Top farmers awarded for their hard work
KZN'S outstanding farmers were last week recognised at a prestigious awards ceremony held at Umfolozi Resort Peermont Metcourt Hotel.
Aimed at encouraging, recognising and rewarding service delivery excellence across all spheres of government, the Premier Service Excellence Awards were hosted by KZN Department of Agriculture and Rural
Development (DARD) MEC Sibongile Sithole-Moloi.
Owing to lockdown restrictions, the annual event has not been hosted for the past two years.
The awards do not only focus on the department’s ‘Batho Pele’ programme implementation, but also consider service delivery in general and the impact in improving people’s lives.
A critical factor was to look at the effectiveness of mechanisms instituted to improve citizens' lives.
The Batho Pele White Paper is the government's White Paper for Transforming Public Service Delivery, and is all about giving good customer service to the users of government services.
Siyethemba Kunene and Nonsikelelo Mathabela from King Cetshwayo District won two distinguished awards for their efforts in implementing farming projects.
Siyethemba was awarded a Certificate of Commendation by the MEC, while Nonsikelelo received a bronze medal.
This team-based award scheme is an annual event that was developed in KZN in 1999 as a monitoring and evaluation tool to encourage and reward the Batho Pele ethos, with the ultimate aim of creating a culture of continuous service delivery improvement and a greater accountability to public sector customers and stakeholders.