Browsing by Author "Milne, Chantal"

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    Affirmative Action in South Africa: From Targets to Empowerment
    (South African Association of Public Administration and Management, 2009-04) Milne, Chantal
    Representative bureaucracy, together with addressing inequalities, is the foundation of the public service reform of affirmative action policies in South Africa. Currently, affirmative action policies focus on passive representation and targets. However, the discourse on affirmative action appears to be concerned with the language of empowerment and therefore diverges from the original policy language. This article analyses the Personnel and Salary Information System (PERSAL) data from 1995 to 2008 to assess where the public service of South African stands in attaining the targets set in affirmative action policy. The article concludes that the language of representative bureaucracy underpins the policies. However, the spirit of these affirmative action policies, which could in terms of the discourse on affirmative action, can be seen to be the move to empowerment, perhaps through active participation.
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    An analysis of metropolitan governance and institutional issues in South Africa
    (African Consortium of Public Administration, 2011-12) Cameron, Robert; Milne, Chantal
    The main objectives of this article is to gauge to what extent metropolitan governments have led to the improvement of service delivery and to investigate how the existing governing and institutional frameworks are working for metros. Evidence suggests that the creation of widely drawn single-tier municipalities encompassing the whole city is a better governing model than the two-tier system. It has also led to the embodiment of the one city, one tax base slogan. It has also contributed to improved service delivery although there are still backlogs due to in-migration. There is evidence to suggest ordinary councillors are not communicating effectively with their constituencies. Part of the problem is that they do not have delegated powers and functions, even though they have constituencies to which they are accountable. The local government electoral system of 50% ward councillors and 50% proportional representation (PR) councillors has led in some cases to bloated councils with a number of PR councillors contributing little to the governing function. While there are some ward committees that are functioning, the evidence suggests that the majority of these structures are not working particularly well. They are too politicised and do not appear to promote public participation. Literature suggests that there is limited public participation in integrated development plans. Community Development Workers do bring some benefits to metropolitan municipalities and support councillors in some instances. However, there is some concern about their relationship with elected councillors and the implications for democratic accountability.
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    Minnowbrook, Mount Grace and the State of the Discipline
    (South African Association of Public Administration and Management, 2009-06) Cameron, Robert; Milne, Chantal
    There has been a lively debate in the last few editions of the Journal of Public Administration. This article focuses on one of the key issues raised in the debate namely the influence of the Minnowbrook and Mount Grace conferences on the discipline of Public Administration. Both of these conferences were held in times of turbulence, Minnowbrook in the United States and Mount Grace in South Africa. This article examines the similarities and differences between Minnowbrook and Mount Grace. The final section of the paper tries to gauges the extent of influence of Mount Grace’s influence on contemporary South African Public Administration. The paper concludes that while Minnowbrook and Mount Grace have both been influential but there were crucial differences between them. Minnowbrook’s major contribution was to enrich Public Administration as an academic discipline and to improve scholarship. It also appears to have had some influence on practice. Mount Grace’s emphasis was on professional education and training. It has led to the enrichment of Public Administration as an academic discipline and also appears to have had some influence on practice. However Mount Grace appears to have had little impact on the development of academic scholarship in South Africa.
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    Representative Bureaucracy in the South African Public Service
    (African Consortium of Public Administration, 2011-09) Cameron, Robert; Milne, Chantal
    The research question of this article is to examine the extent to which the South African public service conforms to the concept of representative bureaucracy. A representative bureaucracy is understood to be one that consists of a workforce that reflects the composition of the citizens of the country. Furthermore it is held that if a public service reflects the diversity of the society within which it functions, then it is more likely to be responsive to all the diverse interests and make policy that reflects this. Data on race, and gender up to 2010 was obtained from the Department of Public Service and Administration’s PERSAL data base. The methodology used was that of a longitudinal study of affirmative action data across four time periods, namely 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010. The data shows that the democratic aims of representative bureaucracy have largely been fulfilled in respect of race and gender although there were certain distinctive findings: ● Blacks are underrepresented at senior management level; ● Whites are overrepresented at senior management level; ● Females are overrepresented in public service in relation to workforce; ● Females are underrepresented at senior management level; ● Whites are underrepresented at lower levels of public service. Has a representative bureaucracy led to better service delivery? The evidence is mixed at best. There is general consensus that there are poor skills levels in the public service albeit co-existing with pockets of excellence. More systematic research is needed to examine this relationship.
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    Size, efficiency and local democracy in South Africa: A preliminary assessment
    (African Consortium of Public Administration, 2013-12) Cameron, Robert; Milne, Chantal
    The objectives of this article are to locate the size of South Africa’s metropolitan and local municipalities within an international context; to examine whether local government size has been a factor affecting the performance of local governments and to analyse how South Africa has situated itself within the efficiency-local democracy debate. A number of indicators were used in respect of the different population and geographical sizes of municipalities. The Municipal Demarcation Board created a number of metropolitan and local municipalities which were bigger than its own guidelines. A major reason for this was the belief that larger municipalities are more efficient, promote financial viability and can promote equity. The findings were that larger municipalities do perform better than smaller municipalities, but this is not a consistent trend. There is some evidence that bigger municipalities have led to remoteness. The available evidence suggests that the creation of larger municipalities has not necessarily led to greater efficiency nor has it promoted local democracy.