Position Paper on Appointment and Removal in the Public Service and Municipalities in South Africa

The position paper proposes a structural overhaul of how senior administrative officials are appointed and removed in South Africa to insulate the public service from unlawful political interference. It advocates for a four-stage generic appointment process—process planning, process administration, short listing, and appointment—to create a system of checks and balances. For the national and provincial public service, it suggests leveraging the Public Service Commission as an independent administrative check. For municipalities, it proposes the creation of independent personnel committees comprising professional associations and civil society. To ensure feasibility, the paper recommends a 'covering in' mechanism, allowing the President to incrementally apply these reforms to specific departments or municipalities via proclamation.

• The current legal framework in South Africa allows political office-bearers to effectively introduce political criteria into appointment decisions despite formal prohibitions, facilitating the creation of illicit personal networks and 'state capture'.
• The Public Service Commission (PSC) is currently an underutilized and 'toothless' oversight body because its independence is compromised by political involvement in the appointment of its own high-level administrative staff.
• A proposed generic appointment process for senior managers consists of four stages: process planning (setting qualifications and expert categories), process administration (testing and long-listing), short listing (conducted by an independent committee), and appointment (made from the short list).
• For the public service, the paper proposes that the Public Service Commission should handle process planning and administration for the appointment of national and provincial heads of public service, with the President or Premier making the final appointment from a short list.
• Municipalities lack a constitutionally independent regulatory body equivalent to the PSC, making them particularly vulnerable to factional political conflicts and the use of 'golden handshakes' to remove independent-minded managers.
• To reform municipal appointments, the paper suggests creating independent personnel committees composed of members from professional associations (e.g., engineering, accounting) and civil society to conduct short listing.
• The paper endorses the National Development Plan's goal of transitioning senior managers from short-term contracts to longer-term or permanent contracts to improve stability and professionalism.
• The document proposes a 'covering in' mechanism for implementation, where a statute is passed but only applies to specific departments or municipalities when the President issues a proclamation, making the transition irreversible except by further statute.

APA

Public Affairs Research Institute (2019). Position Paper on Appointment and Removal in the Public Service and Municipalities in South Africa. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/RevisedDraft_ThematicArea1_AppointmentRemoval_PublicServiceMunicipalities.pdf

Chicago

Public Affairs Research Institute. Position Paper on Appointment and Removal in the Public Service and Municipalities in South Africa. 2019. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/RevisedDraft_ThematicArea1_AppointmentRemoval_PublicServiceMunicipalities.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Public Affairs Research Institute |title=Position Paper on Appointment and Removal in the Public Service and Municipalities in South Africa |date=18 October 2019 |url=https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/RevisedDraft_ThematicArea1_AppointmentRemoval_PublicServiceMunicipalities.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{publicaffairsresearchinstitute2019position, author = {{Public Affairs Research Institute}}, title = {{Position Paper on Appointment and Removal in the Public Service and Municipalities in South Africa}}, institution = {Public Affairs Research Institute}, year = {2019}, month = oct, url = {https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/RevisedDraft_ThematicArea1_AppointmentRemoval_PublicServiceMunicipalities.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }