The Accountability Lab has been running the Integrity Icons awards since 2018. The awards showcase the excellent work done by many men and women in the public service, something that Accountability Lab’s country director for SA, Sekoetlane Phamodi, says often goes unnoticed.

Sekoetlane Phamodi, country director of Accountability Lab, during the Integrity Icon Awards held at the Anew Hotel in Johannesburg. (Photo: Denvor de Wee)

“So often the focus is on what is wrong in the public service, but it’s so important for us to also be engaged with what is strong, what is working well and to reinforce it, because ultimately this work requires all of us to link arms and really fortify what is working well, what is strong, can be enhanced, amplified … be grown across society in order to make our public service the very best that we need and deserve,” Phamodi said at the awards ceremony in Johannesburg on Friday, 4 November 2022.

Warrant Officer Bongani Siyona, who won this year’s People’s Choice award, is from KwaZakhele in Gqeberha. He said he does the work he does because of his passion for his community.

Through working with community stakeholders, Siyona has established the KwaZakhele Social Crime Prevention community movement and works closely with the nonprofit organisation Ubuntu, which distributes food parcels and helps youngsters in the community to get their driver’s licences in an effort to ensure they become productive members of society.

“I chose this profession because I wanted to serve the community with integrity so that people can trust in us as a public service. I want to transform people’s mindsets about us as the South African Police Service,” Siyona said.

“I want to use my energy in the South African Police Service so that we can change society. I want to gather intelligence from the community to make sure we operationalise the intelligence.

“Integrity [means] I must be honest to the people coming to the police station, give them feedback of what is happening with their cases, what crime is happening in their areas and what strategies we can bring working with the CPF [community policing forum].”

The other four public service finalists this year are:

• Goodman Mkhize, an accounting teacher from Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal. Mkhize said: “I just want to change the life of hopelessness and make sure that the African child is empowered …  removed from their background of poverty.”
• Desiree Sehlapelo, the director for planning and economic development at the Waterberg District Municipality in Modimolle, Limpopo. “This is our country and we need to sort it out together as a collective. What inspires me is seeing people develop [and] progress, and projects prosper and, in a small way, my contribution to society for a better South Africa in a better world,” said Sehlapelo.
• Dr Anna Cross, a medical practitioner at Masiphumelele Clinic in Cape Town. “It’s such a privilege to be a doctor. People trust you … tell you things that they’ve never come to other people about. To be in that position and to be able to help people like that, I get such a sense of fulfilment,” said Cross.
• Adell Lebabo, a foundation phase teacher at Moremogolo Primary School in Phokeng, North West, who has a project called “Adopt a Learner”. “I’ve always known that my purpose is to inspire and make a difference in other people’s lives. I come from a really poor background, which inspired me to make a difference in people’s lives. I don’t want any child to go through what I went through growing up,” said Lebabo.

Khadija Patel Khadija (left), chairperson of the International Press Institute, with award winner Goodman Sibongeleni Mkhize, an accounting teacher from Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal. (Photo: Denvor de Wee)

Khadija Patel Khadija (left), chairperson of the International Press Institute, with award winner Dr Anna Cross, a medical practitioner at Masiphumelele Clinic in Cape Town. (Photo: Denvor de Wee)

Khadija Patel Khadija (right), chairperson of the International Press Institute, with Adell Lebabo, a foundation phase teacher at Moremogolo Primary School in Phokeng, North West. (Photo: Denvor de Wee)

The keynote speaker at the awards ceremony was Dr Salomon Hoogenraad-Vermaak, the head of the Public Administration Ethics, Integrity and Disciplinary Technical Assistance Unit at the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA). He explained that the purpose of his unit was to build a capable public service through accountability and establishing a culture of ethical governance through ethics officers.

Keynote speaker at the awards ceremony, Dr Salomon Hoogenraad-Vermaak, head of the Public Administration Ethics, Integrity and Disciplinary Technical Assistance Unit at the Department of Public Service and Administration. (Photo: Denvor de Wee)

Hoogenraad-Vermaak said the Integrity Icons presented an alternative narrative of public servants to that of their being corrupt and lazy.

“It also showcases that the public service [does] have public servants that go the extra mile. People that really take their servantship seriously, typically those public servants who know that they are watering the seeds for the trees that will bear fruit only for the next generation.”

Hoogenraad-Vermaak pointed out that the public service needed the participation of younger people. This had prompted the DPSA to go on a recruitment campaign during which they discovered that young people were reluctant to join the service.

“I was shocked when they said, ‘We don’t want to join the public service because we don’t want to become corrupt.’ That was, for me, an eye-opener and thus the reason why your cause is so important. Just imagine if that is the perception of the majority of the youth; who will replace the other public servants in the next decade? It’s a crisis.” Hoogenraad-Vermaak said. DM/MC