The changing milieu in which the South African public service exists and delivers, and competition in the labour market, make talent management an essential element for any organisational strategy. The research method adopted in the research that preceded this article is document analysis. Secondary data from existing literature is used to provide a literary basis for four essential public service documents to be analysed. These documents are the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, the Public Service Act 103 of 1994, the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 and the Public Service Regulations of 2016. These four policy instruments are assessed to establish their effectiveness in contributing to unearthing and retaining talented employees. The main finding of this article is that the public sector adopts an implicit talent management approach that is reactive. The article concludes by making recommendations regarding the ado