It was 31 January 2009, first day of class. At John Jay College, CUNY, I teach a course on Ethics for Public Service Professionals. I walked into the classroom to find twenty-one students waiting to meet their professor: eighteen women and three men. Although over the years the ratio of men to women has steadily declined, the preponderance of ladies had never been so marked. Of course, the subject-matter may also have been a factor - for female students, in general, have shown themselves more ...

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2021-Jun-16 15:59:39

The South African government machinery has historically been organised as the public service and the local government service. This created a perceived lack of alignment at the levels of policy and service delivery, which was seen as a reason for poor government performance in addressing development challenges. The Department of Public Service and Administration therefore proceeded to create the legislative and institutional basis for a single public service. South Africa has a complex set of ...

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2021-Jun-16 15:56:06

Electronic governance is a sophisticated coming together of a wide range of information and communication technologies with non-technological measures and resources, in order to enhance the quality of service delivery to the public, to promote interactive communications between government and citizens or government and business, and to address development challenges, in any particular society. As a national policy department, the Department of Public Service and Administration is responsible ...

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2021-Jun-16 15:46:06

This article examines the issue and concept of administrative capacity in South Africa's public service. It critiques the use of the term capacity on conceptual grounds, by outlining three perspectives, two of which have been pre-eminent in the post-apartheid transformation of the public service. These are the possession of capacity and the acquisition of capacity, which function on the availability of sufficient resources (typically human/personnel) to implement programmes and deliver se ...

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2021-Jun-16 15:41:39

Representative bureaucracy, together with addressing inequalities, is the foundation of the public service reform of affirmative action policies in South Africa. Currently, affirmative action policies focus on passive representation and targets. However, the discourse on affirmative action appears to be concerned with the language of empowerment and therefore diverges from the original policy language. This article analyses the Personnel and Salary Information System (PERSAL) data from 1995 t ...

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2021-Jun-16 15:35:47

In the wake of the country's first democratic elections in 1994, the ANC-led South African government moved decisively to transform state institutions, in particular the public service, which were essential to the transformation of society. This article reflects on the more important transformation initiatives since 1994, identifying three distinct phases: 1994-1999 where the emphasis was on transformation of legislation and policy along with institutional restructuring; 1999-2004 which f ...

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2021-Jun-16 14:42:49

The main research question of this paper is: to what extent has the South African public service been influenced by New Public Management (NPM) reforms from 1999 to 2009. This article looks at key areas which are generally considered to be part of the NPM range of ideas. One of the tenets of NPM reform is decentralisation. While a framework has been put in place, in practice there has not been as much decentralisation as is normally presumed. Instead, there have been moves towards a stronger ...

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2021-Jun-16 14:39:42

The early 1990s saw major political changes in South Africa. Political organisations, most notably the African National Congress (ANC), were unbanned by the F.W. de Klerk government and the government committed itself to negotiating a new constitution with all political parties. ...

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2021-Jun-16 14:34:38

The study explored the experiences of project members in the implementation of poverty alleviation projects. A convenience sample of thirty participants was drawn from six poverty alleviation projects in the Chris Hani District, Eastern Cape Province. Data were collected using focus groups, interview schedule and document review. The results obtained from the thematic content analysis indicate that project members experience challenges pertaining to financial resources, infrastructure and cap ...

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2021-Jun-16 14:31:28

The developmental municipalities have experienced challenges of limited resources and methods to provide services in an inclusive, professional and constitutional manner. The purpose of this article is to explore, describe and propose a mechanism that would enable municipalities to be more inclusive, effective, efficient, and economical in the manner in which they accelerate service delivery in the post-2009 government. In this regard, the article considers management of municipal service par ...

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2021-Jun-16 14:26:43

The University of South Africa (UNISA) is an open distance learning (ODL) institution that provides students access to higher education. Many public servants work full time and can only study part time; this means that UNISA is their university of choice. Public Administration education at UNISA can contribute to build human capacity in the public service. Building human capacity in the public service can, in turn, assist in improving service delivery and was a point raised at the ANC confere ...

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2021-Jun-16 14:23:41

Public Administration has been taught by means of traditional teaching methods, where the teacher teaches and the learner listens. A new trend has emerged in the field, where learners learn through active participation in a constructive and positive learning environment. This method of instruction is referred to as the case study method and gives the learner an opportunity to acquire knowledge, competencies, skills and attitudes. The purpose of this article is to describe the advantages and c ...

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2021-Jun-16 14:18:26

The purpose of this article is to provide a conceptual framework for trust as a prerequisite for whistleblowing in public sector organisations. A review of existing literature determines that organisational trust should be developed to ensure that whistleblowers can disclose perceived wrongdoing in a protected environment that is characterised by openness, honesty, integrity and trust. Lewicki and Bunker's three-stage framework focusing on the development of organisational trust utilised ...

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2021-Jun-16 14:13:58

South Africa embarks on its fourth democratic election in 2009, effectively rendering it a stable democracy. The pre-election period has been volatile with the Road to Polokwane and the divisions within the African National Congress (ANC) culminated with the resignation of Thabo Mbeki, the expulsion of Mosiuoa Lekota, and the formation of the Congress of the People (COPE). Political analysis tend focus on the need for strong opposition to ensure a robust democracy and the need for alternative ...

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2021-Jun-16 14:10:40

Service delivery depends on the quality of administration practised by public institutions. The extent to which the community is satisfied with the goods and services provided and rendered by public institutions remains a challenge. The government has had to bridge the gap created by the apartheid government in service delivery. This regime rendered services in a skewed fashion. This anomaly can only be addressed through efficient and effective public administration; such public administratio ...

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2021-Jun-16 14:08:16

Job reservation practices during the previous dispensation entrenched discrimination against women, which resulted in the under-representation of women at senior management level within the then South African Defence Force (SADF). The White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service 1995, the White Paper on Affirmative Action in the Public Service 1998 and a Cabinet decision of 25 November 2005 revoked discriminatory practices and set targets for the inclusion of women during the perio ...

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2021-Jun-16 14:05:29

The purpose of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, 2000, is to give effect to the constitutional right to administrative action that is lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair. The Act serves as a basis to promote efficient public administration and creates a framework for the valid execution of all administrative actions. The Act contains a number of definitions of the concept administrative action, all of which strongly suggest that administrative action entails much more than mer ...

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2021-Jun-16 14:00:33

This article explores public transport mechanisms and strategies for promoting mobility and access in the Johannesburg Central Business District. Transportation as an infrastructure is crucial in promoting sustainable urban development. Central to this debate are the concepts mobility and accessibility as requirements for achieving sustainable public transport goals and objectives. The advent and the demands of global integration and sustainable living have created the need to re-examine the ...

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2021-Jun-16 13:56:32

The leadership role of municipalities in local economic development (LED) is crucial to its success. Despite the recognition that LED is perceived as a municipal intervention, it is not being efficiently implemented in most South African municipalities. This article identifies the relationship between ineffective current municipal structural planning for LED implementation and municipal structures based on notions of bureaucracy and authority. It reports on the current structural planning for ...

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2021-Jun-16 13:53:07

Housing is the only component of basic service delivery that encompasses ownership. However, the slow rate of housing delivery and intolerance from local government towards enquiries from individuals and interest groups have forced communities to suspect corruption. In addition, demonstrations and riots as methods to secure delivery have resulted in attacks on and displacement of foreigners. This extreme response to access adequate housing has reaffirmed ethnic identity being manifested in a ...

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2021-Jun-16 13:48:46

This article assumes that community satisfaction with basic municipal services delivery is based on various factors. The article puts forward the hypothesis that affordability, that is, the ability to pay for basic municipal services, is a factor that determines satisfaction. Affordability is measured through employment, income and the Living Standard Measurement data, while satisfaction is a self-reported attitudinal variable by the communities themselves. The data for this article was obtai ...

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2021-Jun-16 13:45:19

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 and legislation make provision for public participation in policy making and implementation in South Africa. Although there are indications that South Africans are utilising the opportunities offered by the Constitution and legislation in this regard, authors such as Buccus questions the efficacy of public participation. In this article, it is argued that effective public participation is an imperative for sustainable democracy and effect ...

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2021-Jun-16 13:42:04

In the South African context, public participation is an essential component for enhanced and effective accountable governance. National government, therefore, intends to effect a level of accountability and confidence from citizens in respect of governance for improved service delivery. Local government is an important sphere of government to facilitate sustained accountability and confidence in governance by engaging with the citizenry in a participatory manner to effect improved service de ...

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2021-Jun-16 13:38:56

This article focuses on the role of the local sphere of government in the alleviation of poverty and inequality in South African communities. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 imposed developmental duties on municipalities as the local sphere of government. Programmes for the alleviation of poverty and inequality include the provision of a safety net in the form of social assistance; provision of basic services; and empowering individuals and communities to support themse ...

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2021-Jun-16 13:35:52