A formidable public-private partnership today launched an ambitious set of programmes to reduce South Africa's service delivery backlog by injecting skilled graduates and high-level training initiatives directly into local government.
Known as the Municipal Skills Development Programme, the initiative will help local governments to use technology more effectively and efficiently.
It is driven jointly by Microsoft South Africa, the SA Local Government Association (SALGA), the Local Government Sector Education Training Authority (LG SETA) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). It will be piloted by the partners in the Eastern and Western Cape during April, and launched nationally at the SALGA conference in the Northern Cape.
Xolile George, the CEO of SALGA, said unemployed information technology graduates would be seeded into key government departments as employees and senior managers.
“Cornerstones of the programme are the creation of efficient systems, the provision of more skilled people, the promotion of good governance and the driving of effective communication in local government,” he said.
South Africa's so-called third tier of government - local or municipal nodes - was core to addressing the country's social and economic challenges.
“This programme will be key for the government to deliver on its key priorities - skills and jobs, health, education, rural development, and reducing crime and corruption,” said George.
Treasury's answer to South Africa's job crisis is to allocate the lion's share of this fiscal's national budget to education and skills training, with a drive toward more public and private partnered investment. R55 billion of these funds have been allocated to municipalities - to improve service delivery and financial management.
The Municipal Skills Development Programme has been set up to address the challenges facing local government in the following ways:
* Student-to-government (S2G): Training of unemployed and retrenched graduates with the IT skills required to support local government. It is built on Microsoft's highly successful Student-to-business (S2B) programme that has been implemented in collaboration with its partner ecosystem together with the ISETT SETA.
* Employee training: Local government staff will benefit from training and from the support staff trained under the Municipal Skills Development Programme model. This level of training will be conducted by various Microsoft Certified Training Partners and DBSA-approved trainers.
* Support for senior officials: There is a need for a deeper understanding of how IT can support service delivery. So we are inviting senior municipal managers to a seminar series around international models and best practices of implementing technology solutions to improve service delivery to SA's citizens.
According to Mteto Nyati, the MD of Microsoft South Africa, this programme will help dispel the myth that working for the government is neither challenging nor rewarding.
“Over the next few years, we will be helping the government to use technology to enhance service delivery. We'll do this by placing top graduates in local municipalities, training municipal employees and providing specialised seminars for municipal managers,” said Nyati.
“Improving the skills levels of our sector has long been a pressing issue that needed attention,” said Sidwell Mofokeng, the CEO of the LG Seta. “Many South African municipalities have the right technology, but don't know how to use it. The placement of clued-up IT graduates will ensure the upkeep of current computer systems and correct upgrades when needed, while at the same time helping staff to utilise the equipment to full capacity.”
The DBSA, as specialist large infrastructure funder for government expansion, has a unit dedicated to supporting local government development.
“The demands of the information-based global economy mean that governments today require an advanced set of administrative tools,” said DBSA CEO, Paul Baloyi. “In our quest to help build capacity in local government, we're seeing great value in bringing the private sector into this programme.”
Based on the successes and lessons learned from this phase, a further two phases will be planned and implemented during the 2010 - 2011 and 2011 - 2012 financial years.
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