As SA's intelligence community reeled from the fallout of three senior officials suspended for illicit surveillance activity, President Thabo Mbeki reminded the country's spooks of their patriotic duty.
Mbeki told them at a closed-door meeting recently they were a national asset, and that this came with enormous responsibility.
"They must, therefore, be politically non partisan and may not carry out operations intended to undermine, promote or influence any political party, faction or organisation at the expense of another," Mbeki said.
The president's message raises a more general question: can the entire public service be apolitical and is this a realistic goal to strive for?
"That depends on what you mean by apolitical," says Mohamed Motala of Wits University's School of Public & Development Management. "Things such as transformation and service delivery are highly politicised issues, so you would want a public service - and public servants - to understand the ethos of this." Motala says the concept of a British-style civil service will not work in SA, given the nature of the country's economy and labour market and the strong role of the state.
In the Westminster model, civil servants charged with the day-to-day management and execution of government policy have to be neutral. This is premised on the fact that the civil service ensures continuity in the running of the country irrespective of which political party is in office.
There is a delicate line between the state and the party, and Motala believes this line needs to be clearly differentiated to protect public servants from political pressure.
Public service & administration director-general Richard Levin says trying to define the public service role too narrowly can be problematic.
"Globally, there is no such thing in practice as an apolitical public service," says Levin. "Some may be more neutral than others, but essentially most of the top appointments are political."
Levin says that in the SA context, political competence is a legitimate criterion of key appointments to the public service: "So you will find in advertisements for senior managers that an understanding of government policy is a necessary requirement," he says.
Motala and Levin agree that the solution to obviating problems such as those that arose in the intelligence fiasco is to instill an ethos of "professionalism" into the system.
A starting point for SA public servants, they say, is to sign to adhere to Batho Pele ("people first") principles, aimed at ensuring that public servants offer citizens the best service.
The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) agrees it is not possible to have a completely de politicised public service, but says more can be done to separate state from party. DA public service spokesman Karel Minnie says his party has filed a private member's bill in parliament calling for legislation that defines the line between state and political parties.
"Clearly officials need to exercise much more responsibility in ensuring that state resources are not used for party political purposes," says Minnie.
Last week, the directors-general of every government department signed a pledge, which reads: ". . .to serve our people with loyalty, respect, dignity and integrity . . . I shall put people first in carrying out all my duties and respond to their needs through consultation and participation. I commit myself to offer services fairly, equitably, honestly, responsively and without any bias."
Six years ago the public service & administration ministry created the SA Management & Development Institute (Samdi) to teach technical and normative skills to public servants.
"We aim to train people to serve people," says Samdi director-general Bobby Soobrayan. "But we work more in line with the spirit of the constitution rather than specific principles."
Soobrayan says part of the recruitment of new staffers is to look at whether they are suited to public service. "Hence we look at leadership as opposed to pure management," he says. "We are here to serve the people, irrespective of which political party they voted for."
Though the institute has a number of internal trainers, Soobrayan says it is looking to draw on the experience of other public servants "with proven track records". The transformation of the public service has become the face of transformation in the country.
The department has submitted a comprehensive assessment strategy to cabinet which could form the basis of an improved public servants' training model. Meanwhile, cabinet has been reviewing progress in employment equity targets in the public service. On gender equality, women make up 29% of management in the public service, only 1% short of the target for 2005. At director-general level, women account for only 19%.
Cabinet agrees that issues such as training, the work environment and the high turnover rate among women need to be addressed. It has decided on a 50% equity target for women at all levels of the senior management service by 2009.
