Little has been said about South Africa's current administrative transformation. The question often heard is: Can a predominantly white bureaucracy, which has served one government for 46 years, be expected to make the mindshift from an apartheid-driven society to a democratic one? Were not all the public bureaucracies of the old order insufficiently client- and developmental-orientated?

Serving the public addresses the foregoing and provides a basic guide to the new public administration system in South Africa. The authors have steered away from a theoretical, unintelligible academic style, and have used simple language and informative diagrams.

The book is intended for practitioners, students and laypersons alike, and looks at:

• the new institutional framework at central, provincial and local government levels
• public administration principles in the Constitution and the Local Government Transition Act
• financial management in the public sector
• ethics in the public sector
• codes and guidelines
• proposed major features of the RDP
• labour relations in the public sector
• differences between public and private management
• communication in the public sector.