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September is a significant month for the country as we celebrate Public Service Month. Led by the Department of Public Service and Administration (PSM), this period affords South Africans an opportunity to reflect on the public service and its ability to deliver quality services that meet the expectations of the public in line with government’s Batho Pele programme.

Batho Pele is a Sesotho phrase meaning 'People First', a phrase that the public service has embodied as part of an initiative to make public servants service orientated, to strive for excellence in service delivery and to commit to continuous service delivery improvement. It is a simple and transparent mechanism, which allows citizens to hold public servants accountable for the level of services they deliver.

Public Service Month is an entrenched annual public service programme for celebrating and recognising public servants and their contribution to the lives of ordinary people by putting People First. The 2014 Public Service Month will take place across the public service from 1 to 30 September under the theme: Reinventing the way Public Servants Work: Batho Pele “Putting People First”.

The focus for this year’s Public Service Month includes the endorsement of the Urban Thusong Concept through the official launch of the Maponya Thusong Centre; a pledge to popularise and promote the 2013 Service Charter; and opportunities to broaden consultation on the concept of reinventing how public servants do their work.

The month will also see unannounced visits and deployment of multi-departmental task teams especially senior Managers to frontline service delivery sites; expert-led roundtable engagements to mark the Africa Public Service Day (APSD) which was differed from June to September; with all activities culminating to the Public Service Improvement Indaba.

The summarised programme for PSM is as follows:

31/08/2014 – Launch of PSM and Endorsement of Urban Thusong Centre in Gauteng

4-5/09/2014 – Service Delivery Exhibitions, Head Deployments, Engagements with frontline Public Servants and Unannounced visits in Free State

8-12/09/2014 – Engagements with frontline public servants, Unannounced visits, Khaedu deployment of senior managers to frontline service delivery sites in Western Cape, Limpopo, Kwa-Zulu Natal and Eastern Cape

22-23/09/2014 – Africa Public Service Day roundtable led by Premiers and Provincial HODs in Mpumalanga

25-26/09/2014 – Outreach and service delivery exhibitions in Northern Cape

29-30/09/2014 – Service Delivery Indaba and exhibitions in North West

The programme for the Public Service Month will attract diverse stakeholders across the public service which includes Executive Authorities, selected Chapter Nine (9) and Ten (10) Bodies, public servants, academia, private sector, business, labour, NGOs, CBOs, communities and media.