Abstract:
This article describes five weaknesses in
the organisation of government that taken
together are responsible for what it calls
the crisis of government. It then discusses
a package of legislative and policy reforms
that are underway, including the Public
Service Amendment Bill (Republic of South
Africa, 2023), the Public Administration
Management Amendment Bill (Republic
of South Africa, 2023), the Public Service
Commission Amendment Act 10 (Republic
of South Africa, 2019) and the Public
Administration Laws General Amendment
Bill (Republic of South Africa, 2021). Do they
go some way to resolve the fundamental
problems of public administration in South
Africa? We argue that these problems also
need to be considered through institutionalising
public administrations by dealing
with contradiction, confusion, capability,
centralisation and corruption – the five Cs
of the crisis in government.
