Furthering new public management principles through financial reforms in post-1999 South Africa

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this research is to describe how the reform of public finance undertaken in South Africa since 1999 has furthered the principles of new public management (NPM). The first part of the research outlines the history of public sector reform in South Africa in general, with particular emphasis on public finance. It also discusses how reform was initiated and supplemented by the principles of new public management with the adoption of the Public Finance Management Act, No. 1 of 1999 (PFMA, 1999). This is followed by a deep analysis and detailed discussion of key indicators and the mode of their collection. The final phase consists of a description of how new public management principles have impacted public finance management since 1999. The study concludes with recommendations for further research and for practice and policy. The results tend to show how some principles of NPM have furthered public finance reform in some areas while others are still lacking. However the lack of sufficient data results in gaps in the findings: this lack of data makes it difficult to portray a clear picture of the extent to which principles of NPM have been fully implemented. Thus one of the recommendations is that certain indicators should be investigated further to understand the phenomenon better; it is probable that in a few years sufficient data will be available to allow for trend assessments.