Innovation in Action
The DCS is making a difference through innovation
Contact details: Directorate Service Delivery Improvement • Johanna.Prozesky@dcs.gov.za, George.Rudman@dcs.gov.za,
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1
The CPSI Awards
Ceremony will take place
on 06 Nov 2009. Two of the
DCS projects have already
been shortlisted and we are
looking forward to bringing
some trophies home.
DCS External Innovation
Partners
• Centre for Public Service
Innovation www.cpsi.co.za
• Development Bank SA:
www.dbsa.org.za
• Innovation Hub: www.
theinnovationhub.com
• U N Public Administration
Network: www.unpan.org
• National Advisory
Council on Innovation:
www.naci.org.za
IDEAS THAT WORK
is an Innovation Journal launched
by the CPSI in August in Cape
Town. Copies have been sent to
the regions (DRC’s Offices). A
DCS Gauteng innovation is one
of the feature articles.
Innovation in the public
sector is defined as “finding
new ways to perform
better” (MacPherson)
“Creativity is thinking up new
things. Innovation is doing new
things.”
- Theodore Levitt
Samson.Moulangwe@dcs.gov.za
NOVEMBER 2009
Innovation in Action is the first national internal eNewsletter to be
circulated in the DCS. It is one of the deliverables of the Innovation
Management Project, managed by the Directorate Service Delivery
Improvement. The purpose is to provide all members with regular feed-
back on innovation processes, project progress and participation in
National and International Innovation Awards processes. The newslet-
ter will also enhance the institutionalization of Innovation Management
at all levels within the Department.
Annual Public Sector Awards, hosted by the Centre for Public Service
Innovation (CPSI) 2009.
The Department of Correctional Services is proud to announce that we have
entered 11 projects for these awards, WC (4), FSNC (1) and Gauteng (6). Over the
coming weeks we will highlight some of the submissions in order to show how
we are impacting communities through innovation in service delivery. The follow-
ing two projects are finalists in the CPSI awards.
Project: School desk refurbishment
(Mangaung Correctional Centre, Free State/Northern Cape)
The Mangaung Correctional Centre sub-
mitted an entry highlighting their project
which involves the refurbishment of school
desks through the use of offender labour.
Old obsolete desk frames are collected
from schools within the greater Bloemfon-
tein area and are refurbished by replacing
the wooden top and spraying the frames
thereby making them look like new again.
These refurbished desks are then donated
to pre-identified previously disadvantaged
schools in need of desks to be used by
School learners happy with their new desks
the learners. The success of the project
is evident through the achievement of 1015 refurbished desks between 2005 and 2009.
This project is also a partnership with DCS stakeholders in Mangaung.
Project: Mbombela Soccer Field
(Goodwood Centre of Excellence, Western Cape)
The absence of sports and recreation
facilities at the Goodwood Centre of Ex-
cellence provided the motivation to build
a soccer field. The lack of facilities made
it difficult for rehabilitation to be executed
to its full potential as sports and recreation
forms an integral part of the rehabilita-
tion process. The soccer field has been
named Mbombela, meaning everybody
working as a collective in achieving one
common goal. The primary objective is for Building the soccer field
offenders and officials to utilise the sports
field. The secondary objective is to include youth in future, from nearby communities
and embark on programmes supporting youth development. Partnerships were also
forged with Ajax Cape Town for the provisioning of Soccer Clinics to offenders and later
for communities, which will support and enhance existing youth development efforts.