Managing Diversity in the Public Sector

D07 6

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Abstract

The focus of this study is an investigation of service delivery in the public sector with emphasis on how it has been transformed and improved since 1994 when South Africa became a democratic country. The policy of “Batho Pele”, a Sesotho word meaning, “People First”, has been formulated since 1994 to bring effective and efficient service delivery to the nation. A qualitative study was conducted in which 26 municipal officials were interviewed in the North West Province. The officials were selected on the basis of race, sex, rank, and length of service to provide insights into different perceptions of serving the society. The research results of the study cannot be generalized to the whole of South Africa because the study used a small sample of nonrandomly selected municipal officials of the area and randomly selected from the community. It is likely, however, that the trends identified would be found nationwide, because many of the respondents had worked in other provinces in the country. This paper attempts to address the challenges and celebrate the development of a public service delivery geared to serve diverse communities.