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Article Title: College of Public Administration of Southern Africa

Lead: A brief description of the College of Public Administration of Southern Africa, its establishment, operations and termination - A matter of historical record.

It is not possible to speak of training for public servants without an understanding of the structure of the government machinery in which they must serve. In South Africa, before the demise of Apartheid, there were several different aspects to the administration of public affairs caused largely by the policy of “separate development”. There existed in South Africa different administrations for whites (under the House of Assembly), coloureds (House of Representatives) and Indians (House of Delegates) as well as those administrations established for Africans in self-governing territories as well as “independent” homelands. Employment in the civil service carries great respect and responsibilities and each year some of the best young minds vie for entry into its ranks. Although corporate jobs offer better salaries and perks a big share of top posts are still sought out by professionals from various streams. During the Apartheid administration a need was identified to provide specialist quality training to all people wishing to enter the public service broadly defined as existing above. The College of Public Administration of Southern Africa, located in the legislative capital city of Cape Town, was established by the private sector and began its work under the auspices of the Correspondence College Council, seeing as it wished to deliver these services throughout the country. The Council used its statutory powers to set standards and safeguards with regard to quality and relevance of curriculum by closely examining the qualifications of course writers, setting minimum standards of delivery, dealing with student complaints and carrying out regular inspections.

The College offered three levels of qualifications: The Diploma in Public Administration followed the completion of secondary level education and was aimed at introducing students to the structure and function of the public service and the nature and scope of work in the civil service. Upon satisfactory completion of that level of study graduates were prepared to enter the civil service at the rank of Senior Officer, or they could stay on to complete an Advanced Diploma. The Advanced Diploma was aimed at introducing students to the political and economic environment in which policies and administrative law were analyzed and crafted. Upon successful completion of that level of study or by virtue of holding an acceptable first University degree students could attempt a Master’s Diploma in Public Administration which aimed to create management for particular spheres of the civil service, so that a number of management areas (e.g., project, strategic and conflict management) were studied along with the study of two specialist branches of the administrative service (e.g., education, health care, public finance, foreign service, defense). Students chose to study one of the branches by examination and the other through the completion of a research project.

In South Africa before the installation of a new democratic dispensation no attempt was made to distinguish between professional and academic education. Primarily education was described as being either of a formal (education provided at or by a school, college, technikon, university or other educational institution with a view to obtaining an educational degree, certificate or diploma) or non-formal (planned structured education provided at or by any institution to obtain a qualification other than a degree, certificate or diploma of formal education)nature. In 1997/8 the new government promulgated two laws which dramatically changed the country’s landscape. Under the Higher Education Act Technikons became Universities of Technology and many together with Colleges of Education, merged with some of the traditional universities – several of which adopted new names. Similarly about 150 colleges, identified as offering purely vocational training, were merged into 50 public Further Education and Training Colleges. The College of Public Administration of Southern Africa was particularly complex to deal with, it was private and not state run, offered its services throughout the country, to a public service which had since become a fully integrated and professional one. The new Department of Public Service and Administration saw it as its responsibility to provide for the training of public servants and created a Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy.

With the rationale for the creation of the College of Public Administration ceasing to exist, the College was awarded, through Education Africa, a “Business in Education” award by President Nelson Mandela and produced its final batch of graduates in 1997.