Public Service Month - 1 to 30 September
September marks Public Service Month in South Africa. Public Service Month (PSM) is an integrated strategic national event in the calendar of the Department of Public Service and Administration.
September marks Public Service Month (PSM) in our country. The integrated government wide programme will encompass:
- Public Service Month
- Heritage Day
- Tourism Month
- Police – Commemoration Day; to remember the fallen heroes and heroines.
The Public Service Month serves as a reminder of what it means to serve communities and to also look at the impact the government has, especially around issues of service delivery. As part of the Public Service Month, public servants are expected to:
- Roll up their sleeves and spring-clean their service delivery points;
- Visit schools, hospitals, police stations and courts, talk to citizens, mediate the delivery of services and getting things done;
- Unblock the bottlenecks and red-tape in the delivery of services;
- Ensure the systems and infrastructure are working and use public resources efficiently to the benefit of the citizens; and
- Recommit themselves to belong, to care and to serve the people.
Tourism Month - 1 to 30 September
Tourism Month is celebrated annually in September, and provides a heightened month-long focus on the importance of the sector to the South African economy. It features themed activities that are aligned to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) World Tourism Day celebrations.
This global observance day by The United Nations World Tourism Organisation aims to foster awareness of tourism’s social, cultural, political and economic value and the contribution that the sector can make towards reaching the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Tourism Month encourage South Africans to travel domestically to sustain jobs and support the recovery of tourism in line with the Tourism Sector Recovery Plan.
The Department Tourism developed the Tourism Sector Recovery Plan with the tourism sector and it contains a set of interventions to protect and rejuvenate supply, reignite demand and strengthen enabling capability to support the sector’s recovery.
Tourism authorities in the provinces:
- Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency
- Free State Tourism
- Gauteng Tourism Authority
- KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Authority
- Limpopo Tourism and Parks
- Mpumalanga Tourism
- North West Province Parks and Tourism Board
- Northern Cape Tourism
- Western Cape Tourism
Heritage Month - 1 to 30 September
Heritage Month is celebrated annually in September. It is celebrated to mark our nation’s diverse culture and heritage.
Government calls on all South Africans to use Heritage Month to foster greater social cohesion, nation building and a shared national identity.
The celebration of Heritage Month has created a conducive environment for all people to embrace and celebrate what was inherited or bequeathed to us by our forebears.
We call on all South Africans to support the culture of reading and incorporate it into their daily lifestyles.
It is important to encourage your children to visit a library and start reading at an early age so that they grow up with the passion for reading as this develop a broader vocabulary and increased general knowledge.
National Police Commemoration Day - 4 September
National Police Commemoration Day takes place on the first Sunday in September in memory of police officers who died in the line of duty in the last twelve months.
Arbor Week - 29 August to 4 September
South Africa celebrates Arbor Week in the first week of September annually. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, as the custodian of forestry in South Africa, is responsible for the campaign.
September is also heritage month and as we celebrate Arbor Week, the department also focuses on the country’s champion trees which include some of the oldest, largest and culturally significant trees. These include the Sophia Town Oak Tree and the Sagole Baobab Tree in Limpopo, which are part of our heritage.
National Arbor Week is an opportune time to call on all South Africans to plant indigenous trees as a practical and symbolic gesture of sustainable environmental management.
- It affords the government, the private sector, non-governmental and community based organisations and the public to be involved in "greening" their communities. Planting trees and greening human settlements takes place in communities.
- It is therefore important for the public to join hands with partners in local government and community-based organisations.
- Greening refers to an integrated approach to the planting, care and management of all vegetation in urban and rural areas, to secure multiple benefits for communities
- Greening in the South African context takes place in towns, townships and informal settlements specifically because in the past the latter mentioned areas were disadvantaged in terms of planning for parks as well as tree planting in streets and open spaces.
