Those of you who will remember a few years ago, Minister Fraser Moleketi assigned us to be part of the commission of enquiry into the Western Cape provincial administration. Amongst others, they found an administration where fear was an integral part of the character of this institution. Everything was largely centralized with top down processes. Now, a few years later, there have been some significant changes. Today we can celebrate achievements such as this, where processes are transparent and consolidated and not fragmented as in the past.
We today find ourselves in good position where we are even able to put together a manual that can consolidate issues of great importance. More importantly to mention, the demographics of Government have changed significantly and equitably. Last week in our cabinet meeting we had the statistics about where we are on our overall demographic equity stats with regard to the provincial demographics and I can tell you immediately from the time we first came, there have been significant changes. More importantly, I believe that increasingly it is a joy to work for the Provincial Government of the Western Cape.
The fact that we have come to launch this manual today, indicates that we are making enormous transitions and that we now have other challenges that we are facing. This manual contains almost all the governing laws and principles regarding Heads of Departments, including delegations, appointments and dismissals, performance agreements as well as evaluations.
We all know what the score is even before we play the game. It is not designed to instill fear, as was the case before. This manual is designed to free people so that we all know what the basic parameters are to function optimally. That is a significant difference because defined parameters make room for maneuver. What we are doing is that we are describing the lines for maneuver for Heads of Departments. This is the scope of creativity we are speaking to.
In the first few years of the PFMA, there was a great tendency for risk aversion. It was a mechanism to be feared with a tendency to lean towards caution rather than sometimes creativity because you do not want to break the rules that are contained within the PFMA. This manual allows for a shift from managerealism to leadership. That is a very critical transition because managerealism relies on mere compliance. Managerealism tends to lean towards caution, how not to break the rules. Managerealism is often disciplinary oriented, and managerealism often installs conformism.
I think that the shift from managerialism to leadership is one where in exercising leadership you ensure accountability. And within that accountability, there is compliance with basic rules. So it is not disrespect for compliance, but it paces compliance within the broader ambit of accountability. It harnesses creativity, it frees you from the fear of mistakes to something adventurous within accountability. It unleashes innovation, the ability to try new things because you know how you get appointed, what your performance agreement is, how you can be dismissed etc.
It uses communication as a key, as a opposed to discipline. It does not fear talent and the sometimes eccentricity that comes with talent. So I think, what this manual says, is that these are the matters that govern our career incidences. Now go about using your talents to make a difference, to give leadership, to be followed. It says amongst others, go after the objectives, the vision that inserts, the vision of a Home for All, where social cohesion is increasingly both in the Western Cape, but also, the objectives of Ikapa Elihlumayo, our Provincial Growth and Development Strategy. See how best you can get us to those destinations. But also, in the visual strategies like human capital, social capital, strategic infrastructure plan, the provincial special development perspective etc.
So, it describes not the limits of your work and your abilities, but the scope of your work and your abilities. So we add this to the overall body of work in the country in order to make sure that increasingly, leadership is not only vested at a political level but at the level of administrative and management leadership within the country.
So, for all of you who have done the work, thank you very much. I am hoping that, this is going to be a manual that does the kind of things that I have described. So, thank you very much.
