Public Policy In South Africa

INTRODUCTION

In order to rebuild and transform South Africa’s economy, after the years of apartheid regime’s economic isolation and financial sanctions, public policy plays a vital role and it is a fundamental aspect in the development of the country. Approximately two decades after the transition from the oppressive regime, public policy has been opened to everybody in the pursuit of inclusivity, transparency and the spirit of accountability, all of which entail democratic principles (Thornhill, Van Dijk, et al, 2014:159). Public policy can be considered as a series of separate or interrelated ideas, proposals, actions, formal programs with expected outcomes. It has a purpose or may be related to another purpose or target and may contain tools

According to Thornhill (2014), these characteristics themselves should not be idealized, because Public Administration and its extending branches such as policy, policy implementation and the policy development thereof ought to be understood as imperfect and not all-knowing because policy is not linear in nature. The purpose of public policy is to bring about change for the nation and positively enhance the lives of citizens. There are components such as political and public participation involved to generate the formulation process, due to that public policy exist in the mainstream. As a developing country, South Africa is faced with many social problems and scarcity of resources, consequently there is a need for relevant policies to be implemented for us to overcome such challenges and improve in all dimensions of the public sector (economic, social, and

The conflict then created a rift in society and different factions advocate for different for various needs (forces pulling in different directions) and at times these needs which have to be responded to by government. These factors may tend to hamper the state’s ability to distribute resources evenly and uphold constitutional values such as equality as well as responding to needs.it also hampers the sates ability to implement seamless and absolute public policy. An example is South Africa’s internal legal conflict in regards to the promulgation of the medical cannabis bill. In context some might feel that it goes against the so called morality to implement such a policy but another faction might advocate for its use with in the medical sciences. And therefor it may have untainted consequences and even fail. (Thornhill, van Dijk et al.,