Most municipalities fail to obtain clean audits, yet they are the sphere of government that interfaces directly with the lived experiences of South Africans.

National departments are also plagued by poor performance, with abuse of state resources by public servants who do business with the government becoming more commonplace. The sluggish performance of our public service has prompted a sharp response from leading politicians such as Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

These ministers have expressed the urgency of cleaning up the government, proposing, among other interventions, the appointment of a chief procurement officer, upgrading the skills of public servants via the skills audit that is under way and putting an end to the common practice of public servants doing business with the state.

The painful thing about the state of our public service is the fact that it arrests South Africa’s potential and has a demoralising effect on those government officials who are hardworking and motivated by a commitment to serve their country.

The good ones are overshadowed by the rising army of incompetents, who are often following the lead of their ministers.

A well-functioning public service creates confidence for citizens and the outside world. It acts as a concrete expression of visionary leadership and is a hallmark of governments that are committed to improving the quality of life of their people. If you want to know how much a government holds its people in esteem and values socioeconomic progress, you need only look at the state of its public service. There you will find your answer.

Government departments in any country tell a rich story about the commitments of its political leadership. In South Africa, what our politicians have been very good at is churning out rhetoric about transformation and the need for a developmental state without an understanding of what these concepts mean in practice. Their behaviour gives an impression of a ruling elite that is antidevelopment and antitransformation.

The recent pronouncements by politicians, including Manuel, that the government will shift gear and restructure the public service have not attracted much interest, in part because what the government promises never really materialises. So, the government has a huge credibility deficit. It is not the first time the notion of reforming the public service has been pronounced on by a minister.

Our underperforming public service is symptomatic of a much deeper malaise — of a degenerative political culture and politicians who are disconnected from reality. Those ministers holding critical portfolios in the government seem out of their depth. Apart from President Jacob Zuma, there are a few other known examples of ministers whose existence in the public service is worth as good as nothing. These include Angie Motshekga, Dina Pule, Susan Shabangu and Tina Joemat-Pettersson — all presiding over portfolios crucial to the overall performance of the economy, yet underperforming.

There is no shortage of ideas about what needs to be done to restructure the public service. This drum has been beaten since the mid-1990s.

When I first joined the public service 13 years ago, concepts such as public-service reform, performance management systems, skills audits, and the "Batho Pele" or "People First" philosophy were part of management-speak across the government. It was a paper revolution with no evidence of success. So depleted are the institutional capabilities of the state that, in three years, the government spent R102bn on consultants, according to the auditor-general.

The main challenge with the dysfunction of the public service has to do with political will, norms that are weakly embedded in the system and a leadership that has no concept of the value of the public service beyond their own personal interests. That is primarily what needs to be addressed.

Undertaking skills audits and rationalising the functions of departments is just scratching the surface.

One manifestation of a lack of ethos and political will is the fact that public servants are allowed to hold party-political positions, which they could use as leverage against the managers in their departments. The other manifestation is the grip that Congress of South African Trade Unions-affiliated unions, such as the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union, have on the public service, unions that in the past have blocked efforts to restructure the public service.

The problems plaguing our public service are political and it is at that level that we need to pay attention if we want to see real results. More action and less rhetoric is what is required to close the credibility gap.

This article appeared in the Business Day of 8 March 2013