Branches

 Branches

• Executive Governance and Integration
• Provincial Strategic Management
• People Management  
• Centre for e-Innovation
• Legal Services
• Corporate Assurance

Executive Governance and Integration

The Branch strategically supports the Department, Cabinet, the Accounting Officer and the Provincial Top Management through good governance support and executive secretariat support for effective decision making by the Executive. It also enables the Accounting Officer (Director-General) to comply with his corporate responsibilities.

The Branch - 

• provides operational administrative support to the Premier and the Director-General;
• provides secretariat, logistical and decision support services to Cabinet, the Premier’s intergovernmental relations forums, the Provincial Top Management and the Department of the Premier’s Executive Committee;
• facilitates the departmental strategic management processes;
• manages occupational health and safety arrangements for the Department;
• is institutionalising Knowledge Management in the Department;
• ensures effective budget management, accounting services and internal control;
• ensures the management of procurement, provisioning, assets and departmental records and general support services; and
• coordinates external communication and public engagement in order to ensure that the WCG communicates its strategic goals and service delivery outcomes to the people of the Western Cape.

The Department’s Deputy Information Officer function is also provided for in this Branch.

Provincial Strategic Management

Provincial Strategic Management leads in institutionalising data-led and evidence-based approaches for learning and decision making across provincial departments, and to strategically support and enable provincial departments to implement programmes, adopt best practices and drive innovation.

Functional units include:

Policy and Strategy: to lead and coordinate evidence-based policy and strategy development, planning and review, and support policy implementation and innovation

Strategic Management Information: to lead and coordinate data and evidence as a strategic asset across departments through results-based monitoring and evaluation and province-wide data governance within the role of a Provincial Data Office

International and Priority Programmes: to lead and coordinate the institutionalisation of strategic programmes supporting strategy implementation and service delivery. Strategic programmes include international relations, frontline monitoring and support, and human rights and gender mainstreaming

The Branch also supports participatory governance engagements and creates partnerships with citizens and the international community. Furthermore, it provides support to the Western Cape Office of the Commissioner for Children, which is aimed at assisting our province in promoting and protecting the rights and interests of children.

People Management  

The Branch: People Management provides a people management service to Western Cape Government departments. People Management aims to ensure service excellence through the employment of highly capable individuals, a performance-conducive workplace and employee engagement driven by leadership.

Functional units include:

Organisation Development: to enable improvements in organisational effectiveness and service delivery through planned employee engagement interventions within departments

People Training and Empowerment: to ensure people development through training and relevant learning programmes, developing workplace skills plans and facilitating the awarding of bursaries to servicing employees in the 11 Corporate Services Centre departments, as well as internships

People Management Practices: to attract and retain talent through the development of a people management policy, workforce planning and analytics and transactional excellence in respect of people management practices

Centre for e-Innovation

The Branch enables service delivery excellence through information and communication technologies. The Centre for e-Innovation (Ce-I) provides a comprehensive information and communication technology (ICT) service to the Western Cape Government (WCG) and maintains its digital technology ecosystem. The Branch drives the WCG Digital Transformation Plan, shaping the provincial digital government agenda and works in partnership with departments to plan and implement business-aligned ICT initiatives and provide services to citizens.

The Ce-I also coordinates corporate IT governance, provides IT support services, and manages the transversal ICT infrastructure, the rollout of public and organisational broadband and the development of provincial-wide and department-specific IT applications, systems and digital services. The Branch enables public access to government information and services by managing and maintaining citizen contact channels. These include the WCG Contact and Walk-in centres, email services, social media, the official website, and more than 1 000 public WiFi hotspots. Through its Cape Access Programme, Ce-I equips and maintains 74 e-Centres across the province where citizens can access free internet, computers and digital skills training.

Functional units include:

Strategic ICT Services: to conduct research and development and coordinate corporate IT governance and the digital government agenda

Government Information Technology Office: to manage the internal IT service desk and distributed computing environment, develop department-specific IT solutions and provide IT service management

Connected Government and Infrastructure Services: to provide connectivity to all WCG sites, the WCG’s transversal ICT infrastructure, and public WiFi hotspots

Transversal Application Services: to development transversal applications, including WCG mobile platform applications and digital platforms for citizen engagement

Project Office: to manage ICT projects in the WCG, including project frameworks and standards

Legal Services

Legal Services provides a comprehensive legal support service to the Western Cape Government (WCG). The Branch strategically supports Cabinet, Provincial Top Management and the Director-General in his transversal role as envisaged in the Public Service Act and in his role as Accounting Officer for the Department, by providing legal governance and advisory services to ensure legally sound decision making, providing for the legislative drafting requirements of the provincial Executive, and providing a legal support service in respect of litigation instituted by or against the WCG.

Functional units include:

Legislation: to provide for the legislative drafting requirements of the provincial Executive

Litigation: to provide a legal support service in respect of litigation, working in conjunction with the Office of the State Attorney

Legal Advisory and Governance Services: to provide corporate legal advisory services to members of the Executive and provincial departments

The work of the Branch contributes to upholding the constitutional values and principles of public administration and the rule of law, focused on the progressive realisation of socioeconomic rights and social justice as outlined in the Bill of Rights.

Corporate Assurance

The Corporate Assurance Branch contributes to the improvement of governance across the Western Cape Government (WCG). The Branch is not the sole contributor to transforming governance, but provides assurance that risks are being identified and managed, and that allegations of fraud and corruption are investigated and acted upon. Its strategy is to inspire, enable and assure good governance for the benefit of all citizens.

Functional units include:

Enterprise Risk Management: to improve governance through embedded risk management within departments

Internal Audit: to provide management with independent and objective assurance and consulting services designed to add value and improve the operations of the WCG

Provincial Forensic Services: to improve WCG governance through the prevention of and response to fraud and corruption

Corporate Communication: to ensure that the strategic goals of the WCG are communicated to the people of the Western Cape, and provide a communication advisory and support service to departments and the provincial Executive

Please refer to our organogram, or Annual Performance Plan for a more detailed overview of each Branch.

Get to know our Branch Heads.