The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) says that a new people strategy including improving recruitment into strategic positions is needed to turn municipalities into more professional and responsive entities, reports the South African Government News Agency.

Speaking yesterday (5 March) ahead of a two-day HR conference in Midrand, SALGA executive director Rio Nolutshungu says pushing up standards and recruiting good people would go hand-in-hand in making jobs in the sector the “career of choice”.

Key hires need to have the right educational achievements, the “highest level of integrity” and they must be committed to serving the community, he says. More broadly, desirable employees are “people who are prepared to go the extra mile in serving the needs of the people, professional, constantly learning and developing themselves”.

And Nolutshungu concludes that learning from the private sector’s workforce planning, retention and performance, will also be important, saying he wants to put HR issues “at the forefront of local government”.

• Click for more on recruitment issues in the public sector in the UK and overseas via recruiter.co.uk, and see Global Spotlight on South Africa (Recruiter, January 2012) for more on the South African market in particular.