Public servants to take a leaf from Edith

COMING across an article or even a mere social media post complimenting public servants is rare in South Africa. In most cases public servants are perceived to be entitled workers who don’t do their jobs. However eThekwini Municipality’s Edith Mkhize is changing that narrative.

Mkhize has become a social media sensation following a Facebook post by Priscilla Doig, which complimented Mkhize for putting in a little extra effort when doing her job.
Mkhize is a cleaner stationed at the Blue Lagoon’s public toilets. In the Facebook post Doig praised Mkhize’s work saying she has never seen public toilets so clean.

“I went to Blue Lagoon beach to assist with a beach clean-up. Unfortunately, my son fell ill, and we needed to use the public toilets. As you can imagine, I felt a huge sense of dread – public toilets are normally just awful. What a surprise when I entered the toilets at Blue Lagoon. They were spotless. I have never seen such clean public toilets, ever, ” wrote Doig.

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Doig went on to add that what surprised her even more was Mkhize’s reaction when she attempted to tip her for her great work.

“After the relief of such clean toilets, I wanted to show Mkhize my appreciation and huge gratitude for the extra care and attention and pride she took, and tried to offer her a tip. To my surprise, Edith respectfully declined my offer and said to me: ‘How can you tip me for doing my job? This is what I should be doing.’ Now I was completely blown away. What a special lady, ” said Doig

But Mkhize is having none of the personal attention.

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“I don’t work here alone. I have a team and together we make sure that our job is done brilliantly. We always get such compliments. I just really didn’t expect the Facebook post to get so much attention. Now we’re getting visitors even from the City’s management because they also want to see our brilliant work,” she said.

Doig concluded her post by congratulating Mkhize on taking pride in her job.

“I want to congratulate Edith on the pride she takes in her job what a difference it would make, if each and every one working for the municipality had the same attitude imagine how beautiful eThekwini could be,” concluded Doig.

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