Abstract:
The roles of political office bearers and appointed officials have been studied
and described since Woodrow Wilson’s famous article was published in
1887. The relationship between a minister and the managerial cadre of a
department is probably one of the most complex issues related to the public sector
operations. The paper describes the effects of the political structures in a democratic
country with special reference to South Africa. Thereafter attention is devoted to
the influence of politics in governing a country with a diverse society having to
eradicate legacies of the past. The administrative/ managerial functions are briefly
alluded to. This is necessary to identify the respective roles of the politicians and
the appointed officials and to clarify the interface. It is argued that the interface is
not present in only the public sector, but also in the corporate sector. Therefore, the
Code of corporate practices and conduct proposed in the King Report should also be
followed in the public sector. This recent developments also indicate that the clear
distinction that used to be made between the public and the private sectors should
be revisited. The result could be that the interface between the political office bearer in charge of a public institution and the senior managers of a department has to be reconsidered.
