26 June 2025
The African National Congress welcomes the 2025 Budget Proposal as a decisive intervention that prioritises job creation, economic growth, and service delivery while protecting our democracy’s hard-earned accomplishments. This budget is more than just numbers and allocations; it is about our people’s lived realities, rectifying historical injustices, and ensuring that economic change remains at the forefront of governance. It underscores the ANC’s steadfast commitment to eradicating poverty, reducing inequality, and creating a better life for everyone, as outlined in the ANC Manifesto and the January 8th Statement.
The South African public service has been experiencing substantial restructuring over the past years. Following the abolition of apartheid’s public service in 1994, the new government sought to establish a democratic, inclusive, and responsive public service. This political transition was also accompanied by a systematic transformation of all institutions, agencies, and organs of state. Forming the bedrock of this transformation was a competent public service.
The restructuring of public services became related to nation-building. The new government’s agenda of reconstructing and developing a democratic state depended on the willingness, capability, and patriotism of the public service. At the mainstay of public service is the principle of Batho-Pele, which enforces the government to be responsive towards people’s needs and put citizens at the centre of their development. Although in relative terms the budget for the Public Service Commission has increased but in nominal terms, we saw a decrease of about 0,4%. The work of this Commission is immense when it comes to the inculcation of good moral practices of public servants.
In its 55th national congress, the ANC had resolved that “South Africa’s public service is being reformed, to put an end to corruption, state capture, and low productivity and performance. This next-generation public service must have a significant social impact while also exhibiting world-class operational efficiency and effectiveness. We need a public service that helps South Africa solve its challenges and promotes progress towards a better future for all”.
From its inception in 1912 at the first congress of the then-South African Native National Congress, which was renamed the African National Congress in 1923, until the first democratic election in April 1994. The African National Congress has struggled against many forms of injustice placed on South Africa’s black populace by successive white minority governments. Public service was not immune to these segregation and inhumane ideas. The White Paper on the Transformation of Public Administration underscores these atrocities.
“On its accession to power, the Government of National Unity inherited a society marked by deep social and economic inequalities, as well as by serious racial, political, and social divisions. Guided by the principle of national reconciliation, the new South African Government adopted the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) to reorient and reunite society towards a common purpose, that of a socially coherent and economically equitable society”.
Lest we forget the contribution of the ANC-led government to the creation of the South African Constitution established a group of institutions known as “state institutions supporting democracy, they are created under Chapter 9 of the Constitution. These institutions exist alongside the traditional three pillars of government. They were created to serve the people without any form of discrimination, as envisaged by the Freedom Charter, the bulwark of ANC policy orientation.
Honourable Members, our history has no blank pages, it is rooted in the strive to develop a Public service that is responsive and people-centred development. In that government, civil society plays a crucial role in democratic governance, providing opportunities for public engagement, lobbying, and collective action. Civil society consists of several non-governmental organisations founded on voluntarism and civic association concepts. This epitomises the dictum, “democracy by the people for the people,” hence the Batho-Pele framework is essential for the people-centred government.
Honourable Members, talking about the Batho Pele principles is important in South Africa since they are consistent with the country’s democratic traditions. These principles prioritise the delivery of efficient, accessible, and accountable public services to all citizens. The Batho Pele principles promote transparency, justice, and responsiveness in service delivery, upholding South African citizens’ constitutional rights to quality public services. They also help to realise the constitutional ideals of dignity, equality, and social justice by ensuring that public institutions prioritise the needs of citizens. It is encouraging to witness that the budget has continuously set aside provisions for the Public Service Commission to enforce the implementation and monitor the government entities ‘ adherence to these principles.
Honourable Members, this budget operationalizes the policy position held by ANC, in its manifesto 2024, the ANC pledged to build a capable, ethical and developmental state which is rooted in the aspirations of the people of South Africa, especially the poor. The professionalization framework serves the purpose; its merit-based recruitment, underpinned by independent monitors to job recruitment, is a breath of fresh air in the public sector.
On the other hand, the budget benefits the National School of Government in promoting and building the culture of continuous learning and increasing the capacity of the public service, although as ANC we would have liked to see a significant increase in the sector, but appreciate the treasury for the allocation.
As I conclude, Digitalization and modernizing government Human resource management is an ambitious yet achievable outcome; this is the flagship for the Centre of Public Service and Innovation. This will enable government competitiveness and follow global trends on the modernization of public service for efficient service delivery.
Building a capable, ethical, and developed state is not an event; it needs a society that embraces continuous learning, is patriotic, compassionate, and loathes corruption and anti-transformative. A healthy worker is a productive worker. We applaud GEMS for taking mental wellness seriously. The fund set aside for this programme will go a long way towards the stability of workers’ health care, subsequently increasing productivity at the workplace.
Honoured Members, The budget serves the purpose of delivering a capable, ethical, and developmental state that the country desires. Aluta continua