Mandelafying the public service in South Africa: Towards a new theory

Abstract

A surfeit of service delivery disapprovals in South Africa is a clear reflection of the failure of the Public Service of South from the local, provincial, and national government to effectively and efficiently deliver service to its citizenry. The rise in a dissatisfied citizenry stems from a precise social realization, which envisions the failure of the state to deliver services to the public in an impartial, responsible, translucent, and befitting manner. This has resulted in widespread service delivery protests, which has become the most famous form of response to poor service delivery by frustrated citizens. This article argues for the mandelafication of the South African public service against the background of a cocktail of factors ranging from corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, incompetence, and lack of commitment to work ethics personified by Mandela. The article further argues for the upholding of the dominant constructs in which this mandelafication is grounded in such as proper ethics, humanitarianism, transparency, accountability, empathy, and selflessness, which characterized Nelson Mandela.