Eastern Cape premier Noxolo Kiviet has again defended the expenditure of five million rand on development leadership skills in the provincial government.
She was speaking on Tuesday at a special meeting of the portfolio committee for her office in Nelson Mandela Bay.
The premier said that she would defend her decision to the highest court in the land, following criticism of the expenditure on the leadership training programme by US motivational speaker and evangelist, John Maxwell.
In a statement after the meeting, Kiviet said her office had invested R5m to run a nine-months leadership development programme for 130 strategic managers of the provincial government.
She said this was an intervention to address leadership gaps that manifested in poor service delivery in the province.
Read the full statement below:
Eastern Cape Premier Noxolo Kiviet says: "I will defend the investment we have made in developing appropriate leadership in the provincial administration to the highest court in the land".
The Premier was addressing a special meeting of the Portfolio Committee for her office held in council chambers of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality which was also attended by stakeholders.
Premier Kiviet said her office has invested R5 million to run a nine-months leadership development programme for 130 strategic managers of the provincial government as an intervention to address leadership gaps that manifested in poor service delivery in the province.
She said the Provincial Government has chosen an internationally acclaimed leadership development agency called ICAN-MAXWELL that is led by two outstanding leadership development gurus and coaches Dr David Molapo and Dr John Maxwell.
She said over the last 18 years little progress was made in building a unified institutional culture of the Eastern Cape Provincial Administration that would ensure effective and efficient use of the annual provincial budgetary allocation of over R56 billion.
The Premier expressed confidence that various leadership development programmes roll-out out by government will sharpen the understanding of leadership responsibilities and appreciation that the rise and fall of the provincial administration lies in the hands of its leadership.
The Department's focus on building administrative leadership capacity through among other the John Maxwell programme is aimed at:
"Inculcating a value system that rejects indolence and corruption in striving for excellence and moral integrity in delivering services to the people;
"Ensuring the creation of an enabling environment for employees capacity to implement programmes of government; and
"Ensuring professionalism and translation of the principles of Batho Pele to service delivery models that impact on people positively.
The Premier also commended the turn around that has begun to take root in the Departments of Education and Health, citing the stabilization of scholar transport, nutrition that centralizes local communities and parents, expenditure of infrastructure budget that reached 86% in the 2011-12 financial year.
