Page 15 - DPSA - Service Delivery Report

Heeding the call to serve
PUBLIC SERVICE
Those young people who are swelling the ranks of the Public Service and making a mark while at it, ought to be celebrated, writes Themba Nkosi.
“If you don’t come from a rich fami- ly, then you must build your own rich family,” Humbulani Oscar Tshivhase remarks with a naughty chuckle.
That’s of one of the things that Hum- bulani says during an interview on this wintry day at his Department of Pub- lic Service (DPSA) office in Pretoria, Gauteng. Humbulani, aged 36, mostly strikes one as a quiet and regular pub- lic servant, putting in the daily hours like the more than a million others. Very few people get to see this side of Humbulani when the personal and the professional simultaneously and pub- licly come to the fore.
Yet, there is more to Humbulani’s seemingly private exterior than meets the eye. Since being hard working and dedicated are to be expected (or should be) of a public servant, it is in the personal that one finds surprising things about him. Most intriguing is the fact that Humbulani is a storehouse of life’s good advice, which makes him worthy of a Steven Covey, the author of the widely read personal motivation- al book, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. Not many people are privy to the fact that this young pub- lic servant devotes time to write tidbits
of inspirational words. He occasionally shares these with followers and friends on social media platforms. “Most peo- ple really think that I am a quiet person ... in actual fact, I talk a lot, especially in meetings and on issues pertaining to work,” Humbulani confesses.
And a lot of talk could be squeezed into an over 600-kilometres long journey; the distance between where Humbu- lani was born and raised in a village called Thononda, about 40kms from the bustling town of Thohoyandou in Limpopo, and Pretoria Gauteng, and where he now works and resides. There is also plenty to talk about if one were born third of a family of nine siblings that finds itself on the harsher side of the urban/rural divide.
For example, one could talk about one’s lived experiences of the urban/ rural divide itself. The sparse services and dearth of opportunities. Howev- er, it is the talk of personal obstacles and odds he overcame, which is most inspiring. In Humbulani’s story, one could get a sense of the kind of iron will that makes it possible to stick it out through school and tertiary education, especially when there were many valid reasons to give up.
Humbulani got a foot in the door of the job market when he was offered an in- ternship in December 2008 at the Na-
Humbulani Oscar Tshivhase
tional Department of Health. Recently appointed to the position of Director: Organisational Design at the DPSA, his is a classic case of rising up the ranks of the Public Service. He had scaled up five positions and in three national departments in just over a de- cade.
There is an African proverb that handi- ly describes Humbulani’s life’s journey from the relative anonymity of rural Thononda to the senior management echelons of the government. The first part to it says “if you want to go fast, go alone”. While the second part advic- es “if you want to go far, go together”. The two contrasting meanings to the proverb are respectively about person- al agency, such as Humbulani’s hard work and persistence, as well as being reflective of the long-game nature of government work.
Personally, there is no doubt that Hum- bulani had successfully bridged the rural/urban divide and that his talk of “building a rich family” had not been idle. In the place where the humble abode of his childhood once stood there is now a towering monument to his mother, in the form of the massive house he had built for her. Moreover, the young public servant had also sin- gle-handedly managed to see six of his siblings through school and higher education and they are now able to sustain themselves.
Yet Humbulani remains attuned to the plight of those still trapped in poverty, unemployment and inequality on the other side of the divide. It is important to bear in mind why one is in the Public Service, he advises, which is to serve. This young public servant had un- doubtedly changed the fortunes of one family and his job in the Public Service means many more families could be similarly helped to sustain themselves.
“I have always wanted to work in the Public Service in order to serve peo- ple,” he explains.
Volume 12 No.3 of 2019 | SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW 13