Putting the service back in public service - Terence Corrigan - Biznews

Terence Corrigan

Individual governments come and go but the apparatus of state, the public service, typically remains. It is the essential tool that enables policies and programmes to be implemented; and it is a point sometimes not grasped in public commentary that South Africa needs not only an honest, innovative political class, but a competent administration to manage the state. The latter may in fact be more important. 

In line with the extensive developmental responsibilities the Constitution accords it, the Government of National Unity is committed to “a professional, merit-based, non-partisan, developmental public service that puts people first.”  

This is manifestly not the case now and has not been for decades. Several official reports and enquiries over the years have acknowledged this, including the National Development Plan from 2012, a review of the public service undertaken by the Department of Public Service and Administration in 2014, and more recently through the Zondo Commission.  

The impact political interference has dominated public discussion of public service reform, and for good reason – since the 1990s, the ANC has pursued a policy of political capture, cadre deployment, which has set up de facto multiple lines of authority in the state. But this is far from the only issue. Political meddling exists alongside (and is both drive by and contributes to) an inadequately skilled workforce; poor management; corruption; and dysfunctional work cultures. 

The government’s (formal) approach is captured in its professionalisation initiative, A National Framework towards the Professionalism of the Public Service. Broadly, this envisages a reformed system foregrounding merit.  

Part of the professionalisation agenda has been expressed in recent pieces of legislation. As was discussed in this column recently, the Public Service Amendment Act (signed into law by President Ramaphosa in April 2025, becoming Public Service Amendment Act, No. 9 of 2025) seeks to vest administrative powers in department heads and clarify the role played by the President and provincial premiers. This goes some way towards dealing with a structural driver of politicisation, namely the vesting of ultimately authority for staff in ministers and MECs. The responsibility for administration and appointments would move from these political authorities to the head of department, thus firmly rooting operational control in the administrative leadership, while senior civil servants would be barred from occupying political office. Departmental officials would have more authority to hire competent people and to produce workable and actionable plans. 

For its part, the Public Service Commission – a body that in the 1990s was reduced from being the guardian of the public service to a mere advisor – has been the subject of legislation introduced in October 2023. 

it would establish the PSC as an independent agency, rather than one beholden to the Department of Public Service and Administration. As Jan De Villiers, chair of the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration in the National Assembly puts it, “At the moment, the PSC reports to the same people it is overseeing.” The Bill would also empower the PSC to issue binding directives, rather than mere recommendations. In theory, managers and responsible officials could not ignore them.   

Ultimately, an effective public service is characterised by norms. Ideally its members would internalise them and be held to account by their peers – a distinct cultural orientation, in other words. 

This demands action on several levels. 

The first is the thorough depoliticization. The ruinous influence of cadre deployment is increasingly undeniable, and the passage of the Public Service Amendment Act has begun this process, but without an underlying cultural change, there is no guarantee that it will have much of an impact. 

A key intervention in the medium-term will be to restore the PSC fully to its role as fulcrum of the public service – somewhat beyond the existing proposals. The PSC must create a buffer between the political authorities and the professionals who staff the institutions. Ultimately, it would sign off on staff policy, and would hawkishly protect a meritocratic ethos (which would need to be developed) from political or other intrusion. Where senior appointments might justify some political input, as in the case of Directors General, these would be appointed from a shortlist compiled by the PSC, following an appropriate interview, selection and vetting process. The resulting relationship would be one of cooperation between the political and administrative principals, rather than that of superiors and subordinates. 

Secondly, there needs to be a recalibration of staff behaviour. Key to this is good leadership and professional management. It is first and foremost the experience, commitment and hard work of managers and leaders in the public service that will create the efficiencies that are crucial to successful change.  

Very strict but fair performance criteria must be implemented, and employees held responsible for their performance. Poorly performing employees need to be worked out over time with studious recourse to proper disciplinary procedures. Conversely, competent and trustworthy incumbents should be supported and empowered by management. If such a person wishes to resign, it may well be worth trying to persuade the employee to stay.  

Key to all of this is dealing with current failings in upholding and maintaining staff discipline. Managers must be fully conversant in how disciplinary processes function, and to process matters quickly and thoroughly, so that employees understand that misbehaviour and incompetence have consequences. 

Structurally, getting the discipline function right demands that weak and uncooperative human resource departments be reformed. They are crucial to instituting consequence management, so it is imperative that they operate efficiently, maintain complete records (information technology can be of great value), and make these available timeously for disciplinary and promotion purposes. A reformed PSC should prioritise this and ensure that stiff consequences follow when HR officials obstruct these processes. Note, however, that human resources departments must not manage staff on behalf of managers; they must act as a resource to assist management. 

Thirdly, South Africa requires better quality unionism. Many union officials lack the professionalism to manage industrial relations between their members and management. Sometimes this manifests in an inability to exercise control over their members, unlawful industrial action and criminality. This may be an implicit bargaining strategy. A commitment to developmental governance would require a willingness to accept compromises, and a refusal to defend bad behaviour.  

It is imperative that unions and union officials “up their game”. The reality is that whatever privileged party-to-union relationship exists (between the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Union affiliates) is yielding diminishing returns. Unions in a more competitive environment will need to rely on the transactional nature of the employer-employee relationship.  

Fourthly, there must be a conscious pursuit of meritocratic excellence. If in the 1990s this was a concept to be rejected (an utterly fatal choice), it is now essential to reviving the public service. A meritocratic public service would be an organisation whose members command respect from society; if employment in the public service is to command special prestige, the bar to entry must be a visibly high one. 

New recruits should undergo an entry exam appropriate to the position they hope to occupy. This would evaluate such skills as comprehension and problem solving, as well as (where necessary) professionally relevant content, such as knowledge of planning. The goal would be to ensure that new entrants are competent, highly motivated and proud to have distinguished themselves through their very appointment. It would also signal that a demanding and performance-oriented culture is being established; in time, the hope is that this would become the overall expectation of all public servants.  

Meanwhile, upskilling should constantly be undertaken, since skills deficiencies are universally recognised as a significant problem. 

Information technology, digitisation and artificial intelligence have been revolutionary additions to the world of work. This is the case in South Africa’s public sector too – as in, example, of e-Filing for tax submissions. This has often simplified administrative functions. Judiciously applied, technology can be a valuable and practical tool for achieving public service efficiencies. To some extent, it already has: the use of verification technology has successfully identified “ghost workers”. The full digitisation of staff records, for example, would be a valuable resource for disciplinary purposes. This is, of course, provided it is overseen by competent and ethical operators and managers, not merely as an evasion of responsibility.  

In a 1989 study, the World Bank remarked: “Failure of governance has become so commonplace that expectations are low. Yet there is an evident popularly felt need for renewal -bordering on desperation – that is widely expressed. Too often many of Africa’s best-trained minds are in exile or simply underutilized.” This is a sentiment that has many echoes in South Africa, and one which its public service should heed. 

Terence Corrigan is the Project Manager at the Institute, where he specialises in work on property rights, as well as land and mining policy. A native of KwaZulu-Natal, he is a graduate of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg). He has held various positions at the IRR, South African Institute of International Affairs, SBP (formerly the Small Business Project) and the Gauteng Legislature – as well as having taught English in Taiwan. He is a regular commentator in the South African media and his interests include African governance, land and agrarian issues, political culture and political thought, corporate governance, enterprise and business policy

https://www.biznews.com/sarenewal/putting-theservice-back-in-the-public-service

This article was first published on the Daily Friend.