Kempton Park – Public servants have been called to go all out and serve the South African public with pride.
“As public servants, let us go all out in numbers with a positive attitude to work with our communities,” said Public Service and Administration Director General Mashwahle Diphofa on Tuesday.
Speaking at the launch of this year’s Public Service Month event held at the Emperors Palace in Kempton Park, Diphofa said: “Public Service Month affords us an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on our performance as public officials as well as make an assessment of the services we render to the general public.
“In our democracy, one of the prime duties of the state is to ensure a realisation to the rights of its citizens, not only to guarantee their freedoms through the carefully structured relations among the different institutions, but also to advance their rights and opportunities to access services”.
This year’s Public Service Month is celebrated under the theme “Moving South Africa Forward: Taking services to the people”.
In line with the theme, Diphofa explained that during the Public Service Month, senior managers in the public service will be deployed to frontline service points to identify service delivery bottlenecks and implement the interventions that are needed.
“We need to do a thorough introspection on how far we have gone to ensure that there is compliance to Batho Pele principles.
“As public servants, our commitment to action goes beyond the month of September to a year-long programme of action on taking the public service to the people,” he said.
Public Service Month, which is celebrated annually during the month of September, highlights government services, celebrate commitment, dedication and excellence of public servants who go the extra mile in the delivery of services.
During last year’s Public Service Month, the Department of Public Service and Administration conducted consultations with 350 frontline public servants in eight provinces.
“Overall, the frontline staff we spoke to are committed to the public service. They made a number of proposals on how they can be more productive in their work,” he said.
According to Diphofa, the consultations provided an opportunity to engage on critical issues relating to service delivery.
According to the department, this year’s Public Service Month will be filled with activities that includes a Public Service Indaba which will focus on taking public services to the people, service delivery exhibitions and the deployment of senior managers to frontline Thusong Centres.
Public Service Month is an integral part of the Batho Pele Revitalisation strategy which seeks to instil and rebuild good ethics, morale and pride in public servants. – SAnews.gov.za
