Day: February 22, 2023

Public Service Commission to host a roundtable on discipline management in the Public Service

In a quest to achieve good human resource management practices in the Public Service, the Public Service Commission (PSC) will host a Roundtable on Discipline Management on 23 February 2023. The roundtable is critical given the widespread concerns pertaining to poor management of precautionary suspensions and disciplinary processes in the Public Service.

The aim of the roundtable is to solicit inputs from stakeholders on mechanisms to improve discipline management, and to ensure effective and efficient performance in the Public Service. Similarly, the roundtable will provide an opportunity for various stakeholders to reflect on the discipline management challenges and propose possible measures that can be adopted in addressing these issues.

The Deputy Minister for Public Service and Administration, Dr Chana Pilane-Majake will deliver a keynote address.

Other participants at the event will include, amongst others, the PSC Chairperson, Prof Somadoda Fikeni, Labour Courts Judge President B Waglay, ,The Solicitor-General, Director-Generals, Heads of Departments and Senior Managers in the Public Service, representatives from the General Public Service Sector Bargaining Council, Organised Labour, Labour Relations and Legal.

A programme for the day is attached for information.

Source: Government of South Africa

Government spending on infrastructure is expected to reach some R903 billion over the next three years with state owned companies contributing the lion’s share to this investment.

This was announced by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana when he delivered the Budget Speech at the Cape Town City Hall on Wednesday.

The Minister said at least R448 billion of this will be spent by state owned companies and entities through public partnerships.

“Infrastructure investments lay the foundation for inclusive and sustainable growth; they address supply-side constraints; and expand access to basic services.

“Overall, the public sector is projected to spend R903 billion on infrastructure over the medium term. The largest portion of this, around R448 billion, will be spent by state owned companies, public entities and through public-private partnerships,” he said.

The Minister said spending will mainly be focused on strategic projects in transport and logistics at some RR351.1 billion and water and sanitation coming in at R132.5 billion.

Some projects that are already in the pipeline include:

The 488 bed Limpopo Central Hospital which is expected to begin construction in March.

Phase 2 of the Welisizwe Rural Bridges Programme will break ground in April.

The repair of aspects of the Riverton Water Supply Scheme.

Construction of enabling bulk infrastructure, such as roads and water components for the Lufhereng Mixed-Use Development in Gauteng, begins in June 2023.

“Our focus is not only on building new infrastructure, but also on maintaining existing infrastructure. We do this to ensure that it lasts long and performs to the required standard,” he said.

The Minister added that simultaneously, government is “looking at initiatives to leverage private sector resources in public infrastructure delivery” in order to “strengthen state capacity to expand infrastructure delivery and to catalyse private finance”.

These initiatives include:

Funding the development of a continuous, investible and transparent pipeline of projects and programmes.

Fast tracking the implementation of the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) regulatory review framework recommendations.

Pilot the implementation of conditional grant pledging that we enabled during the MTBPS. Its aim is to ensure the rollout of infrastructure is not constrained by the availability of funds in a particular year, if there is capacity to deliver more.

Godongwana emphasised that the interventions to support growth are “critical to the health and sustainability of the economy”.

“The interventions … need to be complemented by a policy environment that promotes the performance of productive sectors in an integrated way. This will require difficult but necessary trade-offs to ensure that the appropriate support is properly targeted at the correct products and value chains,” he said.

Source: South African Government News Agency

NATO’s chief said Wednesday that the military alliance has seen “some signs” that China may be planning to support Russia in its war in Ukraine, and he strongly urged Beijing to desist from what would be a violation of international law.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also told The Associated Press in an interview that the alliance, while not a party to the war, will support Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”

Asked whether NATO has any indication that China might be ready to provide arms or other support to Russia’s war, Stoltenberg said:

“We have seen some signs that they may be planning for that and of course NATO allies, the United States, have been warning against it because this is something that should not happen. China should not support Russia’s illegal war.”

Stoltenberg said potential Chinese assistance would amount to providing “[direct] support to a blatant violation of international law, and of course [as] a member of the U.N. Security Council, China should not in any way support violation of the U.N. Charter, or international law.”

Putin hosts Chinese visitor

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, Wang Yi, raising concern in the West that Beijing might be ready to offer Moscow stronger support in the almost year-old war.

China has pointedly refused to criticize the invasion of Ukraine while echoing Moscow’s claim that the U.S. and NATO were to blame for provoking the Kremlin. China, Russia and South Africa are holding naval drills in the Indian Ocean this week.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said any Chinese involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort would be a “serious problem.” Ties between China and the U.S. are under severe strain over Taiwan and other issues.

Stoltenberg spoke to The Associated Press in Warsaw, following a meeting of NATO’s nine eastern flank members with U.S. President Joe Biden on the region’s security.

He stressed that while NATO “is no party” to the Ukraine conflict, its tasks are to “ensure that Ukraine prevails” and to “prevent this war from escalating beyond Ukraine and becoming a full-fledged war between Russia and NATO.”

He said the main message from the meeting in Warsaw was that “we will provide support to Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

It would be a “tragedy for the Ukrainians if President Putin wins in Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said, and also “dangerous for all of us” because it would “send the message to all authoritarian leaders that when they use military force, they get what they want.”

The Russian attack on Ukraine has prompted Sweden and neighboring Finland to abandondecades of nonalignment and apply to join the 30-nation alliance. But their bids, particularly Sweden’s, are being delayed by Turkey, which wants the two countries to crack down on mostly Kurdish groups Ankara regards as terrorists.

Stoltenberg told the AP that following talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week he could see Turkey “is moving closer to being ready to ratify and [to] welcome Finland into the alliance. But [Ankara continues] to have some challenges with Sweden.”

He said he welcomed the fact that he and Erdogan agreed to a meeting soon “of experts and officials in Brussels” from the three countries involved “to look into how we can make progress also on the ratification of Sweden as a full NATO ally.”

Source: Voice of America