The National Assembly considered and adopted the Public Service Commission Bill this week, which will now be referred to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence. This Bill is a welcome development towards an efficient, independent, professional public service and an important step against cadre deployment.
President Cyril Ramaphosa made several pronouncements on building a capable and ethical state during his State of the Nation Address. He recommitted this as a key priority of the seventh administration. Since the Government of National Unity committed to building a capable, ethical and developmental state, several interventions have been introduced, including amendments to the Public Service Act, the Municipal Systems Act, the Public Administration Management Act, and now the Public Service Commission Bill.
Why the PSC Bill is crucial
The Public Service Commission (PSC) is a Chapter 10 institution meant to function independently and impartially in overseeing public administration to ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability. However, between 2009 and 2018 – infamously known as “the nine wasted years” – its independence was severely eroded. Brought under executive control in the Department of Public Service and Administration, the PSC was weakened, and its investigative and oversight powers were undermined by cadre deployment and a lack of enforcement, severely damaging its credibility.
The PSC was always intended to report to Parliament. The misalignment of its purpose owing to increased political influence and attempts to control its budget and operations weakened its autonomy to the point where it was effectively captured.
The impact of this was clear.
Following a PSC briefing to the then committee in 2021, the Democratic Alliance reported that in the 2019/2020 financial year, national and provincial government departments had ignored 85% of the PSC’s recommendations issued following investigations, mainly into complaints of financial misconduct. Only 86 of 550 recommendations were ever acted upon. This also meant that many of those implicated would walk away without any consequences. Most of these recommendations were related to integrity and anti-corruption matters.
In April 2024, the PSC tabled in Parliament a report on the qualifications of senior managers in the public service. The report revealed that despite the clearly articulated requirements for appointment into Senior Management Service (SMS) positions – outlined in the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) 2015 Directive on Compulsory Capacity Development, Mandatory Training and Minimum Requirements, as well as the Public Service Regulation, 2016 – there were still SMS members appointed without meeting the minimum requirements.
To address these challenges, the government approved the National Framework Towards Professionalising of the Public Sector, and we must rally towards a rapid implementation of this framework to build a developmental state that will develop the country’s economy, create jobs and improve people’s living conditions. A critical part of this involves professionalising the public sector, eliminating cadre deployment and shielding state institutions from political interference to restore competence and public trust.
With the approval of the national framework, we can work towards correcting these past actions and ensure merit-based appointments and improved performance management systems. In line with this, competency assessments and integrity tests are now applied across the public sector. While these interventions are crucial, their success depends on structural reforms, which the PSC Bill seeks to implement.
Other key pieces of legislation have also been amended to support this, including amending the Public Service Act to provide for devolving powers of human resources from the executive to the accounting officers, granting the directors-general full responsibility for departmental management. Meanwhile, the executive authority retains the power to provide strategic direction for departments. Additionally, the PSC has developed a database of a pool of technical experts that executive authorities must use during the recruitment and selection processes of the directors-general and the deputy directors-general in the public sector.
All these interventions, along with the new PSC Bill, aim to build a competent public service underpinned by professionalism.
A PSC Bill with more ‘teeth’
Having lapsed at the end of the sixth Parliament, the seventh Parliament has revived the PSC Bill, which seeks to repeal the existing Public Service Commission Act.
The National Development Plan (NDP) highlights the importance of strengthening the role of the PSC in fulfilling its constitutional mandate and in playing both an advisory and oversight role in public administration. Strengthening the PSC would enhance its independence, enabling it to assist legislatures in holding the government accountable for human resource management practices, particularly in ensuring merit-based appointments.
The NDP further proposes that the “PSC should play a direct role in the recruitment of the most senior positions”. It suggests that the PSC chairperson and the proposed administrative head of the public service should convene selection panels to appoint department heads and their deputies.
This is what the Bill intends to do – strengthening the role of the PSC in appointments and making the commission more independent and impartial. It also extends the commission’s powers to local government and public entities and will provide more legislative teeth to government efforts to professionalise the public service. This is important in light of the President’s statements stressing that “only a capable, efficient, ethical, and development-oriented state can deliver on the commitment to improve the lives of the people of this country” and to do this, “the public sector must be staffed by men and women who are professional, skilled, selfless, and honest”.
The way forward
As historically a part of the Department of Public Service and Administration, the PSC was hamstrung in fulfilling its constitutionally mandated function of being an independent oversight body that looks after personnel and staffing issues in the public service without fear, favour or prejudice.
For a long time, the PSC has had to rely on the national government to ensure adequate staffing and budget. This has affected the functioning and perception of the PSC’s independence. Now, the Bill introduces a secretariat as a separate staffing mechanism for the PSC, divorced from the national government, to strengthen the entity’s independence.
Our priority in the seventh Parliament is to continuously oversee these interventions – including this Bill – to build a professional, merit-based and ethical public service and monitor if the interventions, including the National Framework, are being fully implemented across the public sector. In doing this, we must ensure that the commission is adequately funded to fulfil this extended mandate. DM