Towards a culture of good governance: the Presidential Review Commission and public service reform in South Africa

Abstract

On its election to power in April 1994 South Africa's first democratic government was quick to recognise that its ambitious programme of reconstruction and development would require a dramatic transformation of the public service inherited from the apartheid regime, from an instrument of discrimination, control and domination to an enabling agency which serves and empowers all the people of the country in a fully accountable and transparent way. The framework for this was set out in the Government's 1995 White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service. To ensure that the change processes were subject to independent scrutiny, the White Paper recommended the establishment of a Presidential Commission to carry out a comprehensive review of the structures, functions and operation of the post-1994 public service. The Presidential Review Commission (PRC) was established by President Mandela in March 1996 and submitted its findings and recommendations two years later in March 1998. Although acknowledging the achievements that have been made in translating the transformation agenda into practice, the Commission provides exhaustive evidence in support of its main conclusion that ‘overall progress in relation to the effective implementation of the transformation and reform process has in many ways been seriously disappointing’. It also proposes a wide-ranging set of recommendations for placing the transformation process back on track. Through an examination and critique of the findings and recommendations of the PRC, the following article attempts to highlight some of the main challenges and contradictions associated with public service reform in countries such as South Africa that are faced with the task of negotiating the difficult path between economic liberalization on the one hand and political democratisation on the other. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.