Prospects and Challenges of Implementing Projects in Public Service, South Africa

South Africa’s young polity is faced with many challenges of addressing the socio-economic backlogs of the past. After the downfall of apartheid system in 1994, the South African government system was reengineered to address the socio-economic ills created by the apartheid legacy. In the process, detailed programmes and projects were initiated, with very insufficient and often less-developed state capacity to implement them. The paper probes the extent to which project management is embedded in the Public Service of South Africa since 1994. It also outlines some of the critical challenges facing the maturity of project management practices and culture in the Public Service. These challenges include: the management and coordination of inter-departmental and inter-cluster projects and programmes; power, authority and political interference; project management skills shortage (including managerial capacity); the government annual and multi-year planning cycles; knowledge management, progress monitoring and evaluation, deliverable sign-off and complex decision-making layers in the Public Service. The paper also makes suggestions and proposals on some of the best practices and approaches for taking project management to a higher trajectory of development in the South African Public Service. It calls for a more sustained efforts to “minimize the pain” in managing projects in the South African Public Service, and “maximise the gains” by using project management approach as a management and performance