At your service: Not every public servant takes a holiday

Not everyone goes on holiday or takes time off during the festive season. In addition to millions of poor and unemployed, there are also the unsung thousands engaged in essential services, either paid or as volunteers.

They too might like to spend more time celebrating or simply relaxing with their loved ones. But that would leave us all worse off and more vulnerable.

In South African labour law, a service is deemed essential if its interruption would “endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or any part of the population”.

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Obvious examples include firefighting and emergency medical services (including ambulances, hospitals etc), electricity and water supply, policing, and telephone services.

Then there’s a range of services which are not officially listed as essential but without which life would be more difficult.

Imagine, for example, if no one in the hospitality industry worked at all over this period. It’s unthinkable.

Or if all stores of every kind closed, and so on. Journalists also work over this time, to bring you up to date news and views.

Ward councillors also do their bit because power and electricity outages have no respect for public holidays or office hours.

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We strive to ensure these matters are attended to by the right people. At the front line there are technicians who spend hours restoring power to hundreds of households where festive plans have been ruined by yet another trip at a substation.

We hear much about poor service in Johannesburg. Many complaints are justified.

But there is also a core of dedicated essential service workers striving to do their best despite poor working conditions and adverse weather.

This ethos offers hope for the future of Johannesburg and indeed South Africa. At another level, all across the country, the efforts of those who work in restaurants, hotels, stores, etc over this time may seem less heroic but these folks are also giving up family time in order to serve.

They deserve recognition and appreciation. There is a sense in which those on duty at this time – not eating, drinking and making merry – may be more in tune with what some would see as the true meaning of Christmas.

For instance, in his 2023 Christmas message, Britain’s King Charles III said: “Service also lies at the heart of the Christmas story – the birth of Jesus who came to serve the whole world, showing us by his own example how to love our neighbour as ourselves”.

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Although the reminder comes at a special time for Christians, service to others is a common theme across what Charles calls “our Abrahamic family of religions, and other belief systems, across the wider world.”

Think of the global spread of our home-grown Gift of the Givers. If we can embrace and amplify that combination of service to the community, and the ability to get things done, South Africa will be heading in the right direction.

Therein lies our best hope. Much is already happening. Join in when and where you can. Let’s not rely solely on others to fix SA. May 2024 be a renew year.