Godfrey Tsotetsi, a Member of the Provincial Legislature for the Alexandra constituency, has implored civil servants to uphold an oath that compels them to be selfless and urgent in their service to communities.
Tsotetsi said a civil servant’s obligation was to act urgently in addressing the needs of communities and as directed by the Freedom Charter on health, education, water, safety and other areas.
He said this in response to nagging complaints and bottlenecks on service delivery that sometimes led to civil protest. “Civil servants should communicate and interact with communities properly, assess their needs diligently and give them urgent feedback in order to be relied on and to gain the public’s trust,” Tsotetsi said.
He added that civil servants should develop positive attitudes, engage residents with dignity and adopt a consultative approach when handling all their concerns. He disclosed that the Gauteng Premier David Makhura would visit the constituency next month to assess developments and challenges, and observe civil servants’ commitment to their service obligations.
“It will be the premier’s chance to introduce the Tirisano [a consultative programme], where officials respond and offer remedial solutions to residents needs through a one-stop engagement process. Tirisano is the province’s programme to grow the community through onsite responsive and rapid action on development and service delivery challenges,” he said.
Tsotetsi expected the engagement to elicit satisfactory responses from civil servants on housing, crime, education and employment among others. “It will also help change the mindset of civil servants to one of putting people first.”
He added that it would also be an opportunity to unveil the housing development master plan for Alex and related integrated development plans to which residents, officials and politicians would hold each other accountable.
The communities’ involvement, especially on human settlement issues, he said, would also encourage them to take pride and want to protect their homes and respect each other as neighbours, thus helping to tackle crime.
“It will encourage them to want to look after their parks, engage in productive ventures of township economic revitalisation through youth entrepreneurial support, skills training and a range of co-operative opportunities [which] government is willing to sponsor to eliminate crime among the youth,” he concluded.
Details: Godfrey Tsotetsi 079 527 9400.
