The South African public service has been undergoing fundamental transformation since 1994. The new government has had to build a democratic, inclusive and responsive public sector to the extent that the last two decades have witnessed the most dramatic shifts in public reform. After 1994, the public sector had to be transformed so that it could be representative of the nation’s racial composition, caters for the needs of all citizens irrespective of their racial, ethnic, gender, sexual persuasion and orientation. The government agenda of reconstructing and developing a democratic state depends on the willingness, capabilities and patriotism of the public service. As part of its transformation agenda, the government had to introduce policies that were focusing on promoting affirmative action and employment equity. Through this policy and other related employment equity measures, the South African public sector had to be transformed in terms of racial and gender representivity. This study assesses and evaluates whether the policies and legislation that were geared towards the transformation and democratization of public sector have yielded positive or negative results. By way of a literature review and comparative analysis, this study examines the objectives of affirmative action and analyses the approaches that have been taken since the adoption of this policy in the workplace. It looks at public sector and argues that there are still flaws relating to the implementation of affirmative action in public sector. The extent to which affirmative action programs attempt to implement affirmative action differs if South Africa and the United States of America can be taken as examples. The study considers some of the challenges faced by the new South African government in transforming public sector and interrogates the courts’ application and interpretation of affirmative action legislation. It concludes with recommendations that could be put in place in order to position affirmative action policies in line with the objectives of the South African Constitution, labour laws and American approach where the policy was adopted from.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:27443 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Myoli, Vuyiseka Marly |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Law |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, LLM |
| Format | iii, 86 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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