Affirmative Action in South Africa: From Targets to Empowerment

Journal Article

2009-04

Permanent link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25126
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Milne_Affirmative action_2009.pdf (1.76 MB)
Authors
Milne, Chantal
Journal Title

Journal of Public Administration

Link to Journal
http://saapam.co.za/joba.html
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher

South African Association of Public Administration and Management

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department
Department of Political Studies
Faculty
Faculty of Humanities
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Series
Abstract
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.
Description

Reference:

Milne, C. (2009). Affirmative Action in South Africa: From Targets to Empowerment. Journal of Public Administration, Special Issue 1: 969-990.

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