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The Launch of the Association of Former Director-Generals is a long overdue development albeit still short sleeved.

  As the South African Association of Public Administration and Management holds its annual conference with a focussed discussion of professionalisation of the Public Service, the Mandela-Mbeki Public Service mandarins were in the same week launching an Association of Former Directors Generals (AfDGs). Addressed by the Minister of Public Service and Administration in KZN, the SAAPAM Conference, arguably the ultimate Mecca of all matters P/public A/administration Theory and Practice discourse, attracted scholars and practitioners to its 56 year old platform whose outcomes find expression in a peer reviewed Journal of Public Administration. In the same breath the National Head of Administration, the DG of DGs in the Presidency, was attending the launch of the AfDGs, and declared it a reference structure through which found paths could be deinstitutionalised in government and organs of state. The coincidence of these events happening during the last week of the P/public S/service month and somewhat looking disjointed is evidence enough that they should be seen as being complimentary.

In its history, SAAPAM, a successor only in law of the pre-1994 South African Institute of Public Administration, has been at the frontiers of establishing many a post-1994 professional associations. One of the strategic path declarations of SAAPAM is to 'define in organic terms the direction through which South Africa should go about characterising its P/public A/administration. SAAPAM has emphatically declared the determinate role of a P/public A/administration system to the development agenda of society. It submits that the day to day transactions and interactions of the Public Service about public service defines the development trajectory or otherwise of a nation.


In its strategic path document, and on the occasion of celebrating South Africa's 20 years of democracy, SAAPAM noted then that the 20 years have created opportunities to;

  • redefine the non-racial character of all aspects of South African life, and P/public A/administration having been at the centre of the social engineering efforts of the Apartheid state is a prime candidate for non-racialisation and equalization;
  • establish organs and/or institutions of thought, ideational and academic leadership within the paradigm of actualizing the legitimate call for national democratization of all aspects of societal co-existence;
  • foreground subjugated and new epistemologies and ontologies in the knowledge generation environment; thus opening any shut doors of learning, innovation and culture for all to have a self-reflective learning experience;
  • claim 'the South Africa belongs to all who live in it' rights in the determination of knowledge generation parameters and tools of dissemination thereof;
  • build democracy, a culture of human rights and a value system based on human solidarity and social equity


In its characterisation of the post-apartheid administration and governance environment, SAAPAM concluded then that it presented opportunities for it to advance its objectives of;


  • promoting the discipline and practice of Public Administration and Management through research and the provision of appropriate training and development;
  • promoting ethical conduct and accountability within the (P/public S/service) profession;
  • promoting and protecting the profession and career interests of its members;
  • co-operating with other associations and institutions in promoting the objectives of SAAPAM;
  • providing a variety of services to members, such as serving as an information centre;
  • hosting meetings, conferences and discussions for its members;
  • Publishing a ‘world class’ and ‘self-identifiable’ journal and other publications to disseminate information and serve an educational purpose; and,
  • co-operating, when necessary, with other national and international professional institutions and organizations to further the interest of SAAPAM. 


To give expression to its objectives of creating a broader pool of ideation through professionalisation of the P/public S/service, SAAPAM contributed to amongst others into the 'single and/or singular' public service discourse, out of which it became one of the thought leaders in efforts to establish the Institute of South African Municipal Accounting Officers. The idea of creating an institute of accounting officers as defined in both the Public Finance Management Act and the Municipal Finance Management Act was birthed out of a quest to create a community of practice for accounting officers to hold each other accountable through a regulated peer integrity management mechanism. At the time this was initiated, the scourge of corruption, and its adjunct State Capture, had not reached proportions requiring a judicial commission of inquiry.


Together with Municipal Accounting officers, the concept of professionalising the accounting officer role was thought through as a national intervention whose impact would in fact make the institute an institution of leadership through which peer review and legitimation would regulate P/public S/service ethos and ethics. The construct would as far as it could be modelled around the then Institute of Town Clerks Act of 1984. The vision as conceptualised would anchor the careerisation of the accounting officer role into a regulated professional group. Entry to this professional occupation level would be peer governed with norms and standards that insulate it from the arbitrary whims of the political environment. One scholar submitted that at its zenith it should have a pool of accredited accounting officers out of which 'deployments' could be done without compromising the meritocratic demands of the P/public S/service calling.


The development by Former Directors General of South Africa should thus be circumcised into this thinking so that they become a chapter of the institute whose role would be etched in the general institutionalisation of leadership as an institution more than personalities and individuals. The gravitas of former DGs could be harnessed into the broader architecture of building institutions of leadership as professionalisation nodal points into which learnings must be curated for posterity's sake. SAAPAM has been at this thinking for some time, and could be a collaborative partner with the Presidency and the National School of Government, as well as the Public Service Commission to concretise or converge the intents of professionalisation. The nuance of 'rescuing' the country from the abyss of corruption could be given content through streams that converge as 'building a better public service for all'


We should therefore create a full sleeve intervention within a broader P/public S/service reform strategic path


🤷🏽‍♂️A ndzo tivulavulela

🤷🏽‍♂️Be ngisho nje

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