Government and those executing its policies face the daunting task of delivering essential services to a dispossessed and hugely disadvantaged electorate. The authors of The Fundamentals of Public Personnel Management argue that, although the state controls a wide range of limited resources, only the effective management and judicious administration of its primary asset, its personnel, will allow it to translate physical, financial, material and technological resources into synergistic founts of national well-being. Trained and motivated public employees schooled in the ethics of their profession are essential to transforming inanimate structures and resources into people-oriented dispensers of sustainable service delivery.