The public service in the political transition: An overview
| Published date | 01 November 2006 |
| Date | 01 November 2006 |
| Author | Paul Collins,Mohan Kaul |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230150305 |
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL.
15,207-209
(1995)
The public service in the political transition:
an overview
PAUL COLLINS
London,
UK
and
MOHAN KAUL
Commonwealth
Secretariat.
London,
UK
As Sir Kenneth Stowe pointed out in his opening address, in the last decade of the
twentieth century Commonwealth nations are facing numerous political and social
transitions. They include those from single party to multiparty systems, from
national to regional sovereignty, from closed to open economies, from stable to
exploding populations, and, in southern Africa, from apartheid to democracy.
The articles included in
this
section represent three experiences in achieving
progress in the transition at the political level: Namibia, South Africa and Hong
Kong.
The article by Prime Minister Geingob describes the progress of a newly-
independent Commonwealth state in managing the political and economic transition
to democracy in a remarkably short period of time. The goal of the new government
has been, as the Prime Minister puts it, to make the transition from a ‘power-based
to responsibility-based organization in the public sector’. Pursuit of this goal has
required emphasis on three tasks: (i) the replacement of inherited institutions
incompatible with the new social order, especially the public services; (ii)
restructuring native administrations and rationalization of central ministries; and
(iii) a new stress on customer satisfaction and user friendliness. The first two tasks
are also being faced by the incoming leadership in South Africa.
In implementing these tasks, three sets of issues are being faced by the Namibian
Government: (i) achieving effectiveness and managing performance in the key
services of law and order, trade and industry, and labour and water supply; (ii)
exploring alternatives to public service delivery in areas such as the post office; and
(iii) managing human resources in each of these endeavours, especially the need to
‘put the right people in the right jobs’. Ongoing challenges facing the Namibian
administration include: budgetary reform, establishment of a citizen’s charter (an
example of which is provided in Mottram’s article on the UK) and evaluation of the
effectiveness of the newly created results-oriented public service.
The transition from apartheid to democracy presents South Africa and Namibia
with major challenges in expanding opportunities for non-whites. Both countries
have to merge numerous racially and geographically defined public services into one
national public service. South Africa is attempting to use vacancies and a limited
number
of
new positions to increase the presence of under-represented groups and
CCC
0271-2075/95/0302074l3
0
1995
by
John
Wiley
&
Sons,
Ltd.
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