Edition November 2026

Competence and ethics are patriotic acts and public servants should put their country first, and South Africans first in the manner in which they perform their duties and deliver services to the people.

"Whether you change the linen or stitch up wounds, cook the food or dispense the medicines, it is in your hands to help build a public service worthy of all those who gave their lives for the dream of democracy" – a profound statement by former President Nelson Mandela, delivered to hospital employees in April 1998.

This was a clarion call for public servants to be patriotic in their commitment to our democracy. Mandela was not describing sentiment but an obligation: the living owe something to those who died so that a public service could exist to serve everyone. Measured against that debt, patriotism is not a feeling a public servant holds privately, but a standard of conduct the public is entitled to experience.

Patriotism is often reduced to sentiment, including pride in our flag, affection for our history and heritage, loyalty to our sports teams and national symbols. These are not wrong and should continue to be embraced.

For a public servant, though, a more exacting articulation treats patriotism as active loyalty: a willingness to defend the country's national interests, participate in civic engagements, and work deliberately to address the stubborn challenges of unemployment, inequality and poverty.

First a citizen then a public servant

It is our citizenship – our own stake in whether a service delivery failure gets fixed, our own investment in the country's progress – that should discipline how we occupy the role of public servant. The public servant who never forgets they are first a citizen sees no "them" to administer, only an "us" they belong to; they are simply also empowered to act on society's behalf. This is why patriotism cannot be legislated or proclaimed into being but must be lived in daily conduct, which is exactly where public trust is won.

An opportunity to earn trust

Patriotism cuts both ways: the State must deliver on citizens' legitimate expectations and rights to earn their patriotism in return. Public institutions do not deliver services; public servants do. South Africans will test that distinction directly at the local government elections on 4 November 2026, the sphere of government where service delivery is felt most immediately, at the coalface.

Turnout in 2024 fell to 58%, our lowest ever, with research by the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC) finding that 57% of South Africans were dissatisfied with democracy. Rather than a verdict on citizens' patriotism, this is an invitation: every public representative and public servant has the chance to show that a vote still changes something.

Nor is this a generational problem. The HSRC research published in July 2026 found that youth disengagement reflects disillusionment rather than apathy. Young South Africans still believe in democracy, even as they question whether it delivers for them. That is positive, as the Public Service does not need to win back belief in democracy, only belief in delivery.

Building on what we already started

Nation-building and social cohesion have long been priorities of this democratic government, across administrations. The National Development Plan places leadership at every level of society, not only at the top, and insists that transformation is activated through citizen participation rather than administered from above. The current Medium-Term Development Plan builds on this, centring constitutional literacy and active citizenry in a social compact for equity and inclusion.

The Moral Regeneration Movement, commemorated each July alongside Mandela Day, reflects the same recognition: rebuilding trust takes sustained effort, not a single campaign - as President Ramaphosa affirmed in September, linking the movement's work to changing the attitudes that enable violence against women.

That same reciprocity applies to public servants themselves. A government that expects patriotic citizens must honour its own side of the bargain. When a social grant is delayed, a procurement process is manipulated, or an official treats a citizen with contempt, the damage lands on the credibility of the nation-building project the State champions. This is exactly why competence and ethics are patriotic acts in their own right.

It also demands seeing past the racial and class categories the country inherited. Thabo Mbeki's 1996 address described a South African identity woven from many streams of ancestry and migration. A public servant who internalise that cannot treat citizens differently based on where they come from.

The commitment already made

None of this is a new demand. The 2013 Public Service Charter, which was signed by the State and the major public sector unions, already commits every public servant to "be faithful to the Republic, honour the Constitution and abide by the laws," and to "promote the unity and well-being of the South African nation." Patriotism has been contractual language in our public service for a long time; what remains is to fully live it.

This is precisely the terrain the National School of Government occupies: building the capability of public servants to understand the Constitution not as a compliance document but as a value system they embody.

More than thirty years into democracy, South Africa already has a public service that is committed to exactly this.

What remains is for daily conduct to let citizens experience it ‒ officials who treat unemployment, poverty, and inequality as unfinished business of their own, and who give citizens every reason to believe that voting, trusting, and belonging still mean something. ❖

*Dino Poonsamy is the Chief Director of Strategy and Systems at the National School of Government.