Progress and Challenges of Service Delivery in South Africa Since 1994

Abstract

The new South Africa came into existence in 1994. The incoming government faced a
massive task of fiscal, political, social and economic transformation, all of which would
require an effective public service capability. Yet the public service itself had been subject
during the Apartheid era to the same limitations as other key South African institutions.
Due to the lack of know how in 1994, South Africa needed an overwhelming
transformation of public service focus, culture and procedures. Yet, 15 years after the
democratic dispensation’s arrival, many people still lack access to the most basic of
necessities. Woolard (2002) in Burger (2005:483) argues that it is visible that poverty is
South Africa’s priority as it is estimated that approximately 37% of South African
households , and probably more today, survive on less than R1 000 in a month.