[ALL WEEK 8 LECTURES]
Bureaucracy in South Africa’s Past and Recent History
Readings for the week:
Evans, I. 1997. Bureaucracy and Race: Native Administration in South Africa. Berkley: University of California
Press. Read pages 1-16
Mentz, JCN. 1993 The civil service and the changing role of the state in South Africa-a view from
within. International Review of Administrative Sciences59: 441-461
Naidoo, V. 2004. State of the Public Service. In Daniel, J., Southall, R. and Lutchman, J. (eds.) State of the Nation:
South Africa 2004 – 2005.Cape Town: HSRC press
® The bureaucracy functioned as a crucial institution of repression under the apartheid regime
® In a post-apartheid South Africa (RSA), it has been challenging to repurpose the bureaucracy to
meet the policy and service deliver challenges that have accompanied democratization
Bureaucracies Under Apartheid South Africa:
® The enforcement of ‘native’ laws under a segregation regime required an compliant and capable
bureaucracy. Therefore, the bureaucracy was tasked with enforcing segregation legislation, as
well as was itself institutionally and spatially segregated (institutional segregation within the
bureaucracy):
- Bantustans has their own governments, laws, and systems of administration
- There were different bureaucracies for each racial group
Institutional Segregation:
1. National Departments:
- General affairs – institutions directly under the control of the National Party (the most
powerful)
- Own affairs – service the needs to South Africa’s designated racial groups (except black
people – they were administered in Bantustans)
[Intellectual Property of Ayanda Sadek]
, [ALL WEEK 8 LECTURES]
2. Provincial Departments: these were under the authority of the national government.
3. Self- governing homelands departments: for black people in Bantustans
® In just a few years, a bureaucracy that was spread across five categories/layers of institutions was
transformed into only two layers/categories (provincial and national).
® In order to implement racial segregation, apartheid bureaucracies had a high number of
personnel and departments for their huge agenda.
- Evident in the graphs, both the number of permanent state officials and state departments
grew rapidly between 1939 and 1970.
[Intellectual Property of Ayanda Sadek]
Bureaucracy in South Africa’s Past and Recent History
Readings for the week:
Evans, I. 1997. Bureaucracy and Race: Native Administration in South Africa. Berkley: University of California
Press. Read pages 1-16
Mentz, JCN. 1993 The civil service and the changing role of the state in South Africa-a view from
within. International Review of Administrative Sciences59: 441-461
Naidoo, V. 2004. State of the Public Service. In Daniel, J., Southall, R. and Lutchman, J. (eds.) State of the Nation:
South Africa 2004 – 2005.Cape Town: HSRC press
® The bureaucracy functioned as a crucial institution of repression under the apartheid regime
® In a post-apartheid South Africa (RSA), it has been challenging to repurpose the bureaucracy to
meet the policy and service deliver challenges that have accompanied democratization
Bureaucracies Under Apartheid South Africa:
® The enforcement of ‘native’ laws under a segregation regime required an compliant and capable
bureaucracy. Therefore, the bureaucracy was tasked with enforcing segregation legislation, as
well as was itself institutionally and spatially segregated (institutional segregation within the
bureaucracy):
- Bantustans has their own governments, laws, and systems of administration
- There were different bureaucracies for each racial group
Institutional Segregation:
1. National Departments:
- General affairs – institutions directly under the control of the National Party (the most
powerful)
- Own affairs – service the needs to South Africa’s designated racial groups (except black
people – they were administered in Bantustans)
[Intellectual Property of Ayanda Sadek]
, [ALL WEEK 8 LECTURES]
2. Provincial Departments: these were under the authority of the national government.
3. Self- governing homelands departments: for black people in Bantustans
® In just a few years, a bureaucracy that was spread across five categories/layers of institutions was
transformed into only two layers/categories (provincial and national).
® In order to implement racial segregation, apartheid bureaucracies had a high number of
personnel and departments for their huge agenda.
- Evident in the graphs, both the number of permanent state officials and state departments
grew rapidly between 1939 and 1970.
[Intellectual Property of Ayanda Sadek]
