The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) has confirmed that all government departments will be legally mandated to submit productivity assessment reports from the end of March 2021.

The reports will be assessed in accordance with a tool developed by the DPSA, which was approved by the Minister in July 2018.

After Ministerial approval, the assessment tool had been in a trial phase with 25 departments to refine it and fix issues before it was officially released to all departments.

South Africa has 46 national government departments.

DPSA productivity and efficiency studies director Ismail Davids confirmed – during a seminar hosted by the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Mesereti Centre of Capacity Development (MCCD) on July 24 – that productivity in a public-sector context could not be measured in a traditional manner by considering input and output.

Rather, he said, productivity in the public sector was the sum of efficiency and effectiveness in bringing public value, service delivery and accountability.

The productivity tool developed by the DPSA, in collaboration with various expert stakeholders and government departments, measures productivity according to labour, operations and performance.

To date, Davids said, the biggest challenge with productivity assessment of and reporting by government departments had been the quality of data at their disposal.

He suggested that every department create frameworks for data management and digitalise data capturing and monitoring activities.

Meanwhile, in terms of the productivity of the economy in recent years, government entity Productivity South Africa (SA) chief economist Dr Leroi Raputsoane said South Africa’s output had been growing, albeit at a slow average yearly rate of 1% from 2014 until this year, when Covid-19 started impacting on the economy.

He explained that the tertiary sector had been growing the most over the past five years, owing to growth in financial services; however, the primary sector – agriculture and mining activities – still accounted for half the economy’s productivity.

Productivity SA finds that capital productivity has been growing, despite lower levels of capital investment, meaning that money is being used efficiently and effectively.

This is in spite of labour use numbers having been growing – more people getting into economic activity – but labour productivity not having grown proportionately.

National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa CEO Michael Mabasa expected new-vehicle sales, production and exports to decline by 25% this year, owing to Covid-19 restrictions and impacts.

“This is particularly worrying for an industry that contributes 6.4% of gross domestic product and employs close to 470 000 people.”

Mabasa said South Africa produced 631 983 vehicles last year, with 38 7125 vehicles, valued at R150-billion, having been exported.

The automotive industry constitutes about 30% of the overall manufacturing output of South Africa.

South Africa has 41 automotive brands in the market, of which seven produce vehicles in the country, including BMW, Ford, Isuzu, Toyota, Nissan and Volkswagen.

Mabasa said the ability of the automotive manufacturing industry to regain productivity was influenced by the negative projected growth rate for the economy of up to –16%, the unemployment rate exceeding 30%, and the severe deterioration of business and consumer confidence, as well as the downgrading of South Africa’s credit rating by ratings agencies.

Up to the outbreak of Covid-19, the automotive manufacturing industry had been steadily increasing its productivity, with the average number of vehicles produced per employee each year standing at 20.9, compared with 18.5 in 2012 and 10 in 1995.

The seminar aimed to investigate how productivity could be improved to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19 and mobilise partnerships for productivity promotion initiatives.

MCCD director Sisa Njikelana said market appetite for productivity services in South Africa was evident and that productivity was a useful management tool.

“The current economic decline has prompted us to provide these services and see if there is a way to further enhance market appetite for productivity services. Historically, South African productivity institutions date back to 1968.”