South Africa's public sector has launched a variety of gender-focused schemes aimed at empowering women entrepreneurs over the years. However, emerging literature suggests that the efficacy of these programmes is constrained. Consequently, alternative approaches might be needed to address women entrepreneurs' concerns. Previous studies have not…

This article discusses the globalised phenomenon of public-private partnerships, which involve the private and public sector collaborating to provide infrastructure and service delivery to public institutions. Within the education sector, the most commonly known public-private partnerships exist in the United States as charter schools and the…

This paper presents an update on some of the activities that have taken place since a World Bank report; "Guidelines for Education and Training in Environmental Information Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some Key Issues" was published and provides details on the current situation. It shows how organizations such as the African…

This article outlines the results of a qualitative study, which investigated the adult non-formal education and training (NFET) centre linkages with external role-players in providing post-training support for the employment of graduates. The concern that informed this article is that adults who face long-term unemployment remain unemployed after…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether there were differences in how one public and two private South African organizations created a learning climate. Design/methodology/approach: This article is based on a survey and comparative analysis of specific departments in a chemical and gas company, an insurance company, and a…

This paper applies ideas that emanate from the Global North, concerning neoliberalism and neoliberal governmentality, to the case of marketisation in South Africa. It also attends to the limits of Northern ideas that are both intellectual undertakings and policy manifestations. In the first part of the paper, we identify how rationales for school…

Debates about governance, across the public sector, including education, continue to generate a substantial literature. The intention of this article is to engage with these debates by reviewing the articles in this special edition. In this review article, we first consider the wider context of the articles by revisiting some of the central…

The aftermath of the international financial crisis of 2008/2009 and current economic downturn in the world economy has unsurprisingly put publicly-funded higher education (HE) systems under immense pressure in most parts of the world. Added to measures of the past 20 years, aiming at introducing cost effective management approaches imported from…

An effective and efficient public sector is largely dependent on employees who accept the responsibility for providing high-quality public services. It can be argued that public management students, as future employees in the public sector, need to be educated for responsible citizenship. Higher education institutions in South Africa are expected…

Written in the twilight of the Mbeki Presidency, this paper considers the role that skills development has in the sustainability of the South African political-economic project. It explores some of the disarticulations of public policy and argues that these both undermine public sector delivery and open up opportunities for private provision to…

The main objective of the paper is to explore supply chain management practices in the Central District Municipality, North West province of South Africa, using the grounded theory methodology. Supply chain management was introduced in the South African public sector to alleviate deficiencies related to governance, interpretation and…

On the empirical basis of six national studies (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Denmark, Russia and South Africa), this paper examines the phenomenon of segmentation, defined as the solidification of deep hierarchies with little crossover between categories of institutions or individuals. The massification of higher education has brought about a great…

This paper reports on the quality of life of patients enrolled in the public sector antiretroviral treatment programme in the Free State province of South Africa. Statistical analysis of cross-sectional data reveals that it is not access to treatment "per se" that enhances the quality of life of those who have come forward for ART.…

The new public sector community development workers (CDWs) programme was established in 2004 following ineffective service delivery through chronic under-spending on annual budgets in post-apartheid South Africa. CDWs receive training in learnerships within the National Skills Development Strategy to ensure access to and spending of local…

The discourses of neoliberalism and global market competition dominate social and economic agendas at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In particular, global competition and new managerialism have underpinned the recent emphases on accountability and administrative efficiency, and there has been a permeation of contemporary business…