Clients hold experiences and perceptions from their service encounters and interaction with the public services. The service quality is judged either good or bad, or the client might be indifferent. Public sector reform measures and management strategies have been implemented that give effect to citizens as clients of the public service. Policy frameworks such as the White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service of 1997 set the framework for the quality of public service that South African citizens can expect. The citizens, as clients in the South African developmental context are expected to be responsive in terms of service needs; they are required to define, influence as well as express levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with service quality. The objective of this article is to contextualise the relevance of and criteria for service quality in the public service, which aims to inspire confidence in citizens. Two s