‘Civil servants must be apolitical’

Sector Management Training Programme workshop hosted by Africa University in Harare last Friday, Minister Matibenga said the civil service was a critical arm of Government, which should maintain high levels of ethics and professionalism.
Delegates from other countries such as Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho and Tanzania attended the workshop.
“As an institution of State, the civil service is financed by public funds and as such it is expected to serve all people irrespective of their political affiliation.
“A major challenge of the civil service is to attain a greater degree of professionalism and be staffed with qualified professionals with high sense of ethical conduct and dedication to promote public interest,” she said.
Minister Matibenga said it was important to re-orient the civil service for it to be more responsive to the needs and values of its audiences.
To attain this, Minister Matibenga said there                      was need for continuous professional and ethical               training.
She said African governments should work to curb the scourge of corruption, which is believed to be rampant in most government departments.
Minister Matibenga said it was impressive to note that the workshop was designed to deal with civil service challenges by equipping the public sector managers with relevant skills and competencies.
She said African countries should not continue to blame colonialism for under-development.
Minister Matibenga said the countries should come up with a new crop of public service managers who are professionally qualified.
“In this regard, training ethics, professionalism and productivity constitutes one of the several capacity building strategies meant to equip our public sector managers with requisite management and governance skills aimed at spearheading our countries’ development efforts,” she said.
The objective of the workshop was to improve performance of the public sector through the provision of a balanced academic and professional training.