Pretoria - President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Dr Somadoda Fikeni for a five-year term as commissioner of the Public Service Commission.
“The president has made this appointment in terms of Section 196(7)(a), read with Section 196(10) of the Constitution. The Public Service Commission derives its mandate from Sections 195 and 196 of the Constitution,” the Presidency said in a statement on Wednesday night.
The commission is tasked and empowered to investigate, monitor and evaluate the organisation and administration of the public service in South Africa.
“The commission also has an obligation to promote measures that will ensure effective and efficient performance with the public service and to promote values and principles of public administration, as set out in the Constitution, throughout the public service,” said the Presidency.
Fikeni hails from Lugelweni village in the Alfred Nzo District of the Eastern Cape.
He acquired his BA and BA Honours in politics and social sciences from the then University of Transkei, now Walter Sisulu University.
He also studied peace and political studies in a programme at McMaster University in Canada and obtained his MA in international politics and comparative development at Queen’s University, also in Canada. He went on to obtain his PhD in comparative politics and public policy analysis at Michigan State University in the US.
Fikeni’s areas of expertise are policy analysis, comparative politics, research methodology, international politics, political economy and heritage.
He is an author, researcher, public speaker and commentator on a range of local and global political, social and heritage issues as well as economic issues.
The political analyst has previously held various management and leadership positions, which include being the merger manager at the University of Transkei, and founding COO and heritage manager for the National Heritage Council of SA (NHC). Fikeni is also an associate professor at the Unisa Thabo Mbeki School of Public and International Affairs.
The Public Service Commission’s mandate also entails the evaluation of achievements, or lack thereof, of government programmes. The PSC also has an obligation to promote measures that would ensure effective and efficient performance within the public service and to promote values and principles of public administration as set out in the Constitution, throughout the public service in South Africa.
African News Agency (ANA)