Public Service and Administration Deputy Minister, Ms Pinky Kekana has urged academics, policy makers, influential leaders, and experts in public administration to give tangible meaning to professionalisation of the public service.
Starting from today, Monday September 22, 2025, the annual conference of the South African Association of Public Administration and Management (SAAPAM) is gathering the most influential leaders, experts, policy makers, and academics under one roof in Thohoyandou town, Limpopo.
Deputy Minister Kekana set the tone of the 24th annual conference of SAAPAM during a cocktail party held at the town situation in the far northern part of Limpopo Province on Monday night.
“For us gathered here, the task is {crystal} clear: {is} to give tangible meaning to professionalisation….it is about giving our state, the spine to serve our citizens with excellence…it is about appointments based on merit, the recognition of true skills, and the celebration of the many quiet triumphs within our service.”
According to the Deputy Minister, too often, service failures are not about the absence of skills, but the misplacement of valuable skills. She said that this is why the skills audit underway must be more than an exercise in paperwork. The Deputy Minister added that it must be a re-alignment, placing people where they can shine, where their calling and capacity meet the nation’s need.
When recalling the time when a Deputy Director was a senior figure in government, she said: “today, we witness what I call the “juniorisation” of senior positions.
“Talented Directors-General and Municipal Managers are leaving. Others act for months, even years, without permanence or certainty. Where leadership is unstable, morale suffers, audit outcomes falter, and service delivery slows. Where leadership is steady, the system breathes with confidence, resources are protected, and people are served.
“We must be honest…this pattern of juniorisation risks hollowing out the state, making it vulnerable to privatisation by default. It strips away institutional memory, authority, and courage. If professionalisation is to mean anything, it must begin with stability at the helm.”
The Deputy Minister Kekana told those who attended the glittering cocktail event that to mature as a state, government must build resilience into its everyday systems.
“Directives must be sharp, turnaround times swift, and red tape replaced with readiness. A capable state cannot be one that shuts down under stress, it must be one that adapts, pivots, and continues to serve.
“The beginning of the Medium-Term Development Framework gives us the chance to deepen our alliances. SAAPAM, recognised by the South African Qualifications Authority, must not stand apart from the public service but within it — guiding, challenging, professionalising.
“Imagine a future where every public servant belongs to a professional body, bound by codes of ethics, nurtured by continuous learning, and held to account by their peers.
“Such membership, when integrated properly, is not bureaucracy -it is dynamism. It is how we move from siloed programmes to an agile, integrated “government, where monitoring and evaluation are living tools, not forgotten reports.
She also emphasised the importance to urgently align training, bursaries, and learning with the professionalisation framework, adding that the public service must become a creature of knowledge, ever-improving, never complacent. Institutions like the National School of Government (NSG), she said must not only train, but they must also shape practice, improving delivery across the board.
Integrated Public Service Month
Annually, September is recognised as Integrated Public Service Month in South Africa. “As we near the end of Public Service month, we honour the women and men who keep the machinery of state moving. Public servants are our greatest asset, the custodians of Batho Pele. Yes, resources are constrained. Yes, the call is to do more with less. But this is precisely where professionalisation matters – ensuring that every rand stretches, every effort counts, every action reflects value for money.”
Batho Pele Walkie Talkie
The SAAPAM conference will wrap up on Friday, September 26, 2025, with the Batho Pele Walkie Talkie. When extending an open invitation to those who will be attending the conference to join the Walkie Talkie, Deputy Minister Kekana said: “this is no ordinary walk. It is a journey of solidarity, taking us to schools, youth centres, and health facilities here in Thohoyandou.
“It is about rolling up our sleeves, cleaning, painting, de-bushing, and showing that the theory of public administration must always meet the practice of public service.
“We walk not only for fitness, but for connection, not only for wellness, but for service.”
