The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) will host a webinar on the rights and responsibilities of public servants wanting to participate on the upcoming local government elections.

The Webinar, to take place on Friday 10, September 2021, seeks to create a conversation on service delivery and elections as cornerstone of democratic society, reflecting on the significance of regular elections in building local democracy and strengthening citizen trust and the rights and responsibility for public servants who want to stand as candidates or wish to assist the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) as voting officials.

The event will have University of South Africa (UNISA)’s Professor KJ Maphunye and the Director for Ethics, Integrity and Conduct Management at the DPSA, Ms Pleasure Matshego, deliberate on this year’s elections programme and regulation 15 of the Public Service Regulations, 2016, which regulate the public employees’ participation as candidates for elections, prohibition of public servants from conducting business with an organ of the state as well as those employees who wish to perform other remunerative work outside employment in their departments.

This year’s local government elections is scheduled to take place November 1, 2021.

The Webinar forms part of the month- long integrated Public Service Month (PSM) programme which is taking place from 30 August to 01 October 2021 across all three spheres of government under the theme: “The Year of Charlotte Maxeke – a resilient public service responsive to the coronavirus pandemic”.

The PSM is a service delivery improvement mechanism and an integral part of the Batho Pele Revitalization strategy that serves as a month set aside to honour men and women who serve the nation, as well as a mechanism to assess the quality of service delivery with a view to address the aspects that are found to be sub-standard and/or evident that the Batho Pele strategy is being compromised.

Source: Government of South Africa