4.1 Bureaucracy
4.1.3 Analysing the implications
The attitude of civil servants can to a large extent be seen as a reflection of how the government behaves towards them. If the government does not treat civil servants as if they are a valuable part of society and as citizens who are fulfilling a moral duty to society, it is no wonder that civil servants themselves no longer feel that way. Many street-level bureaucrats such as teachers and nurses work in extremely difficult environments, for long hours and low pay. To make matters worse, the higher-level bureaucrats are often paid disproportionately more than street-level bureaucrats compounding the latter‟s sense of under-appreciation. This is seen most clearly in the previously discussed case of municipal workers who are refused pay increases for lack of funds while higher level municipal workers receive huge salaries.43 In order to have an effective civil service, civil servants have to have the public interest at heart, or alternatively they have to be paid enough for it to be an incentive to work hard. The South African government maintains that it does not have the funds to pay civil servants
43 SAPA. 2010, Municipal Strike continues, April 13 edn, News24, http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Municipal- strike-continues-20100413, [6 May 2010].
76
any higher wages. This may be true but one wonders whether it would be possible to rearrange the pay scale to be more equitable and to reflect the value of the work of street-level bureaucrats. In this way, it could motivate street-level bureaucrats as their work would be acknowledged as valuable to the government. The alternative is that if the government cannot pay enough to motivate good work, they need to find a means of motivation elsewhere. It is the lost sense of duty and honour that is missing from the civil service that needs to be found. If being a civil servant is considered a moral and worthwhile career choice, there is more incentive to perform this job efficiently. One of the key ways to engender this kind of attitude has to be through the government – either through higher pay, or through an active campaign to show appreciation and respect to those who are implementing government policy at the street level. Instead, the government is treating the bureaucracy as a tool for job creation. COSATU and the ANC have been in conflict over the issues of unemployment and labour laws: the government seeks to reduce unemployment, a goal which COSATU of course supports.
COSATU remains adamant however that relaxing labour laws will not reduce unemployment.44 The government thus uses the civil service as a means of creating jobs – this reduces unemployment and at the same time maintains the current labour laws. In this way, the government can keep all parties content. The problem however is that this job creation can create a perception that the jobs in the civil service are there purely for the sake of there being another job available. This undermines the value of these jobs in the eyes of civil servants and citizens which in turn can reduce the willingness of civil servants to perform the often difficult jobs properly.
Citizens
The government needs to reinforce the value of civil servants both to the civil servants themselves, and to the general public. In this way the civil servants, and their jobs, will become more respected. Perhaps part of the problem is that currently the average
44 Amendments not a solution, says COSATU. 2009, Legalbrief
http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=2002073065599999 [17 July 2010].
77
citizen does not value the work that civil servants do and thus treat with them a sense of expectancy rather than gratitude. The negative attitude toward civil servants is reinforced by bad service which encourages citizens to expect the worst of civil servants.
Looking to the free primary healthcare survey, 74percent percent of survey respondents agreed and strongly agreed that „if patients don‟t pay for their services they don‟t value them‟ and 93percent agreed or strongly agreed that „patients abuse the system of free health care‟ (Walker and Gibson 2004:1255). These statistics highlight the lack of respect and expectant attitude that citizens have toward the civil service. In South Africa, a large amount of the work that civil servants do is provided to the public for free so it is disconcerting that citizens appear willing to exploit the system when it has no direct cost to them. Civil servants are tasked with helping citizens and so while the service they provide is free, this does not reduce the value of the civil servants time.
Citizens therefore perhaps need to make the distinction between cost and value – just because the service that civil servants offer is free to citizens should not entitle citizens to treat those providing the service as if they have no value.
The failure to make this distinction can also be seen in the average citizen‟s focus on wealth accumulation and self-interest in the economic sphere. Marquand suggests that there are three spheres in society – the private sphere of family, the economic sphere of commerce and the public sphere (2004:35). The public sphere is the sphere where citizens are able to act as equals. Marquand argues that the spheres are blurred in contemporary society (2004:35). The overlap between the two spheres means that a job‟s worth is often determined by its prestige and wealth accumulation prospects rather than by the value the work adds to society. In many cases it is likely that citizens are not even aware of the conditions in which civil servants work and are thus unable to empathise with them. The civil service is part of the public sphere – it is not supposed to be a commercial enterprise or an institution seeking to make profit. Society has come to treat the civil service as a part of the private sphere– they expect to deal with civil
78
servants in a consumer (versus service) relationship and civil servants have accepted this shift. The problem is that the bureaucracy does not work in the same way a company does – pay and promotion is often not based on performance and one is often not paid nearly as much, or given as many opportunities to rise up the salary scale, as those in the private sector. Civil servants perhaps feel trapped in a situation where they perform the same job as many in the private sector, although often in far worse conditions, yet they are not rewarded for their harder work in pay or promotion, and are in general treated with less respect. Society needs to distinguish between the public and private sectors – there needs to be recognition that it is not the same job. In the private sector one is acting in one‟s own economic self-interest yet in the public domain one is serving the community and should be acknowledged for doing so.