Mbeki calls for deficiencies in public sector to be urgently addressed

JOHANNESBURG - Former president Thabo Mbeki has again called for deficiencies in the public sector to be urgently addressed to avoid a further collapse of the civil service. 

Mbeki made the call while delivering the keynote address at the inaugural Professor Stan Sangweni Annual Memorial Lecture in Pretoria on the weekend.

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A governance crisis, underqualified public servants, and corruption are among the challenges that have long been identified as weakening the public sector. 

Mbeki said a failure to find interventions for these challenges will be costly for the country's development agenda. 

"Speaking frankly, I must admit that it is difficult to believe that political conditions exist to bring into existence the capable, ethical and developmental state. Much will have to be done to avoid the dismal reality of the emasculated state and indeed, this will be the major tasks of the forthcoming national dialogue, realistically to show the way forward, the creation of that ethical and developmental state."