The Accountability Lab has been running the Integrity Icons awards since 2018. The awards showcase the excellent work done by many men and women in the public service, something that Accountability Lab’s country director for SA, Sekoetlane Phamodi, says often goes unnoticed.

“So often the focus is on what is wrong in the public service, but it’s so important for us to also be engaged with what is strong, what is working well and to reinforce it, because ultimately this work requires all of us to link arms and really fortify what is working well, what is strong, can be enhanced, amplified … be grown across society in order to make our public service the very best that we need and deserve,” Phamodi said at the awards ceremony in Johannesburg on Friday, 4 November 2022.

Warrant Officer Bongani Siyona, who won this year’s People’s Choice award, is from KwaZakhele in Gqeberha. He said he does the work he does because of his passion for his community.