Pretoria - South Africa is today leading celebrations to mark Africa Public Service Day, a day set aside by African countries to share best practices, challenges and progress in respect of transformation programmes in government.
To mark the day, Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is leading a roundtable on the African Charter on Values and Principles of the Public Service and Administration in Cape Town.
The roundtable will bring other ministers for public service and administration from various African Union-affiliate governments.
They will hold discussions around issues affecting the public service, while emphasising the principles of the charter, which was adopted in 1994.
The charter, among others, promotes the principles and values of the public service, while it ensures quality and innovative service delivery.
The charter also highlights transparency and collective participatory governance, which are seen as the most effective way of speedily and constantly taking services directly to the people, while continuous monitoring and evaluation of such service delivery will ensure efficiency and eliminate corruption in all its forms.
Gender equality and the prohibition of all forms of discrimination on any basis, including place of origin, race, gender, disability, religion, ethnicity, political opinion, lawful organisational affiliation are also held in high esteem by the charter.
In all, it emphasises respect for human rights, dignity and integrity for all, as well as fairness and due processes in the delivery of public services.
Last week, Cabinet commended public servants for the good work done and challenged the public service cadre to come up with new initiatives and innovations to obtain feedback from citizens on services rendered as part of ensuring a responsive government committed to meeting the basic needs of the public.
