Minister for the Public Service and Administration Speech to the Second African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Consultative Conference, Kliptown, 4 May 2006

Greetings to our Chairperson this morning;
Premier Shilowa;
Members of the Executive;
Premiers and Acting Premiers;
Members of Executive Council;
Members of Parliament;
Councillors;
Governing Council members;
Distinguished guests; and
People of Kliptown

As Chairperson of the African Peer Review Mechanism Governing Council, and Focal point for the APRM South Africa Country Review, I am pleased that we are hosting the second African Peer Review Mechanism National Consultative Conference here at the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication in Kliptown, Soweto.

We know this place as Freedom Square, the place where representatives of democracy loving South Africa signed the Freedom Charter, in 1955. This is another milestone in our country's journey, as we participate in the development of South Africa into a country where all of us, rich or poor, regardless of our race, are able to develop our full potential.

The overarching goal of the APRM is for all participating countries to accelerate their progress towards adopting and implementing the priorities and programmes of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) by achieving mutually agreed objectives and compliance with best practice in governance and development.

The NEPAD Guidelines for this process note that this can only be achieved through the sustained efforts of the country itself, involving all stakeholders. Each country needs to develop a programme of action with clear deadlines for each objective linked to national budgets to guide stakeholders in the actions required by everyone, government, private sector and civil society, to achieve the country's vision.

The Guidelines also note that countries have different contexts and their rate of progress will depend on the level of commitment and political will among stakeholders. A key part of the Mechanism is the sharing of information, best practices that lead to improved budgeting, financial management, increased access to social services and a better fight against corruption. It is also important to remember that this is not about reopening policy debates, but rather about charting a way forward.

We have chosen this historic place to meet because we believe that it is the natural place for representatives from all sectors of South Africa to meet to discuss the development of our Country Self Assessment Report.

The Country Self Assessment Report is a document produced as a result of a consultative process where South Africans were asked to respond to the APRM Questionnaire. The questionnaire asks questions which help assess how we measure up in terms of:

* Democracy and Good Political Governance;
* Economic Governance and Management;
* Corporate Governance; and
* Socio Economic Development.

We have come a long way since last September, when we first met to decide the way forward for this process called the African Peer Review Mechanism. We have sent out many questionnaires, and received even more responses back. Our mobilisation team went out to solicit submissions so that these could become part of the document base the Country Self Assessment Report.

Answers to the questionnaire, which came in the form of submissions, were collated into Technical Assessment Reports. From these reports we will draw up a Programme of Action, reflecting the suggestions made in submissions, and from the issues and challenges identified by people in the submissions. In the long term the Programme of Action will become a guiding document for government and corporate policy.

Mobilising to request submissions was a huge task, so we called in the assistance of the Community Development Workers (CDW), in order to be sure to get the voice of all the people. They held workshops in communities all over the country, and as a result, generated boxes and boxes of completed questionnaires which we have collected, and which will be analysed and their results factored into the final Country Self Assessment Report. Many of these CDW reports were also incorporated into Provincial Reports.

We received submissions from the children's sector, the Youth and the Disabled, Women's groups, labour organisations, business, religious organisations, and many non-governmental organisations and research institutions, as well as Chapter 9 organisations.

There is not a sector of society who has not responded in some way.

Parliament itself held a very comprehensive and powerful set of consultations last year, and provided us with a very useful and positive set of submissions. We have received an input from a representative of Parliament this morning on their process.

Once the submissions started coming in, we realised we needed the help of people from the research community in our country. One of the benefits of a society which has been so analysed and studied over the last ten years, is that we have a very rich and varied research and academic community. We have a set of research partners who have assisted us with very thoughtful and carefully constructed submissions, which all asked for research partner status, and were granted it by the National Governing Council. From this research group, we selected four Technical Support Agencies (TSAs) which were each given the responsibility of collating and structuring the submissions for one particular theme of the APRM questionnaire.

These Technical Support Agencies are:

* For democracy and good political governance, The Institute for a democratic Alternative in South Africa.
* For economic governance and management, the South African Institute of International Affairs.
* For corporate governance, The African Institute for Corporate Citizenship,
* And for socio economic development, the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation.

The Technical Support Agencies collated all the submissions we received into the Technical Reports by analysing the submissions against the APRM questionnaire to see where there was consensus, where there were differences, what were burning issues, and to see where we are doing things right.

They produced Technical Reports, which were presented and discussed at a very successful series of thematic seminars held at the Indaba Hotel in early April, to which representatives from all sectors, the National Governing Council, and experts from areas of concern for each Theme were invited.

As we speak we continue to receive submissions from people and organisations, long after the deadline for the submissions.

Our timelines have been very tight, and the Technical Support Agencies must be thanked for the work they have done under extreme pressure.

These submissions will still be collated into the final draft report, along with the information generated by the analysis of the CDW questionnaires. We have also had concerns from the gender equity sector, and so we will be commissioning additional research to ensure we have not under represented gender issues.

The reason for having the seminars was to ensure that the Technical Reports accurately reflect the contents of the submissions collated, and to be sure that we also added anything which may have been left out from the submissions themselves. In practice it was a sort of collective gap analysis.

The TSAs took the notes from the seminars and updated the summaries they had made for the seminars, to include issues raised at the seminars. The seminars were also tape-recorded and transcribed. These transcriptions were turned into checklists by our research team, who checked the summaries of the TSAs against these lists. The TSAs then made changes and additions where necessary, to accurately reflect the content brought out by the seminars. These summarised reports were then collated and finalised into the draft Country Self Assessment Report we are discussing at the Conference today.

The ultimate tool that will come out of the APRM process is the Programme of Action. The submissions, issues, challenges and suggestions they contain, are the base documents which provide us with the Programme of Action. The same process of summarising, analysing and collation, which has resulted in our Draft Country Self Assessment Report, has also produced our Draft Programme of Action.

All these preparations give you, our conference delegates, an opportunity consider all these issues and the programme, and check them for gaps, suggest additions, and start thinking about the ways we can implement the Programme of Action. As with the seminars, government officials, community representatives, provincial officials and representatives from all sectors and interest groups, including the research and non-governmental organisation (NGO) sector are here today.

Once we have completed our consultations here at this conference, we have to add to the draft report the issues or challenges raised, so that the consultation process is continuous throughout the development of the final Country Self Assessment Report.

This process has not all been plain sailing. We have had to ensure we continuously assess how well we are doing in our consultations, making sure that the process is as open and transparent as possible, so that the report we come out with at the end is a useful tool which we can all use to help develop South Africa into the country it should be, for all its people. This week we have had to amend the first drafts of the report, which has been enriched by direct participation by members of the Governing Council. This has improved the report and deepened our commitments to its contents and suggestions.

The self-assessment process has revealed much for us all to be proud of. This is not just about what we in Government have achieved but what we as a country have managed to do in an incredibly short space of time, coming as we have from a very dark past.

In terms of democracy and good political governance we have an impressive human rights framework that is the envy of many in the world, our commitment to a multiparty democratic system and the rule of law is uncontested and the strength and ability of our judiciary is a national source of pride. Out work to create a framework that protects vulnerable people will also produce long-term results that we can be pleased with.

In economic governance we have also much to be proud of, while recognising our challenges. Macro economic stability, a clear economic path and good management are all major achievements and we can look forward to long term improvements in these areas as well, knowing they will benefit the poorest and most vulnerable members of our communities.

Our ongoing and highly successful work to improve corporate governance is amongst the most dynamic and effective in the world. While we have much to do to further address and incorporate the needs of all stakeholders, our plans to revise company laws will do much to improve competitiveness and to bridge the gaps between our economic sectors.

Socio-economic development is a major challenge to all South Africans, especially those worst affected by poverty. I am proud of what we as a nation have achieved. I believe we have made a magnificent start in combating poverty and while we still have far to go, the turn-around has started and will accelerate in years to come.

The goal of the APRM, for all of Africa, is to help Africans help themselves. We are showing ourselves, and the world, we are not those whose mindset assumes that we need external assistance in order to grow. The APRM helps us measure how we are doing, against an African agenda. We are here today because we, as Africans, are doing it for ourselves.

Africa has a history of underdevelopment and exploitation stretching back five hundred years, from the times of the slave trade, which we are now changing. The APRM process is one of the tools Africans have devised to help themselves do this.

Africa is a rich, diverse, gifted, continent, full of wonderful opportunity, and an amazing diversity of courageous and powerful people. It is where human beings first walked the earth. It is where we are building a future that will give our children a place to be proud to say "I am an African"

Issued by: Ministry of Public Service and Administration
4 May 2006