Bheki Nyathikazi: Voice for public service

In Mpumalanga’s noisy information space, where rumours travel faster than facts and headlines often outrun context, Bheki Nyathikazi represents a quieter but essential craft: the discipline of communication as public service.

Nyathikazi serves as Media Liaison Officer in the Communication Services unit within Mpumalanga’s Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs (DARDLEA). That job title sounds administrative until you consider what it demands in practice: translating government processes into language communities can trust, correcting misinformation without inflaming tensions, and ensuring that public programmes do not remain invisible simply because they were poorly explained.

What makes Nyathikazi notable is that he is not “just” a spokesperson. He is also a communications practitioner and former journalist, writing publicly in his personal capacity. That background matters. It suggests an understanding of how newsrooms work, how audiences receive information, and how quickly credibility can be lost when communication becomes defensive, vague, or overly polished.

His writing and public commentary reflect a preoccupation with standards: what journalism should be, what public debate should look like, and what community life can become when neglect is normalised. On Mail & Guardian’s platform, he has tackled issues as practical as the condition of taxi ranks and as principled as interview ethics and fairness in the media. These are not “safe” topics; they are the kinds of conversations that force institutions, professionals and the public to look in the mirror.

In a recent online exchange about the pressures facing newsrooms, Nyathikazi argued for deeper, more human storytelling—work that does not simply chase what is already trending. For community journalism in places like Bushbuckridge, that idea lands with weight. Our strongest stories are rarely the loudest. They are the ones that explain the “why”, elevate ordinary people, and hold power to account without reducing communities to crises.

The challenge, of course, is that communication in government is only valuable when it is timely, transparent and measurable. A media liaison officer can open doors, but departments must keep those doors open with consistent information, accessible channels, and respect for the public’s right to know.

Nyathikazi’s career arc—journalism into public-sector communications—suggests a belief that words can still improve the lived reality of communities. In a province that often battles with service-delivery frustrations and distrust, that belief is not sentimental. It is strategic.