves, like a mirror, asking the question whether we are 
doing the right things. The answer to that question lies beyond our walls - in the streets, on the farms, the neighbourhoods, the clinics, 
the schools, and wherever our communities find themselves.

The principles of Batho Pele bear testimony to this vision:

* Consultation - the need for departments to consult communities about the level and quality of the services they receive and , wherever 
possible, to be given a choice about the service that are offered;

* Service standards - citizens must expect to be informed what level and quality of service they can expect to receive;

* Courtesy - every citizen must be treated with courtesy and consideration;

* Information - citizens can expect full, accurate information about the services they are entitled to receive;

* Openness and transparency - the public can expect to be told how public service departments are run, how much they cost, and who is in 
charge;

* Responsiveness - citizens can expect that, when the promised standard of service is not delivered, they will be offered an apology, a 
full explanation and a speedy and effective remedy, and that any complaint will produce a sympathetic, positive response.

These principles lie at the basis of the new social contract we must build with the people. And this contract bounds both politicians and 
public servants. These principles do not need legislation to be legitimate. They are already written into the Constitution. Our 
Constitution requires a public service which is efficient, effective and people-orientated.

We expect Departments in this Province to develop innovative and meaningful 'service

charters' , spelling out its vision, goals, principles and desired standards of delivery. We expect our Heads of Department to build these 
goals into the day to day work of the employees working at all levels of government. We expect these service charters to be displayed in 
offices and places where citizens come into contact with departments.

Batho Pele is a campaign which must be owned by every single person working in the Provincial Public Service. It is a campaign which must 
be actively promoted by stakeholders - including the unions.

4. BUILDING A NEW CORPORATE CULTURE:

It is only through the inclusion of all employees into this campaign that we can effectively ensure commitment to Batho Pele. For inclusion 
also means empowerment. But empowerment takes place in relation to our most important objective: serving the needs of the people.

This should focus on:

* Creating a 'Corporate Culture': everyone belonging to the same organisation, and committing themselves to fulfilling its objectives;
* instilling a strong work discipline and sense of self-responsibility;
* getting each civil servant to understand and be able to express the kind of service their organisation provides and the beneficiaries;
* greater visibility of the vision and mission of each department: in every government office, there should be visual displays (posters, 
charts, etc.) of the mission, service and service standard of a department.

It must be remembered that our country is going through its most difficult period - a transition to democracy. We are not yet there. 
Political power is one phase in this process. Our institutions of democratic rule are barely three years old, many still in the process of 
being established - as we speak.

The strength of our new institutions are only as strong as they enjoy the support and participation of the people for whom they have been 
created in the first place - including public servants. And institutions cannot exist without people. Institutions are nothing other than 
invisible systems, rules and procedures of decision-making. They do not exist in the abstract. They only exist in and through the actions 
of people.

For this reason, Batho Pele must first be inculcated in the minds and hearts of all our public servants. And I hope you will take this 
message through the corridors of the entire provincial administration. And to the public to whom we owe so much, and for whom so much more 
remains to be done.

Amandla Ngawethu! Batho Pele!

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