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Posted to the web on: 11 March 2008
‘Know your rights’ drive kicks off
Sibongakonke Shoba

THE public service and administration department’s campaign to educate the public about their service rights was widely welcomed by nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and researchers, but organisations that joined in service delivery protests said it would not make a difference.

Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi launched the campaign in Johannesburg yesterday.

The department has produced a handbook to inform the public about the services they are entitled to, and who to contact if they are not receiving the services. The campaign is to include road shows and radio mini-dramas. The department plans to use community development workers, NGOs and community-based organisation to create awareness about the right to services

Patricia Martins, spokeswoman for children’s rights advocacy group the Alliance for Children’s Entitlement to Social Security (Acess), said any public awareness could be useful. “The critical thing is how the information is delivered. It should be accessible, well distributed and written in a language that people understand,” she said.

The campaign would be useful as Acess had found that many people, especially the poor, did not know what government services they were entitled to, she said.

Kevin Allen, MD of web-based data and intelligence service Municipal IQ, said any attempt to improve access to information should be welcomed. “Making government systems easier to understand is important because a lot of our people are not clear about how to access services such as grants and IDs. It could have a significant impact.”

Allen said the initiative was only part of a solution and did not mean that service delivery would improve. “It does not need to be confused with the need to provide services to everyone.”

But Mnikelo Ndabankulu a spokesman for Abahlali Basemjondolo, a Durban shack- dwellers’ movement, was less optimistic. He said that the campaign would not make a difference as many people were aware of their rights and were already exercising them.

“It could only work if councillors and mayors prioritised people’s needs instead of 2010 projects. Our leaders have forgotten about the need to build houses and are concentrating on building stadiums,” Ndabankulu said.

The public would continue exercising their right to protests when officials ignored their grievances, he said.

Moleketi said the campaign was not a response to delivery protests that took place countrywide last year. She said it was part of a campaign that started in 1998 with the adoption of the white paper titled Batho Pele.

“It is part of that ongoing process that will also deal with the problems facing those communities (where protests took place),” said Fraser-Moleketi.

Meanwhile, residents of Emfuleni municipality in Gauteng and Klaarwater in Durban staged protests against poor service delivery yesterday.