Affirmative action, more strongly than ever before in the history of its existence as a viable approach to bringing minorities and women into work force populations, has been called into question. Much rhetoric has been spent on whether or not minorities and women have made measurable gains because of such approaches and whether or not such approaches in themselves constitute unfairness. The major focus of this study was to examine certificated staff employment gains or losses for Blacks, Hispanics and women in eleven school districts over a five year period.

South Africa comes from an apartheid local government system that was structured to divide the citizens socially, economically, spatially and racially to ensure that only a small minority of South Africans benefited from the development and the resources of this country. Since 1994 government departments have undergone a number of transformation processes. The Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 and affirmative action became instrumental in ensuring racial and gender representation within the local government structures. This study investigates the perceptions of racism, nepotism, fraud and other related problems which were perceived as a hindrance towards the effective implementation of affirmative action. The main findings of the study confirm that the implementation of affirmative action in municipalities is not effective due to lack of commitment from top management. It is anticipated that the implementation of Local Government Systems Amendment Act 7 of 2011, will enforce service delivery within municipalities. / Public Administration and Management / M. Tech. (Public Management)