The purpose of this article is to provide a conceptual framework for good governance against the background of an environment of empowered employees and clientele publics. The dawn of the new political order in the Republic of South Africa entailed a democratic culture and good governance in the delivery of public goods. That is, the apartheid national governance was to be replaced with a new democratic Grand National Narrative paradigm. The old life-negating and dehumanising attributes of the closed systems paradigm were to be substituted with the open systems paradigm that endeavours to restore human rights and dignity. The new Grand National Narrative paradigm demands that public servants and services are oriented towards people's needs. A commonly accepted view is that the clientele publics aspire for good governance, which is possible with accountable leadership. Indeed, the new political order was ushered with hyperbolic im