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, PUB4862 2025 ASSIGNMENT 6 2025 PUB4862 2025
UNIQUE NUMBER 143134
South African public policies are generally considered to be some of the best
worldwide, but their socio-economic effects have not been felt locally. The
South African government’s praise of its policies is contradicted by the poor
implementation of public sector policies, which has led to worsening service
delivery and subsequent violent service delivery protests. Despite global praise
for South African policies, they have resulted in increasing poverty, high
unemployment rates, crime, and unprecedented service delivery protests,
incompetent government officials and political interference. Different
stakeholders are asking whether poor policy implementation can prevent South
Africa from reaching the UN’s 2030 Millennium Development Goals. Against this
background, identify one South African public policy that you think has been
implemented ineffectively and then answer question below:
Assess the policy intent and expectations and determine whether the expected
policy outcomes have been achieved. Give practical examples to substantiate
your answer. [50]
An Assessment of Policy Implementation Failure in South Africa: The Case of
Redistributive Development Planning
Introduction: The Disjuncture Between Policy Intent and Socio-Economic
Outcomes
South Africa is a leading example of the paradoxical relationship between robust policy
formulation and weak implementation capacity. The premise of the argument
presented is that South African public policies, although they earn international
recognition, are not necessarily expressed in tangible socio-economic development at
home, resulting in entrenched poverty, stubbornly high unemployment rates,
increasing crime, and rampant violent service delivery protests. This discrepancy
between visionary policy-making and weak implementation underscores one of the
fundamental themes in public administration theory: the implementation gap. This will
be discussed within the framework of systemic policy failure, where stakeholders
question the country's capacity for achieving aspirational targets, such as the UN's
2030 Millennium Development Goals. Given the above, this essay identifies South