The fight
against poverty, unemployment, skewed income and the devastating impacts of
HIV/AIDS and other preventable diseases are some of the social challenges facing
African governments, said Prime Minister Nahas Angula during Africa Public
Service Day on 23 June. ?All these social evils are broadly speaking a
consequence of under-development. In reality, the challenge facing Africa is the
challenge of underdevelopment. Given the weak market players in Africa, the
state has a pivotal role to lead the fight against underdevelopment?, said
Angula. He said in Africa the state must play a pivotal role in bringing
meaningful change to the lives of the majority of Africa?s people. Africa Public
Service Day was celebrated under the theme ?The Role of the State in the
Reconstruction of Africa?. The role of the state, say Angula, were two
interacting roles. ?These are service delivery and dynamic social
transformational?. As a service provider, the state should ensure the provision
of critical common goods. These include the strengthening of institutions of
governance, law and order, political stability, infrastructure, health,
education, rules of the game, etc. In other words, the State should provide
conditions for democratic governance, peace and stability. Under dynamic social
transformation, African states ?should play the role of transforming the
stagnant pre-capitalist and pre-industrial societies into dynamic, industrial
capitalist societies. In this sense, the state will serve as a catalyst for
bringing about massive interventions in economic development in order to
maximise growth?. These interventions may include policies like land
redistribution, the management of growth-generating rents, re-ordering of
property rights, for example, to deal with ?dead capital? in communal lands,
creation of regulatory and industrial policy and the protection of emerging
national endogenous entrepreneurs. If the state was going to fulfil its roles of
service delivery and social transformation, the Public Service should be the
leading agency in this endeavour. Such a Public Service should be free from rent
seeking and corruption. The Public Service should be professional and free from
political interference. In short, the Public Service should be meritocratic.
Such a Public Service should provide efficient, effective and accountable
service to the public. ?This is the challenge of the African Public Service
today. Unless the African Public Service is able to support the state in its
developmental and transformational mission, African underdevelopment will remain
an enduring challenge to the generations to come?.