Former health Minister, premier and Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Zweli Mkize graduated with a Master of Administration degree from the institution on Tuesday.
Mkhize’s study was titled “Service delivery at the Provincial Sphere of Government: A Case Study of Operation Sukuma Sakhe (OSS) in KwaZulu-Natal”.
The university has a total of 7 795 graduands at its 2024 Autumn Graduation which ends on May 14.
Mkhize is a medical doctor and politician who served as the fifth premier of KZN and was a member of uMkhonto we Sizwe.
As minister of health under President Cyril Ramaphosa, Mkhize played a central role in South Africa's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, he resigned in 2021 amid allegations that he benefited improperly from a state contract awarded by the Department of Health to a communications company called Digital Vibes.
Mkhize has gone to court to have the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report into the matter reviewed and set aside and had requested evidence, documents and arguments before the court so he could clear his name.
Mkhize described the completion of the Masters degree as “an issue that was outstanding in the things I needed to do in my life”.
He said the background to the study on OSS started when he became premier in 2009.
“We were faced with a number of challenges which were about a huge amount of public discontent on service delivery and inadequate resources.
“People were saying they did not want to only see the government every five years, they wanted to feel that the government was always present.”
He said the provincial government was challenged to find an innovative way of structuring service delivery.
“So I led as premier in the implementation of an innovative approach which we called Operation Sukuma Sakhe and this was implemented in KwaZulu-Natal, resulting in lower numbers of public protests, and in fact, as a result I was voted the top premier in South Africa.
“This operation was for us a very effective model and then ultimately, the national government also adapted it to be what is now called the district development model.”
Mkhize said he then decided to evaluate the model from an academic research perspective to get an objective view from outside the KZN government.
“I have done this research and I have personally interviewed 22 people who were practitioners or were associated with the OSS model.
“I had valuable lessons that actually were based on the government’s theories and also on the public administration and public management theories on how we can actually improve on the district development model using the lessons from the OSS.
“So for me, it was one way of evaluating the work of government, but also to look back on something that I had been part of when it started.”
Mkhize said five convergence principles were needed to make OSS effective to improve service delivery.
“These are to promote co-operative governance, to promote inter-governmental relations, to promote good governance and also to promote integration of services and democratic participation, which is community participation that made people feel that they work with the government every day and do not wait for five years.
“It also brought services to every ward and therefore made the government to be with the people, that is what OSS brought about,” Mkhize said.
THE MERCURY