The (not) super DG as Presidency broadens reach across civil service

No change in law was required for this change in how governance happens, as the Presidency does its own delegations — that’s bureaucracy speak for determining in-house work methods — it emerged in Tuesday’s public service and administration briefing.

“It’s wrong to say super DG… The Presidency DG is chairing Fosad (Forum of South African Directors-General)… is already coordinating DGs,” said acting Public Service and Administration Minister Thulas Nxesi.

In response to questions, Nxesi’s Director-General, Yoliswa Makhasi, later added: “There is nothing stopping the President from delegating the responsibilities to the DG in the Presidency. It’s the work that the DG is doing in any case… We don’t see this as a super DG.”

And while Cabinet on 19 October agreed to change the Presidency DG’s official job description to HOPA, or Head of Public Administration, that expanded role had been on the cards since at least mid-2021, when official mention arose in the Presidency Budget Vote parliamentary debate.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Ramaphosa talks governance restructuring — putting the Presidency at the centre of a capable, ethical, developmental state”

Invoking the Constitution, President Cyril Ramaphosa then said, “It is our firm conviction and intention that the Presidency must become the heartbeat of a capable and developmental state.”

Also speaking in that debate, the then acting minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, added that steps were taken for the Presidency DG to head the public administration to “strengthen coordination at a national level”.

At the June 2021 briefing after Ramaphosa’s reply to the parliamentary debate, Presidency DG Phindile Baleni was introduced as “DG of the Republic”.

Reorganising government has been a focus of Ramaphosa’s administration right from the start, when, in his first State of the Nation Address on 16 February 2018, he pledged to “review the configuration, number and size of national government departments”.

Today, key governance matters are located in the Presidency, including the State Security Agency, the State-Owned Enterprises Council, climate change financing, cutting red tape, investment, presidential employment stimulus and Operation Vulindlela, the joint initiative with National Treasury to accelerate structural reforms across portfolios.

Much is made of Section 85(1) of the Constitution: “The executive authority of the Republic is vested in the President.” Not so much is made of Section 85(2), which states that the President exercises this executive authority “together with the other members of Cabinet…”

Or Section 92 of the Constitution that says Cabinet members, which includes the president, are “accountable collectively and individually to Parliament for the exercise of their powers…”

A super Presidency would require a super DG — officially the HOPA, or Head of Public Administration.

That the Presidency and its director-general already have a central say in, for example, disputes between ministers and their heads of departments, is on public record. 

It was Ramaphosa who, in April 2018, transferred spy boss Arthur Fraser to Correctional Services after he courted public controversy by withdrawing the then intelligence inspector-general, effectively stopping the oversight entity

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Arthur Fraser, the Spy Boss who went Out Into the Cold”.

The role of the president in firing those whose appointments he signed off on was upheld by the Constitutional Court as far back as October 2007, when sacked intelligence boss Billy Masethla lost his bid to get his job back.

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On Tuesday, Public Service and Administration maintained it made sense to put the Presidency DG, as HOPA, in charge of the public service; in the provinces, the DG in the respective offices of the premiers.

The focus would be on the career development of DGs, mediating potential conflicts between directors-general and heads of department with their political principals, be these ministers or MECs, and generally improving the capacity of the state to deliver.

Alongside this initiative, consideration would be given to extend DGs and heads of departments’ tenures from the usual five-year contract to a 10-year term. That would be done by regulation rather than legislative changes, it emerged on Tuesday.

The Public Service and Administration DG said the proposed changes were all possible under the existing Public Service Act, and the Presidency’s own delegations that could arise from presidential minutes or via the Minister in the Presidency.

Those Presidency delegations could be tracked by her office as part of the overall public service monitoring systems, Makhasi told Daily Maverick, speaking on the sidelines of the briefing.

Questions on whether amendments to the Public Finance Management Act, which sets out that DGs are the accounting officers of departments, were referred to the National Treasury. It’s on public record that a review of that law is under way.

However, also under way are changes to the Public Administration Management Act and the Public Service Act, which would remove administrative powers from ministers. This is currently under discussion in the National Economic Development and Labour Council.

That process should be done, and the amendment draft laws approved by Cabinet for submission to Parliament, by the end of the financial year on 31 March 2023.

Tuesday’s emphasis was on making the public service work better for people living in South Africa, and to ensure a professional and efficient public service. 

If the proposals of the new public administration framework — including recruitment, induction and performance management — were implemented, questions about cadre deployment would not arise.

Under the framework that’s been in the making for some two years, the Public Service Commission mandate would also be expanded. 

The fragmentation across the state would have to be addressed, according to Commissioner Somadoda Fikeni, who described this as “a game-changer, if well implemented”.

The inclusion of public administration as a chapter in the State Capture commission implementation plan Ramaphosa submitted to Parliament on Saturday at least signals an intention to improve things.

That includes making it explicit that a minister’s “verbal directive that has not been reduced to writing should be regarded by officials as having no force or effect”, according to the implementation plan of State Capture commission recommendations. DM