The role of senior public servants in South Africa : lessons for the future
type: CreativeWork
description: The researcher has attempted to analyse the impact of transformation on the role of the most senior public servant in South Africa, the Director General. This required an analysis of the Director General's administrative and policy roles within the political-administrative interface. The aims of the research were firstly to provide a description of the role of the Director General in the South African public service and thereby provide an insight into the office of the Director General. Secondly, the aim was to evaluate the South African public service transformation process as well as changes which have taken place at Director General level. A third aim was to provide a normative framework of the political and administrative interface in the South African context, and finally to contribute to the analysis of public service senior management. Thus, three research questions were posed: I. What role did the Director General play in the pre-and post-1994 South African public service? 2. What is the administrative and political interface in South Africa? 3. What ought to be the administrative and political interface in South Africa? In order to answer these questions, literature was reviewed and interviews were conducted with Directors General who served at a national level during the pre-and post-1994 eras. An open and closed questionnaire was developed by the researcher in order to gather data, and the research is therefore original work. The research incorporated scientific principles of social science and is a qualitative study. The research findings can be summarised as follows. Directors General, both pre-and post-1994, have two basic roles, one of which is an administrative role, the other, a policy role. The administrative role of the Director General has not fundamentally changed over the past fifteen years. Directors General continue to be responsible for human and financial resources within their administrative capacity. Problems and issues identified in Dire…
abstract: The researcher has attempted to analyse the impact of transformation on the role of the most senior public servant in South Africa, the Director General. This required an analysis of the Director General's administrative and policy roles within the political-administrative interface. The aims of the research were firstly to provide a description of the role of the Director General in the South African public service and thereby provide an insight into the office of the Director General. Secondly, the aim was to evaluate the South African public service transformation process as well as changes which have taken place at Director General level. A third aim was to provide a normative framework of the political and administrative interface in the South African context, and finally to contribute to the analysis of public service senior management. Thus, three research questions were posed: I. What role did the Director General play in the pre-and post-1994 South African public service? 2. What is the administrative and political interface in South Africa? 3. What ought to be the administrative and political interface in South Africa? In order to answer these questions, literature was reviewed and interviews were conducted with Directors General who served at a national level during the pre-and post-1994 eras. An open and closed questionnaire was developed by the researcher in order to gather data, and the research is therefore original work. The research incorporated scientific principles of social science and is a qualitative study. The research findings can be summarised as follows. Directors General, both pre-and post-1994, have two basic roles, one of which is an administrative role, the other, a policy role. The administrative role of the Director General has not fundamentally changed over the past fifteen years. Directors General continue to be responsible for human and financial resources within their administrative capacity. Problems and issues identified in Dire…
author: Johnston, Karen
language: eng
date published: 2001
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:22:39Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of Political Studies

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8757