Klerksdorp Midweek, Klerksdorp - The 2025 National Batho Pele and Innovation Awards were held at Emperors Palace over the weekend and a Klerksdorp educator took the honours. The top achiever from the NW Department of Education, Thapelo Mthimkhulu, won gold in the category for Best Frontline Worker of the Year. He is a National Teaching Award Winner and an educator from Chris Hani Secondary School in Dr Kenneth Kaunda District.
The National Batho Pele and Innovation Awards (NBP&IA) is a flagship initiative of the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) and the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI), designed to recognise and reward outstanding performance, innovation, and commitment to service excellence across the public sector.
The awards seek to highlight and incentivise excellence in service delivery, foster innovation, strengthen intergovernmental cooperation through models such as the District Development Model (DDM), and align with national and international public service recognition frameworks, including the AU and UN Public Service Awards.
The key objectives include celebrating exemplary public servants, encouraging replication of successful models, promoting citizen-centric innovation and cultivating results-driven and professional public sector.
The MEC for Education, Viola Motsumi congratulated Mthimkhule by saying “on behalf of the entire Department, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all our winners. This clearly demonstrates that the men and women of this Department are working extremely hard to improve the education of the African child’.
