1.Editorial

Editorial

In one of my travels recently in KwaZulu-Natal I bumped against an old acquaintance. Naturally, we had to share our experiences about life and spoke about our futures. I think our talk about the good old days would have been endless if along the way some other topics did not creep in.

I remember that at a certain stage I had to tell her why I was not ready to quit the Public Service. While accepting my reasons for that she added hers and told me why I would not survive outside the Public Service. She was not personal but general in describing the Public Service in negative terms. The manner in which she expressed herself cannot be printed in a publication honouring family values. Even though I was shaken I decided not to argue with her.

I think it is important to mention that she agreed that not everybody in the Public Service is as she had portrayed it. She said there are a few individuals who deserve to be showered with all praises. To me this sounded hollow because of her earlier sentiments.

Her sayings made me curious. I was compelled to go behind her back so as to have a bigger picture about her. What I discovered is not impressive. I will not spill the beans about an old acquaintance here. I have not said anything to her, but I am now seeing her in another light.

It would seem I am now sidetracking. The essence of my argument is not about my old acquaintance, but on how people see in us as civil servants. An emphasis may be placed on the negative side of things. There may be reasons for them seeing us in that vein.

We may be flawless in what we are doing, but if there is a single person seeing us differently, justifiably or not, we cannot walk tall. Our consciences will be restless and we will be uncomfortable. We will start talking about stress and all sorts of things.

Now, how do we go about making people to see us as the "saints" that we are? I do not know, but we must not refrain from doing things correctly. Those doing things in another fashion must stop forthwith. They are tarnishing the image of the Public Service, not theirs, nor their departments'. I am sure we all know the difference between right and wrong. By now I suspect that almost all of us know what Batho Pele and the Top Ten Values and Principles advocated by the Public Service Commission encourage.

I am sure when things are done properly, false allegations against us will fail and fall. Those who pretend to be blind, will without being prodded concede that there is a bright light before them. In the same spirit, we have to bear in mind that not everybody will see us in the same light.

May I also say our friendship with my old acquaintance has become stronger since the KZN encounter. Need I say more?

Many a times bureaucracy is a subject of hostile and vicious criticism. This is happening inside and outside the Public Service. I do not know whether it can be defended or not. I have tried, but I always hear different people at different times "singing the same song" again and again. It has sometimes been labelled as a source of inefficiency and a hindrance to service delivery. It is not for me to say the criticism is justifiable or nor. But I think we are all capable of transforming whatever maze of officialdom that is surrounding us.

All of us in the DLA have to walk tall because the Gender Workplace Forum of the Johannesburg Deeds Office has adopted the Ethembeni Orphanage, a home for HIV/AIDS children. Thus, operationalising our AIDS policy. Above all our ladies have again proved that they care and cater.

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While welcoming the recently appointed DLA Deputy Directors-General, the Department's Deputy-Minister Professor Dirk Du Toit asked them to build morale in the department.

Members of the DLA Executive Committee attended the occasion. The DDGs are Mr Glen Thomas, Dr Nozizwe Makhalemele and Ms Sarah Choane.

Professor Du Toit said morale is the responsibility of everyone in the department and it can surpass good qualifications and training. He said because we have to deliver to land reform beneficiaries, everyone in the department has to be motivated.

Professor Du Toit pointed out that the work the DDGs are doing is not just another job. He said they are the people who really run a department and if they fail, a department can fall.

Earlier on, the DLA's Director-General Dr Gilingwe Mayende in introducing them at the occasion said the department is fortunate to have people of their high caliber joining its leadership. He described Mr Thomas as having a long and an illustrious history in land reform. He said Dr Makhalemele comes to the department highly regarded and described Ms Choane as a tremendous asset to the DLA.

The Director-General for the National Department of Agriculture, Dr Bongiwe Njobe told the DDGs that they were entering an arena, which sometimes has emotions. Amongst challenges facing them she mentioned transformation indicating that there are lots of issues they still have to unpack, especially on gender issues.

"You cannot build a reputation on what you plan to do. Just go out and do it", she said.

In his reply Mr Thomas said his stay is long overdue at the DLA for contemporary studies state that in an organisation one has 1 000 days to achieve objectives. He said because land reform is a complex process he believes he still has a role to play in the DLA to achieve the goals of land reform in South Africa, which are based on the objectives of the democratic revolution.

From her side, Dr Makhalemele said a state of emergence has to be declared on all the work the department is doing. She said where she comes from there is a saying that if your plane flying high in the sky has a problem, one must not wait for it to land before a problem is solved. The problem must be fixed while the plane is flying.

Ms Choane described their orientation as an impressive one. She said the department has to translate the policy framework into outputs and outcomes.

In addressing a workstream strategising and a common vision 2-day workshop of the Decentralisation Task Team (DTT), the DLA's Director-General Dr Gilingwe Mayende requested that staff not to be dissuaded by wrong attitudes in the planning of the decentralisation process at the DLA.

The DLA decentralisation process is based on the Shared Services Centres (SSCs) and District Delivery (DD) concepts. The DTT has nine workstreams having specific roles and are:

• Business processes (SSCs)
• Business processes (DDs)
• Human resources (SSCs)
• Human resources (DDs)
• Finance and budgeting
• Stakeholder liaison
• Information technology
• Location/Infrastructure
• Communication

Dr Mayende said communication is very important in the process for it will correct distortions that raise unwarranted fears. He said criticism is important to issues, especially constructive criticism for it adds value to any process.

Dr Mayende asked participants in the workshop to be positive. He said they must stand up and disagree whenever there is a need to do so.

He appealed to the "implementers" to keep up the momentum. He said sometimes the implementation of great ideas fails because the momentum has been allowed to fizzle.

In explaining decentralisation, Dr Mayende said it is a way of turning around delivery making it closer to the beneficiaries. He conceded that good attempts on decentralisation of the department had been made in the past.

"The belief of our Minister is that we should work closely with local governments for they have the responsibility to plan for local development. Local governments will have plans that have a bearing on land. She therefore felt that what we do should be dovetailed with what local governments are doing", he said.

"The Minister told me that by decentralising we are not devolving our functions but getting closer to local governments in order to work with them. Our offices in District Councils will not be answerable to them, but to us", he continued.

He added that the manner in which the entities are structured at local level does not promote oneness. He said people are doing things for their own and this is not cost-effective.

"Support services are too much centralised at DLA. We are too bureaucratic and in finding ways to decentralise the idea of Shared Services Centres came up", he said.

"The Shared Services Centres will ensure that we economise and promote efficiency. This will promote oneness", he said.

Answering questions Dr Mayende said one can never be efficient in the public service unless one delegates functions. He said when there is trust in delegation, management and efficiency will not be a problem.

He said in the process redeployment will take place. He said the Human Resource Management Directorate will be working with the workstreams of the DTT on that.

Dr Mayende while also congratulating Ms Shanaaz Majiet, the Transformation Programme Office Director, announced that she has been transferred on promotion to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. The decentralisation process in the DLA is one of the responsibilities of the Transformation Programme Office.

Meanwhile the recent Executive Committee meeting was informed that the restructuring/relocation of the Transformation Program Office is under investigation. It was also announced by the DG that Mr T Mogashoa will be Acting Director for the Transformation Program Office.

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The DLA Disabled Persons' celebration in Benoni at the end of last year was marked by the adoption of the department's Disability Action Plan which will be the guiding document for Employment Equity and Affirmative Action on the disabled.

The occasion had a fair representation of the offices of the DLA. There were also guests from other government departments, the Public Service Commission and the Human Rights Commission.

Gugu Gumede from KwaZulu-Natal sang for those present. One of the songs she rendered was the classical "Lakutshon' iLanga" composed by the late McKay Davashe.

Mr Tshuba Mogashoa from the Human Resource Development Directorate said the department has to re-align its human resource policies in order to implement the new human resource framework. He said there is a wide consultation that takes place before any human resource policy is implemented.

"When we read the policy framework we must not read it in isolation. It must be read with other human resource policies. It spells out the basic principles and has the support of management", he said.

Mr Mogashoa urged everybody to bring employment barriers to the attention of the management. He said the department has to succeed in eliminating such barriers.

"This policy is not cast in a rock. When there is a need for it to be amended we will do so", he said.

He added that there is a need for people in the DLA to be trained in order to understand diversity. He said the department believes that training is capacity building.

"Many of the middle managers have been trained on Employment Equity. I am sure they will contribute a lot in ensuring that Employment Equity prevails in the DLA", he said.

He announced that a disability manager who is Mr Chris Williams-Wynn has been appointed in the DLA. He also revealed that Ms Lesedi Mampa will be the liaison person for disability programmes at Human Resource Development.

Advocate Jan Tladi from the Department of Labour said the state's machinery in the form of various government departments has an important role to play in designing laws, policies and programmes capable of meeting the socio-economic aspirations of the people with disability. He said such laws, policies and programmes must be curved in a manner that they are amenable to be translated into tangible benefits and deliverables.

"Of particular importance, in order to run the state machinery well, these laws, policies and programmes must be developed and formulated in consultation with people with disabilities and their respective organisations including other relevant stakeholders", he said.

"The framework of an employment equity plan that the EEA requires employers to develop and implement, must spell-out tangible steps they intend implementing to achieve disability equity. Such measures may include targeted recruiting, disability awareness-raising, creation of reasonable accommodation measures, creation of non-discriminatory working environment, etc", he added.

"The EEA confers the duty to monitor progress made by employers in every workplace to the employees and the trade unions. People with disabilities are almost invisible in many of our workplaces, it then presents a constraint of how disability equity can be effectively monitored", he said.

Advocate Tladi went on and added that the Draft Code of Good Practice stresses the need for employers to collaborate with organisations of and for people with disabilities in the pursuit towards the implementation of strategies intended at promoting disability equity. He said the non-involvement of these organisations and people with disabilities, may lead to the undermining and relegation of employment rights of people with disabilities.

Ms Maria Rantho from the Public Service Commission said her commission among others is tasked with conducting investigations, monitoring and evaluating the organisation and administration and personnel practices of the public service. "It is quite shocking to indicate that out of the workforce of 1.3 million public servants, only 915 are persons with disabilities which gives us only 0.01 % and it falls short of 2 % which has to be achieved by the end of 2005 for this target group … I must commend your department for taking the kind of steps you have taken to ensure that the AA policy is implemented within your department for many government departments still fall short of reaching that 2 % target…", she said.

Ms Rantho announced that they have secured some funding from the Ford Foundation to look at the entire area of employment equity. She said a key focus within this area will be the question of disability and it will be important that research produces the following:

• Reasons for lack of integration of disabled persons within the Public Service
• Barriers which might be contributing towards less representativeness of disabled persons within the Public Service, e.g. lack of accessible transport systems to take one from point A to point B
• Strategies to increase the proportion of disabled persons within the public service

In conclusion Ms Rantho said "… the concept of a carrying society, is strengthened and deepened when as South Africans, we must begin to recognise that persons with disabilities have the same rights and obligations like everyone else and as such we have responsibilities towards the promotion of creating a conducive environment conclusive towards the growth and development of persons with disabilities".

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1) Targets: 2,5% by 2005

2) Review of Annual Targets

3) Action Plan (Human Resource):

a) Inventory of Disabled Persons

b) Determination of Future Requirements

c) Planning: Action Steps to meet HR needs

d) Implementation and Control of the Plan

1) Data Collection of existing Status of the Disabled within the DLA

2) Recruitment in terms of Future Requirements as per targets set

3) Reasonable Accommodation

4) Career Management and Succession Planning

5) Communication and Accountability

1. Support to Human Resource Management:

We do not want to redo (or do again!) what HR should be doing. Therefore, in terms of:

a) Data collection and

b) Recruitment,

The Disability Manager, together with the Forum of Disabled Persons should be used in a:

i) Monitoring Role,

ii) Advising Role, and

iii) Assisting Role

2. Obtain Feedback:

In order to maintain this role, it is proposed that the Director: Human Resource Management, as well as the Leader of the Employment Equity Project, is requested to provide regular feedback on:

i) Current status of disabled employees

ii) Progress made towards recruiting disabled employees

iii) Identification of specific posts that can be filled by disabled persons

3. Provide Input:

Proactive input is recommended from members of the Forum to ensure that disabled persons with the correct skills are targeted and sought out for specific posts.

4. Quarterly Meetings:

Meetings of the Forum are necessary to monitor the progress of the Action Plan. A proposal of 4 times per year is included in the Policy Document.

5. Budget:

A consideration/motivation must be made to Financial Services for the creation of a Budget to cover the costs of the Forum.

i) This includes liaison with the TPO for financial assistance required to cater for the needs of people with disabilities.

ii) It is noted that at least 8 of the current forum members reside and work outside the Province of Gauteng. Their attendance should not be at the expense of their respective directorates.

6. Reasonable Accommodation:

Promotion of equal opportunities by ensuring reasonable accommodation, by :

a) Instituting an annual disability awareness day, where, for example, Directors can be confined to a wheelchair for a day.

b) The Forum must monitor each and every office where Disabled Persons are employed to ensure that reasonable accommodation is afforded to disabled employees.

c) All Directors within the DLA need to be made aware of the Disability Policy and then held accountable for its implementation.

d) Is it in the interests of the disabled employees for the Disability Manager to visit them in their work environment? I already make at least one trip a year to Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Pretoria from Pietermaritzburg, during which additional time could be allocated to include the visits. It would then mean budgetary considerations to visit places like Nelspruit, Pietersburg, Vryburg, Kimberly and East London. The purpose of these visits would be:

i) To assist and support managers with the implementation of the Disability Policy, and

ii) To ensure that the needs of the disabled employees have been reasonably met.

7. Training and Career Management:

The Forum will also call upon the Director : Organisational Development to provide the Forum with information regarding the progress of development of training programmes for disabled employees. A report will be requested for each quarterly meeting.

Communications:

8. Quarterly Reports:

Quarterly Reports are to be released to all disabled employees. This will ensure that all progress is communicated.

 

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Pauline Stephen from the Johannesburg Deeds Office was recently elected as the first Workplace Gender Forum (WGF) Co-ordinator for the Gauteng Provincial offices of the DLA at a workshop outside Pretoria. The workshop had representatives from all the structures of the DLA in the Gauteng province.

Others elected to the Working Committee with Pauline are:

1. Sepeleng Mogatle (Deputy Co-ordinator)
2. William Barnes
3. Celia Manda
4. Nonceba Jali

On her election, Pauline said she felt honoured and will do her best to ensure that the WGF becomes successful in its efforts to make sure that everyone in the DLA is gender sensitive. She said she has always been against gender discrimination and is excited that the Department is doing something about it.

"The Gauteng Provincial WGF has very committed members and I feel that as a team we can become the forerunners for gender. The Provincial team has already met on a number of occasions and we are working well together", she said.

Ms Mapula Kekana from the Gauteng Premier's Office, who was facilitating the proceedings of the workshop, explained its purpose as to develop a plan of action for the implementation of a gender programme within the DLA in the Gauteng province. She mentioned the following as guiding principles in South Africa:

• CEDAW
• Beijing Platform of Action
• Provisions in the Constitution
• Equality Charter
• Natitional Gender Machine

The commissions of the workshop were tasked to identify and prioritise projects on:

• Capacity building
• Economic development
• Advocacy and lobbying

As a way forward the WGF will embark upon the following:

• Seek support from managers
• Build up activities around gender
• Complete strategic report
• Establish linkages with NGOs
• Sensitise institutional arrangements on gender issues
• Disseminate information
• Look closely at the budget
• Launch the forum

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The restructuring of the Department of Land Affairs and the introduction of the Integrated Land Redistribution and Agricultural Development in South Africa (IP) came out with changes that compelled the appointment of new senior managers. Thus Sarah Choane was appointed the DDG for Financial and Corporate Services; Dr Nozizwe Makgalemele was appointed the DDG for Land Planning and Information; and Mr Glen Thomas was appointed DDG for Land and Tenure Reform. Hereunder brief profiles about them are given:

For her academic qualifications, Ms Choane studied at the University of North-West, University of South Africa, at Harvard and Wits Business Schools. She has an honours degree in accounting and a certificate in senior executive programme for Southern Africa.

Between 1996 and the end of 2000, she occupied a number of managerial positions at the State Expenditure Department. Before joining the DLA she was Acting Head for Corporate Services at the department and Finance, Provisioning, Service Conditions and Human Resource Management fell under her ambit.

At Bop Broadcasting Corporation she started as a Television Accountant in 1992 and between 1995 and 1996 she was General Manager for Finance there. Between 1985 and 1992 she worked from a trainee accountant to an Assistant Audit Manager at Coopers and Lybrand.

At the State Expenditure Department some of her responsibilities dealt with:

• Supporting the Accounting Officer in preparing presentations to the Portfolio Committee on Finance and to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts
• Acting as an Accounting Officer
• Co-ordinating responses to parliamentary questions

She has 3 children and enjoys reading, going to the gym, watching wrestling and cooking.

Dr Makhalemele can be described as a widely traveled scholar that has experience on both the theoretical and the practical sides of her work. She possesses a Doctor of Philosophy in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Southern California and the title of her dissertation was Urban Social Movements and Change in South Africa. She did some of her studies at the Universities of Natal and Fort Hare.

Her studies included:

• Land Use Activities and Planning
• Economic Theory and Economy of Land Use
• Transportation Planning
• Environmental Law
• Urban and Rural Planning

Her previous job was that of a Chief Director for Development Planning at the Gauteng Provincial Government. In the past she has been a Town and a Regional Planner for the former kwaZulu and Bophuthatswana governments.

She has been a lecturer in Development Studies at the North-West University in Mafikeng. She was also an external examiner for the School of Town and Regional Planning of the University of Witwatersrand.

Among organisations that she is a member of, are the Gauteng Development Tribunal and the National Development and Planning Commission. There is a working relationship between the organisations and the DLA Development Facilitation Directorate, but it may be mentioned that the Commission has now been disbanded.

With the Commission she was involved in the development for a manual for Chapter 1 Principles of the Development Facilitation Act. She participated in the Gauteng Spatial Development Framework.

In her marriage, Dr Makhalemele has one son.

Mr Thomas, an alumni of one of Africa's greatest universities, Fort Hare, has been a Chief Director for Tenure Reform and Public Land Management since 1996. Before that he had been a fieldworker and a researcher for the Grahamstown Rural Committee, the forerunner of the Border Rural Committee. From 1986 to 1992 he served the National Land Committee and was its Chairman between 1989 and 1991.

In his younger life Mr Thomas, a qualified teacher and a communications practitioner, taught mathemetics, science, English, isiXhosa and Afrikaans. While working for the Grahamstown Rural Committee his work included:

• Assisting rural communities which previously faced forced removals in building organisations with development problems in relation to local government and land
• Conducting research to contribute towards land reform and development policies

Before joining the DLA, Mr Thomas' training has seen him attending a Land Policy Training Programme at the University of Winconsin-Madison in the USA. He has a number of management certificates and was a Regional Director for Kagiso Trust before assuming the post of a Chief Director in the DLA.

He loves jazz music, tennis, reading and writing poetry. He can also prepare mouthwatering dishes.

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The selection of Doris Ramakone Segoale as the Library Personality in the Making for 2000 at the 2000 Inter-departmental Vocational Association and Library Personnel's (IVAISLP) Annual General Meeting in Pretoria has brought a sense of pride to her colleagues at the DLA Resource Centre.

Her supervisor Zuzette Fourie said the achievement means that there is something to be learnt by youngsters at the DLA Resource Centre and that also displays that the centre is one of the most advanced in Pretoria. She said Doris must take heed of the experience she has gained at the DLA and use it in her profession while at the same time mindful that there is always room for improvement.

Doris has now been working as an Assistant Librarian for the DLA for more than two years. She received her training as a librarian from the University of the North and has done voluntary library work at Unisa, the Pretoria Community Library and at Hans Kekane High School.

Journal was able to access motivational remarks that had her being chosen as the Library Personality in the Making and they state that:

• She is positive about herself and information
• She understands that good service and image go hand in hand
• She understands the meaning of information and importance of marketing
• She is not afraid of technology and is eager to apply it in order to gain a better service
• She shows insight
• She has good client skills
• She shows initiative

In an interview Doris told Journal that to her the Library Personality in the Making title means that she is recognised in her career. She said the achievement enhances the image of the DLA Resource Centre because there were many library government personalities that were competing for the title, and to be chosen ahead of that lot is an honour.

"This also boosts my confidence for I was competing with people who have experience extending to 30 years. I am just fresh from university and at the same time there were people in the competition who are also new in the library field who had all the chances of snatching the title away from me", she said.

Doris said the questions that were asked were relevant to her training at university. She said she is pleased to notice that her academic training is relevant to her career.

Doris possesses a Bachelor of Library and Information Studies in Education from the University of the North. One of her majors is Library Science Information Studies and she has also done Customer Service for Community Librarians.

"I am prepared to see to it that the role of librarians is recognised when considering that they do not conduct the respect they deserve in many institutions", Doris said.

To young aspirant librarians, Doris said in their profession they have to be active. She said they have to attend meetings, seminars and conferences which empower them with new trends and skills in their profession.

"When technology came into our environment there was a fear of the unknown, people saying librarians were becoming irrelevant. Time has proven the sceptics wrong for technology is being used to improve our services. Technology does not cast us aside, but accommodates us", she said.

Besides being a member of IVAISLP, Doris is also a Committee Member of the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA). This is an association of all librarians in South Africa and her position in the association compels her to travel throughout the country.

Doris is married with two little children and she says her husband, Kingsley is proud of her achievement. She said her travels in the country take her away from her family, but her husband understands and supports her in her work.

When asked about her other achievements in the Resource Centre, she said she is proud to have been part of the team that is decentralising library services from the National Office to the Provincial Offices. She said the Kimberley one can be described as more operational than the others.

It is also important to note that Doris, in her Temba rural community was in the group that initiated the establishment of a library there. She said the library is functioning well.

• Doris has now been transferred on promotion as an Information Specialist to the Department of Transport. One of her major functions is assisting with the computerisation of her new department's library.

This is indeed a very sad day for all of us. It is a sad day because we are saying goodbye for the last time to someone who has been so dear to us and has also been a great asset to our society. Personally I knew Sindile since early in 1992 when I joined the academic staff of the University of Transkei. He was employed in the university’s administrative section at the time. Apart from fleeting encounters during the course of work or even less frequently outside the work environment, we never developed any kind of relationship in those days. However, Sindile had already built up a formidable reputation as a skilled organiser and negotiator and a no-nonsense campaigner on behalf of workers on campus.

I remember distinctly the role he played at the beginning of what was to become a turbulent period within the campus as he and his colleagues in NEHAWU such as Messrs Mxoleli Nkuhlu, Gugu Zilwa, Thozi Gwanya and Mr Bilibana, challenged the autocratic management of the university and relentlessly represented the interests of the workers on campus. I later came to know that he had in fact been one of those who had played a pivotal role in the formation of NEHAWU nationally and had been one of its pillars of strength in the former Transkei.

Sindile’s activities at Unitra signified a personal characteristic that he was to exhibit right up to the last day of his life, that is, always being on the side of the underdog. Indeed, it is clear even to those of us who came to know him after he had reached adulthood - as confirmed by his loved ones and longtime friends -that this has been the defining characteristic of his personality all his life.

After the formation of the democratic government in 1994, Sindile continued with his work for and with the people in different capacities. As a member of the ANC’s Public Sector Transformation Unit he played an important role in assisting the Eastern Cape Provincial Government in its planning around the transformation of the public service in the province. He was also a key member of the SACP in the province and served that party with distinction in various capacities and on various tasks.

His effectiveness as a manager was recognised early in the days of the Provincial Government when, in 1994 he was seconded to the Office of the MEC for Housing and Local Government where he played a key role in the formulation of housing policy. Once again, in this capacity his skills as a negotiator were put to effective use, as he was central in the efforts that were being made at the time to establish social compacts, that is, service delivery agreements between government and communities.

When the Land Reform Pilot Programme (LRPG) was established in the Province in 1995, Sindile was nominated by the MEC for Housing and Local Government onto the Steering Committee which oversaw the LRPG. In recognition of his skills, he joined the Department of Land Affairs in January 1996 when he was employed to serve in the LRPG and was deployed to head its office in Queenstown.

In 1997 he joined the permanent staff of DLA in the Eastern Cape Provincial Land Reform Office (PLRO). From this time onwards Sindile reached the peak of his powers as a practitioner in the field of land reform. In no time he was drawn into the Management Committee of the PLRO where, yet again he acquitted himself with distinction. His skills and experience as a trade unionist and political leader were on many occasions put to effective use during times of tension and difficulty within our internal personnel structures.

He was inducted into the Departmental Transformation Programme, whose chief task was to ensure that genuine change took place at an acceptable pace in terms of the racial and gender composition of the personnel establishment, as well as attitudes towards change within the Department. This was the first of a series of national assignments that would see Sindile being taken out of his normal functions in the Provincial Office to serve at the national level. He again served with excellence when he was deployed into the Department’s Employment Equity Team. He led a very successful Catalytic Transformation Project within the PLRO which commenced in late 1999 when there was serious turbulence within that Office. It is a measure of his leadership that the project has been concluded and has succeeded in consolidating a highly effective and consensus-based team of over 40 officials dedicated to the vision and mission of the Department.

Sindile’s greatest contribution within the PLRO was in the formulation of policy and legislation on the protection of farm worker and farm dweller rights which led to the passage in 1997 of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (Commonly known as ESTA). He pioneered the implementation of ESTA in the Province and set up and led a team comprising of DLA and NGO staff to ensure the effective monitoring of farm evictions and interventions in terms of ESTA. He was also involved in training and sensitising officers of the SAPS and the Department of Justice responsible for ESTA cases. He was a key and a strategic member of the national network of managers and practitioners in the Department who co-ordinate ESTA implementation matters. The tributes that have come through since his death from members of some of the communities he has worked with attest to his positive role in this aspect of our Department’s work.

Sindile intervened personally in many serious confrontations between farm owners and farm occupants. In all cases he was able to diffuse volatile and threatening situations. Very often he was able to bring parties together to find a negotiated solution and avert evictions and violence. In one case this led to the potential evictee buying the farm for himself and his family, utilising financial assistance from the Department.

In recognition of Sindile’s skills and experience, I as the Director-General of the Department soon after I assumed duty in May last year I appointed him to the Departmental Task Team on Decentralisation. The decision to decentralise the land reform operations of the Department to District Municipality level, as well as support services to Provincial level, had been taken as a measure designed to enhance the pace of delivery and to create synergy in the implementation of land reform between ourselves as a Department and local government structures. Again, Sindile carried out his assignment efficiently and with diligence and dignity. Indeed, he performed so well in this capacity that I directed that he be seconded to National Office as a member of a core team within the Decentralisation Task Team charged with co-ordinating the task of redesigning the land reform delivery systems in order to make them more effective and efficient.

What explains these outstanding achievements, one may ask? To those of us who came to know Sindile, the answer is straightforward: it lies in the fact that Sindile was a principled change agent with credibility and the rare capacity for sound reasoning. He was a truly committed servant of the people. As illustrated by the various roles he has performed in a variety of organisations and institutions, he demonstrated his effectiveness beyond the normal call of duty. What pleased most of us in the Department about him was that he was a pleasure to work with. His friendly and cheerful disposition endeared him to many of us and was a major factor in diffusing tense situations. An irrepressible workaholic, he would make even the most tardy and indolent of his colleagues rise to the challenge of whatever task they had before them. He was very disciplined and objective in his approach to issues – he did not buy anybody’s face and he did not suffer fools gladly. To him a spade was a spade. He was also highly articulate and sensitive – indeed, a thorough gentleman.

It is perhaps proper to make the observation at this sombre occasion that the number of people who remain committed to the original ideals of the liberation struggle and the interests and aspirations of the impoverished masses in our country, is dwindling at an alarming pace. Many are now pursuing their selfish personal interests. Sindile is one of the few who have remained in the trenches. That is why his passing is such a terrible blow and loss to our nation.

We are very greatful and honoured that Sindile spent the greater part of his professional life working in the field of land reform. Indeed, the efforts being made in our country in land reform have been enriched by the sterling role he has played. As most of us are aware, land reform is one of the most, if not the most, complex programmes being implemented in our country at this point in time. The importance of land reform as a mechanism for effecting genuine redistribution of not only land as an asset, but, more importantly, of economic opportunities to the previously disadvantaged in our society, has been highlighted on many occasions and I do not want to belabour the point here. Suffice to say we are now in a position to see the light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to the contribution of committed staff and cadres like Sindile.

We have lost a great friend and colleague, and the people have lost an effective and reliable servant. Of course, we cannot avoid shedding tears under these circumstances. But we must also celebrate Sindile’s life – this special gift from God and the gods of Africa. Hence I dare say to Mama Kondlo and Sindile’s loved ones: well done! Well done! You have given birth to, nurtured and moulded a national hero. You have done our nation proud.

Sindile, I am sure you are at peace with yourself. You left us rather early and suddenly, but you have done in those few short years what many fail to do in longer life times – ugqatso ulufezile (you have won the race). May your soul rest in peace.

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The funeral was graced by the presence of the Mayor of Buffalo City Sindisile Maclean, the entire executive of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union led by the National President Vusi Nhlapho, MEC for Welfare in the Eastern Cape Ncumisa Kondlo, MEC for Transport, Roads and Public Works in the Northern Cape John Block, Members of Parliament, Members of Provincial Legislatures, representatives from the National Union of Mineworkers, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

Traditional church music gave the occasion a solemn atmosphere but war and work songs were dominant. These spurred workers attending the funeral do the revolutionary and victory dances.

Sindile Kondlo can be described as one of the pioneers of the present land reform process at DLA beginning it at its pilot project status around 1996. At the time of his death he was based at the East London Provincial Land Reform Office, but had been seconded to National Office as the Co-ordinator of the decentralisation workstream.

Sindile's daughter, Zinzi, said her father liked doing things his own way and he never broke a promise. She said it was unfortunate that for the first time in her life she had seen him breaking a promise for he had promised her to return from the hospital, but never did.

She said her father had a good sense of humour and it was like the day before he went to hospital when they were laughing together at their home. Zinzi said her father must be mindful that people treasure what he has done, and the fact that people do not always talk about him does not mean that they have forgotten him.

Mr Nhlapho called for the creation of a Heroes' Acre where all liberation cadres like Sindile would be laid to rest. He said if some of the cadres have been and are still operating under trying political conditions, they should be inspired by Sindile's resilience to advance their revolution.

"We will miss Cde Sindile's quiet but sharp and analytical mind", he said

He added that Sindile was upfront in ensuring the presence of NEHAWU at the University of the Transkei and in the former Transkei as a whole. He said this resulted in him becoming active at national level and many can attest to his dedication, political brilliance and superb inputs during debates.

Nkosiphendula Duntsula, who even though younger than Sindile, grew up with him in Ngangelizwe Township in Umtata. He said he was very good in mobilising masses of the people in Umtata, politically.

Mr Duntsula said Sindile was very close to his family. He said while he was very active in politics, he found time to be with his family.

"He was a friend to the people he lived with, to those who knew him, to his co-workers, people in the streets and to the young and old", he said.

"Sometimes it becomes difficult to negotiate with academics when you are just an ordinary worker. His acumen made it possible to have them agreeing to sign the first agreement while he was still at the University of Transkei", he added.

"Sindile had foresight and would advise workers about problems. He was firm in decisions he made and was never neutralised in his political life", he said.

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Sindile was the eldest of three children of Miss Siziwe Kondlo of Nqabara Village at Willowvale. He was born on 19 November 1961 at Ngangelizwe in Umtata where his mother was employed.

He started schooling at Mkhathini Primary School. After passing Std two (2) he proceeded to Jonguhlanga Senior Primary where he passed Std 7. He passed Matric at Ngangelizwe High School.

Sindile loved boxing and was popular with fans and followers during his Primary School days and was nicknamed SPLASH. However, his keenness gradually dwindled down until he quit the sport.

It was a case of elimination by substitution because his boxing interest was substituted by commitment to issues transforming society. He spent his school holidays in Port Elizabeth where he showed an added involvement and guided exposure to political activism.

When he passed Matric he was employed at the University of Transkei. He used the opportunity to pursue studies towards a law degree whilst at the same time deepening his political enthusiasm.

At this time he was engaged to Nozibele Mashiyi whom he married on 22 October 1987. He could not afford all these responsibilities and decided to suspend his studies.

Armed with a sharp theoretical tool of Marxism & Leninism, his non-racial perspective of issues was deepened. As Unitra was a centre of political activism, Sindile not only confined himself to worker issues, he was part of the drivers of the Save the Patriots Campaign, and the Vukani Women’s Organisation. At campus level, as part of his broad ideas, he advocated constant inter-action and consultation with other University structures with a view to ensure a guided transformation of the institution from an Ivory Tower to an institution of social development. Inspired by the ideas of the likes of Bathandwa Ndondo, the Mayapis and the Maqekezas he was key in the establishment of civil society structures like National Union of Mineworkers that sought the formation of a COSATU Local and the South African Communist Party.

Whilst at Unitra as a National Education Health and Allied Workers' Union(NEHAWU) activist, he was instrumental in the merger of NEHAWU & DUCS. As a young worker activist he became the Border-Kei Regional Chairperson of NEHAWU and when the former Eastern Cape & Border Kei Regions of NEHAWU merged, he took the Provincial Command of being the Chairperson of the new structure. He became the first Secretary of the East London branch of the South African Communist Party until his death.

His political involvement had now taken him to places beyond what was then known as Transkei. He joined the Department of Land Affairs and moved from Umtata to Queenstown in 1996 and from 1997 moved to East London on promotion.

In recognition of his skills and contribution, the Department requested that Sindile be seconded to the National Office of DLA in Pretoria to work side by side with the Director-General and to lead a Task Team on Decentralisation. The objective of this Task Team is to assist the DG and the Department as a whole, to re-configure land reform delivery systems.

He dedicated his life fighting for the poorest of the poor until he met his untimely death on the 30 December 2000. He is survived by his wife Hlumisa, his two children, a son Vuyo and a daughter Zinzi and his beloved mother, Mandzaba.

In its commitment to community issues the Johannesburg Deeds Office Gender Workplace Forum has adopted the Ethembeni Orphanage in Doornfontein. The adoption means that the members of the Forum will render whatever assistance it can provide to the orphanage.

According to the convenor of the Forum, Pauline Stephen after establishing it they looked at ways that would serve their community. Because the DLA has an HIV/AIDS policy they felt they should start at Ethembeni to effect it.

The orphanage is a Salvation Army AIDS orphanage relying on donors and the government. At the time of writing a Johannesburg newspaper reported that the orphanage has 60 babies with about 40 staff, three quarters of which work in shifts to care for the children, and 10 are administrators.

The newspaper reported that some babies were hospitalised as a result of malnutrition. Follow up articles have since appeared in the newspaper, while conceding problems at Ethembeni they dispelled the earlier report. By the time the reports appeared the Forum was already there.

Pauline said their first visit to the place was before Christmas with toys and clothes. Management at the orphanage told them that they always need food desperately and because of that the Forum has now decided to collect food for the orphanage.

On the day Journal visited the orphanage, the Forum delivered at Ethembeni the following:

• Mealie meal
• Rooibos tea
• Peanut butter
• Jam
• Baby food
• Oats
• Biscuits
• Baby powdered milk, and
• More clothing

"The whole office has become involved and everyone is contributing. We have the support of the management, too", Pauline said.

The JHB Deeds Registrar, Allan Stephen said the action of the Forum has to be applauded. He said the project has shown his staff that they have the ability to make a difference in the lives of others.

"There appears to be a growing involvement by our client base in that numerous attorney firms have approached me with requests to make financial and other donations to the orphanage. Since this is a staff project I refer them to the staff. I call upon all my colleagues in the department to be involved in similar projects", Mr Stephen said in making a challenge.

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(Article published courtesy of Computer Week dated 13/11/2000)

The staff of the Department of Land Affairs has done it again by collecting for the poor on World Food Day and donating it to the Pretoria Salvation Army. The food included rice, mayonnaise, tomato sauce and a variety of other non-perishable food.

The theme of the 2000 World Food Day was the "Millennium free from hunger". It encompassed the challenges and opportunities for achieving food security in the 21st century.

At the food hand-over to the Salvation Army, Mr Thizza Tsoanyane, at that time acting as a Chief Director for Corporate Services commended the DLA staff for collecting the food. He described the exercise as a response to the call on social responsibility. He explained that the 2000 World Food Day was highlighting the plight of people living in poverty and aimed at taking measures to curb the extent of food shortage, thus eradicating malnutrition.

In accepting the food, Mr Maurice Cross from the Salvation Army explained that they are feeding 5000 - 6000 people per month. "There are 18 different welfare organisations that we supply with food, clothes and blankets. We try to give them each a parcel for Christmas. Your donation will make a difference in their lives", he said.

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Because I have a limited geography background, I thought attending the MapAwareness course here in Pretoria recently would just be recapitulation of something from the past, instead the course also revealed areas I had not covered before and I must confess it rejuvenated my interest in the subject. The basics which include the North and the South, the East and the West, and the Greenwich Meridian and the Equator are still there with the compass being the major instrument used to direct people.

Those attending the course can be described as being representative of the key functions of the DLA. There were also people from NGOs.

The course includes the following in its syllabus:

• Alphanumeric grid
• Aerial photography
• Orthophoto maps
• Topographic maps
• Scale
• Area
• Location
• Map interpretation

The course is not only confined to issues related to mapping. Planning seems to benefit a lot from mapping and one finds its discussions over-spilling to spatial and geographic information.

Climatic conditions, industrialisation, agriculture and environmental issues come into the fore. Water and health issues also become topical.

Be warned, the course is participatory and there are a lot of exercises that are done in order to make participants understand what they are learning. What is also interesting is that before you even get tuition on it you are tested and after tuition there is another test.

Madelaine Steyn, an employee of Working for Water, said the course is great and they would like it to be run for their project managers where they can relate the information of the course to the contractors and the people in the field. "We have the working maps. Maps are crucial to what we do. People must know where they are going and where they are", she said.

In seeing the course as good, Nomsa Makena from Restitution made the following points about it: "The method of presentation allows much participation from attendants. It involves a lot of exercises, which enhance understanding, and one can make and learn from mistakes. The atmosphere is informal, which helps because you get maximum participation and people are able to contribute their experiences".

Nomsa said the course will definitely help her in restitution cases because they often need aerial maps to see how the landscape was at the time of dispossession of rights in land and also for land map use planning. "I would recommend it to anyone who does land reform and also that there be a detailed one for people who work a lot with maps especially in the Regional Land Claims Commission Offices", she said.

Tania Smith who works at the National Spatial Information Framework said the course creates greater awareness of the ways in which spatial or geographical information can be utilised to make informed decisions during the land reform process. She said this will be applicable to determine the ideal location of a redistribution project or to investigate the current land status of a restitution claim.

"The attendees are taught to order, orientate and read an aerial photo or orthophoto. For officials dealing with restitution this is of great value, as most of the land was re-planned after expropriation. The land, in essence, no longer exists in the way that the communities knew it. Only on historical aerial or orthophotos it is possible for planners to research the situation before expropriation", she said.

Nomathamsanqa Zitha from Public Land Inventory said the"…course was not necessary for me to attend as it involves my daily work. The only part that I think I gained on is how index map sheets are numbered, that is 2525BB. I feel this course is essential for new appointees".

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Towards the end of last year, the Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate was tasked with conducting a study into the impact of the training provided through the Culture and Employment Equity Project of the DLA's Transformation Programme. The recipients of the training from 1999 to 2000 included all the offices of the DLA from middle to top managers.

As a starting point for the study, a two-day workshop aimed at getting inputs from the different components of the DLA was conducted. The inputs were to be incorporated into the tool that will be used for the Transformation Survey in March 2001.

Participants in the workshop can be described as a mixture of all levels of people having received the training and appeared to be representative of all DLA offices. The workshop followed the following pattern:

• Overview of stakeholder identification
• Identification of core issues
• Sensitivity analysis
• Formulation of impact hypothesis
• Identification of indicators
• Way forward

The workshop can be described as having identified some problems and successes within the DLA. A number of core issues were identified by participants and were grouped together as follows:

• Competing initiatives
• Lack of commitment
• Shared values
• Restructuring
• Planning skills of middle management
• Lack of knowledge of Senior Management
• Unresolved issues raised in training
• Unsupportive obstructive issues
• Quality of training
• Lack of systems
• Receptiveness to training

After this identification the workshop looked at interventions, positive and negative impacts, and positive and negative indicators. These issues will be the basis of the survey to be conducted in March 2001.

Even though the debates of the workshop cannot be described as robust, they had their boiling points. As an example, the service provider had a different interpretation about the workshop with some of the participants strongly disagreeing with her.

There was a time when some of the participants questioned the method used to evaluate the training. But because the method had not run its full course others suggested it be given a chance.

On the evening of the first day, the DLA's Director-General Dr Gilingwe Mayende addressed the participants. He said the transformation of the Public Service is premised on an understanding that we are building a new order which will in the first instance be able to transform its service and secondly will be able to ensure that it fulfils the prescripts of the Constitution, including political, social and other rights.

Dr Mayende reminded those present about the following critical challenges facing the Public Service:

• Improving management, financial accountability and service delivery
• Building the skills base to fit the bill of a highly effective service delivery to a broader population in a globalised environment
• Combating corruption and the abuse of public resources
• Enhancing the motivation of all public sector workers to serve the people of our country

Dr Mayende said he believes the following six elements will help leverage sustainable change and are the foundation assumptions that can yield the highest possible value for the effort invested:

• There must be a process of involving people in a meaningful way
• There must be a process to discover and create shared assumptions
• There must be an underlying research base or some basic information to make good choices
• There must be a systematic approach to change
• There must be striving for dramatic results with a moderate amount of people's time and other resources
• Change management must be made an overall responsibility that is linked to organisational performance

He reminded everybody that "A year ago, you said that there was considerable resistance to change in the Department. You said that there was considerable political infighting and poor morale amongst the groups affected by recommendations of the Decentralisation and Re-Engineering Projects. You asked the CMC and EXCO to approve a Culture Change Intervention that would focus on people in Senior Management. You said these were the people that could provide the greatest opportunity for transformation and achieving the desired public service change".

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Recently the Department of Land Affairs and the German Technical Cooperation joined hands in educating people about the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 at the Justice College in Pretoria.

Dr Jur. Werner Klinter, a lecturer at the Bayerische Civil Service Technikon (Northern Bayerische, Germany) who was sponsored by the German Technical Cooperation presented the two weeks course. Dr Klinter has been in the administration field for the past 16 years, and was assisting the lecturers and the trainees with Training Methodology.

In the first week the focus was on the planning, shaping and the introduction of the Act to the lecturers and the second week was devoted in imparting the theory and practical information to trainees by Registrars of Deeds and Masters Officials from the Justice College.

Other lecturers in the course were Theunis Rudolph and Jakkie Wessels.

The main purpose of this Act is to give effect to the right to administrative action that is lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair and to the right to written reasons for administrative action. The principles of the act are accountability and transparency.

The course trains the trainees in such a way that they can be able to train their colleagues about administration work/duties in their organizations. It is also important for trainees to have better information and knowledge about the administrative decision, that is reasonable and lawful.

Ms Carlize Knoesen, the Deputy Registrar of Deeds: Personnel and Deeds Training Administration in the office of the Chief Registrar of Deeds comments as follows about the Act and the course,"This is one of the best courses I have attended in years. The Act affects every member in the Public Service and every action that we take regarding administration. Therefore the importance of the Act and the course cannot be underestimated."

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By Solly Phetla

The DLA runners continued with their winning streak at the Take 5 Relay Race in Centurion recently by getting gold, silver and bronze medals.

The Department had two teams in the field, and the first team which had amongst its runners Nelson Ndlowu and Meshack Mthombeni, got position 2. The second team received a bronze medal for finishing the race and it had Karel Coetzee, Nosisa Soldati, MacDonald Sedulanoshi, Zukile Dube and the writer as runners.

Prospective runners are requested to join the Runners Club as early as possible to prepare for the 2001 activities. They are also encouraged to train regularly because the 2001 running schedule promises to be hectic.

For more information please contact Zukile Dube (012) 312-8524.

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The Constitution of South Africa requires that the Public Service be:

* Cultivating good human resource management and career development practices to maximise human potential

*  Broadly representative of the South African people, with employment and personnel management practices based on ability, objectivity, fairness, and the need to redress the imbalances of the past.

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The Weather Bureau and Statistics South Africa were announced as the winners of the Interdepartmental Vocational Association for Information and Library Personnel (IVAISLP) Library Personality of the Year and Library of the Year respectively for the year 2000 at the Annual General Meeting of the association here in Pretoria recently.

Ms Karen Marais from the Weather Bureau, who won the Personality of the Year competition, has a visit in 2001 to the United Kingdom included in her prize package. She said her achievement was the result of a great team that always tries to do the best and asked her librarian colleagues to have trust in her when she will be representing them overseas.

"I have now been doing this kind of work for twelve years. I love the subject of my institution - meteorology - passionately and I wish to develop more in my work", she told Journal.

Venessa Du Plessis from SANGONET who was heading the panel of judges for the Library Personality of the Year asked Karen to use her prize for the benefit of herself, her library, her colleagues in IVAISLP and the information profession in general. She mentioned the following characters that counted in Karen's favour for being chosen the Library Personality of the year:

• She leads her library well and shows that she has drive
• Her good interpersonal skills let her handle conflict well
• Her communications skills let her carry her ideas well across to others
• She displays good initiative to promote her library well within her department
• She is an inspiration and a motivation among her colleagues and IVAISLP
• She has insight in the application of information technology and has planned thoroughly for computerization in the library

Venessa added that "She has a clear vision for her library and knows how important a good image in the government circles is".

In commenting on her library's success, the Head of Statistics South Africa's library, Ms Krista Verster said the recognition of her library as the one for 2000 was a crown of hard work. "We took the library from nowhere and now after two and a half years we get this achievement. This is as a result of the support of our management and I must confess that without their support this could never happen", she said.

Krista said part of their prize includes a communications strategy package that will assist them in putting their library more on the map. She said the communications strategy fits well in their plans for in 2001 they are intent on vigorously promoting their library.

The Day's Guest Speaker, Indri De Vaal, an accomplished librarian that now works as a service provider spoke about the information worker in the new millenium. She said their product, information, is very important because everybody needs it, but many mangers do not understand that and in many occassions they call for the closure of libraries.

Ms De Vaal said the fear that has been created by IT in the new millenium has come with uncertainties in the workplace. She said it is crucial for librarians to play different roles.

She mentioned the following opportunities that can be explored in their profession:

• Information management
• IT
• Information resource management
• Publishing (Librarian)
• Records management
• Archiving

"Information workers can play all these roles. Our training encompasses them all", she said.

She encouraged librarians to attend all courses availed to them to improve their skills. She mentioned the Skills Development Act as their support in the workplace.

"Do self-education. Do research. Internet is a very rich field that can be exploited to enhance one's knowledge. We must be proud of what we are doing. We must love our work. This is a long-term career. Be nosy and pro-active. Break walls between yourselves and the senior guys", she said.

All personnel at the DLA Human Resources Centre got prizes in the following manner:

• Zuzette received a book for her commitment to IVAISLP
• Riana received cash and a book for her commitment to IVAISLP and being the first person to register on the day of the AGM
• Jack received a certificate for participating in the Library Personality of the year competition
• Levina received a certificate for participating in the Library Personality of the year
• Doris received a R100-00 and dance lessons vouchers for being the Library Personality in the Making

Other activities of the meeting included the election of a Committee for 2001 and the new members are:

Chairperson: Maryna Botha

Training: Krista Verster

Secretary and Library Assistants Interest Group: Nelly Lukhero

A financial report was made. Acknowledgement was made of the work done by sponsors to IVAISLP and thereafter all present had a mouth-watering lunch.

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The first Multi Purpose Community Centre in the Free State was launched recently by the Free State Provincial Government at Mamahadi in Qwaqwa.

The Free State Provincial Government and the Government Communications and Information Systems in the launch implemented National Cabinet instructions to establish Multi Purpose Community Centers (MPCC) around the Country.

The purpose of these facilities is to bring the intergrated Government Services under the same roof, especially in the marginalised rural communities. The intention is to have some of the different Government Departments delivering services on a full time basis at the Center, and others periodically using the facility to disseminate their communications material.

The Free State Premier Ms Winkie Direko, and many of her MECs, traditional leaders, the local Mayor and her Councillors, officials of different Government Departments, and members of the community of QwaQwa graced the occassion. The premier emphasised the need to intergrate Government services, the need to speed up rural development and community ownership of the center.

At the launch, the FSLRO and the Communication Directorate exhibited DLA promotional material.

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There is common agreement amongst individuals within the Department of Land Affairs, as well as from the public at large, that the delivery of land needs to be speeded up: a concern rightfully justified since people were deprived from accessing land for hundreds of years. Hundreds of thousands of Black people were forcibly removed from their land of birth or were prevented from acquiring land because of discriminatory legislation.

Given the above scenario, fragmented service delivery has been and is still common practice in many areas. This fragmented administration and management approach has resulted in incomplete data, different data standards, inconsistencies and other disparities regarding the same spatial feature/s. To plan holistically one would need to look at services, facilities and other features in relation to one another. The location of mobile clinics, for example, needs to be planned and positioned in relation to existing and planned road networks. From a service delivery point of view, data integration, no matter how time consuming and costly, is essential as this paper seeks to demonstrate.

The study area has been uniquely defined and consists of four magisterial districts, namely KwaMhlanga and Mkobolo which were under the authority of the former self-governing territories and the Bronkhorstspruit and Cullinan magisterial districts of Gauteng which were under the authority of the former Republic of South Africa (RSA).

The present scenario

Most of the data is locked in transversal or in-house departmental systems. The topographical, cadastral and land reform data, for example, are captured, stored, maintained and updated in individual systems which were designed around the data type and line function responsibility.

Every day DLA captures large amounts of data, whether it is to accomplish line function tasks, or to provide information required by its clients. This data is not accessible to those across the country who require it from a single point, simply because there is no Corporate Data Warehouse in place, although there is a plan to make this happen by the end of 2001. At present the linking of data from the various organizational units within DLA is a time consuming and expensive exercise.

In the case of land reform, relocating people without accurate data about facilities, services and potential economic opportunities in proposed sites is a recipe for disaster. Hence, the need to integrate data and the will to plan holistically cannot be overemphasized. It is mainly for this reason that land reform practitioners must accept that land reform should take into account other elements that ensure its sustainability and economic viability in the long term. Some of these elements include an analysis of road network density, access to water, sanitation and potential economic opportunities in areas designated for land reform initiatives.

On a still more serious note, not knowing which land parcels have claims attached to them can result in disastrous situations in the future. For example, decisions taken on land parcels which have claims attached to them would have serious legal implications in the future, when these particular claims are going to be dealt with. From a strategic planning point of view an examination of the country’s state land in relation to the proposed land reform projects would be financially beneficial to the Department. Superfluous state land could be used to support new land reform projects as well as be used for redistribution purposes. The utilization of superfluous state land would save the Department money and time as it would not be compelled to purchase land from private owners at market value. From the above examples, it is abundantly clear that the benefits of data integration and spatial analysis is crucial for any attempt or means to address questions around land delivery in South Africa.

Data integration is vital for effective land delivery. This pilot study provides a glimpse of the opportunities that arise when land data is integrated using GIS. The potential planning benefits that arise when integrating the informal cadastre with that of the formal cadastre, lodged claims and the state land information are immense.

The spatial distribution of informal settlements indicates that various informal settlements occupy state land or land that is possibly privately owned. There are certainly implications in either case.

In the case of informal settlements that occupy state land, there is certainly a case for upgrading of tenure rights. However, the detail and the route by which tenure is upgraded, is a complex one and is loaded with historical events such as forced removals and land allocations to tribes which were perpetuated by the apartheid regime. These issues obviously need to be unpacked by thorough land research and analysis.

In the case of informal settlements that occupy privately owned land, once again knowing where potentially superfluous state land is to be found in proximity to informal settlements that encroach on privately owned land, provides more options to resolve land disputes.

The opportunities for proactively identifying areas for upgrading of tenure rights by integrating land data using GIS will make more options available which certainly pave the way for improving land delivery.

The spatial distribution of lodged claims when examined in relation to spatial distribution of state land occupied by informal settlements reveals some interesting spatial patterns.

A very superficial analysis would have one believe that it is perhaps a particular tribe that is occupying these parcels of state land, and as a result requires an upgrading of tenure rights. Once again the results obtained from this spatial query are not conclusive but indicate a starting point for further land research and analysis. What is interesting is that the various land parcels for upgrading of tenure rights can be identified spatially and categorized by a set of criteria to expedite their upgrading.

The proactive identification of superfluous state land for land reform initiatives using GIS has the following implications:

• Cost effectiveness
• Commitment to land reform
• Judicious use of available resources
• Providing of options

The Onverwacht Development Forum Land Reform Project was developed on state land. The Onverwacht Community has been part of the Land Reform Lead Programme since 1994. There were 114 beneficiaries, which grouped themselves into the Onverwacht Development Forum. These parcels of state land have been used for a housing project.

The implications for examining the spatial distribution of state land in relation to proposed land reform projects would no doubt be financially rewarding to the Department as well as to other government departments. If one chooses to ignore such spatial analysis, then there is the probability that private land has been purchased for a particular land reform initiative when superfluous state land which may be less than a kilometer away could possibly be used. Once again the use of the country’s state land information as an essential data layer to other data layers cannot be overemphasized.

The location of a business in relation to its competitors and markets is crucial in terms of its profitability and sustainability. The areas designated for land reform initiatives too, must be carefully identified in terms of the supporting infrastructure to ensure sustainability and success. In the case of the Onverwacht Project there is transport infrastructure, schools and a clinic. These supporting infrastructures will ensure, to a large extent, the success of the designated housing project. There are other variables such as industries and local economic opportunities that one can factor in. These too, need to be examined spatially in relation to the designated land reform initiatives.

There are various other longer term benefits that would accrue from such spatial planning. For example, the Onverwacht housing project is located on land which has low crop potential. It is only when the crop potential of the country is examined spatially in relation to the location of designated land reform projects that one can ensure that areas of high crop potential are not incorrectly utilized. Using the same methodology, other variables such as rainfall potential, soil conditions etcetera may be factored in when identifying areas with agricultural potential for land reform initiatives.

The capture, maintenance and supply of meta-data is crucial for data sharing and spatial analysis. A culture of meta-data capture, maintenance and supply needs to be woven into the work fabric among all staff in government and private enterprises, as a matter of urgency.

• Implementation of DLA’s Corporate Data Warehouse

Taking into account the impact that the envisaged corporate data warehouse will have on data, storage, dissemination and linkages to existing systems, more financial and personnel resources will be required to ensure its successful implementation.

• Implementation of Corporate GIS

A Corporate or Enterprise GIS would ensure that spatial systems within the Department are aligned to DLA’s core business processes and integrated with the existing systems.

• Data integration and spatial analysis to support Integrated Planning (IP)

Desktop spatial analysis is the basis for proactive intervention to speed up land delivery. It also offers an integrated spatial view of events, as these unfold in relation to each other. The possibilities and benefits of a spatial integrated planning framework as demonstrated in this pilot study cannot be overemphasized.

• Principles for information management

The management of land and land-related information requires an architectural blue print for information management in order to ensure efficient information management, reduce duplication of data collection efforts as well as to provide a basis for the design of effective land management information systems.

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Letters to the editor

Brother "TK"

Re : Social Transformation

While I am representing the NDLA soccer team, "AmaGents", as their chairperson, I would also like to speak on behalf of all social activities that exist in the department. However, there will always be some negative aspects in every organization when people try to do something good and positive. But, the negative and the positive attract each other. So the good will always prevail.

I thank both the previous and the current DGs for their support for social transformation through sport in the department. They believe that as colleagues and friends we should know each better at social level. The saying goes "All work, no play, makes Jack a dull boy".

This also goes for Mr Anton van Staden, for always being by the side of the social activities of the department. For helping us with transport to take teams to and from matches, trips and games. For making time to meet the committees and to ensure that even in his absence we will always be helped.

We all saw Advocate Wallace Mgoqi, at the soccer tournament at the Pretoria Technikon last year. He made sure that "AmaGents" received the Land Claims Commission caps. The rain was meaningless to him, and he brought his family to be with us throughout the tournament.

The DLA Soccer Champions, "AmaGents", are able to make the whole world aware that the DLA cares about AIDS and is also in the struggle to fight the endemic disease. Ms Colly Carey, donated DLA Aids T-shirts to "AmaGents".

The Transformation Programme Office is the best. We are confident that you will treasure the baton left with you by Shanaaz.

"AmaGents" have supporters. To them and all the supporters of social transformation and sport in the Department throughout the country, I say you are great guys. To those I have forgotten to mention here, thank you so much for your support; we really appreciate it.

McDonald Piet Sedulanoshi

for "AmaGents"

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ADVERTISEMENT

EXTENSION OF THE APPLICATION OF THE PROVISIONS OF THE INTERIM PROTECTION OF

INFORMAL LAND RIGHTS ACT, 1996 (Act No. 31 of 1996)
    
    Whereas the application of the provisions of the Interim Protection of
Informal Land Rights Act, 1996 (Act No. 31 of 1996), will expire on 31
December 2000, I, Angela Thokozile Didiza, Minister of Land Affairs, under
section 5(2j) of the said Act, hereby extend the application of the
provisions of the said Act for a further period of 12 months ending on 31
December 2001.
    
T. DIDIZA
MINISTER OF LAND AFFAIRS

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