BATHO PELE WILL GO A LONG WAY TO FIX ILLS
GOOD service delivery is vital for any community.
It is an important element that all ruling governments across the world must adhere to when coming into power after an election.
After all, service delivery is what their election campaigns are premised on – good delivery of basic services.
Over the past few years, more than ever before, plenty of people are leaving their homes in search of a better life elsewhere.
The United Nations projects that by 2030, the number of people living in cities would have risen to 5 billion.
This means the resources required to govern a particular city will be stretched further and further as governments and municipalities seek to accommodate the high number of city residents.
But even then, how do those in power meet the demands of highly populous communities and fulfil the mandate of Sustainable Development Goal 11 – sustainable cities and communities?
A few months ago, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party known as the APP in New Delhi, India, introduced doorstep delivery of public services to its residents.
The services included driving licences and marriage certificates. The aim of the APP was to ensure these services were delivered to residents at the place of their choice.
Through this process, applicants can set a date and time for mobile sahayaks to visit their homes to collect forms, documents and fees.
When the documents have been processed and are ready, they are sent back to their homes via speed post.
Times are adjusted to suit the applicant’s needs. In February, APP added 30 more doorstep projects in the city to fast track service.
Some may ask why so much effort and, in South Africa, where do we even start when some of the systems are failing.
APP’s provision of speedy services to a city with a population of 29 million people has nothing to do with luxury but simply speaks of a political party that has committed to finding innovative solutions and putting its people first.
This move is precisely what the South African government should premise its Batho Pele project around – placing the country’s citizens first by making their lives easier and speeding up development.
The notion that in 2019, a grandmother or a heavily pregnant woman has to leave home at 4am to line up for services at a packed hospital or clinic is symptomatic of regress in our society.
Crowds queuing for hours for their grants; to obtain their IDs or passports (despite Home Affairs declaring war on long lines) or driving licences is proof enough that the country needs a new approach.
Perhaps public servants should leave their air-conditioned offices and go to the masses.
Yes, we have seen SA healthcare workers go into communities and provide much-needed services and medicine to ailing patients.
We’ve also witnessed departments such as Sars establishing innovative ways to cut down on snaking queues.
But what about the other departments?
Helen Clark, administrator of the UN Development Programme once said: “Often big resources to support a country only come when it is plunged into severe crisis when a stitch in time might have saved nine.”
Our government departments can no longer wait until the 11th hour to fix small cracks in the system which have often turned into monumental disasters needing even bigger resources to fix the issue.
Maybe what New Delhi has done may not be specifically tailored for our societies or work the exact same way, but it is an example we can all learn from.