Wage Subsidies in South Africa

Public Administration (PA) is generally understood as the assortment or compendium of activities undertaken by a legally and/or constitutionally established government via the public sector to ensure the delivery of public services; the making and enforcement of law; the collection and allocation of revenues and resources; the implementation of public policies in such diverse fields as economics, social welfare, education, and health; and all other related programs and policies that taken together represent government at work in overseeing the social contract (Chandler 1-2). At the heart of public administration (including both policy formation and the processes of policy implementation within government) is an assortment of permanent bureaucracies attached to central government departments. It is in and through these government bureaucracies, departments, and agencies that the entire set of tasks associated with governance takes place (Chandler 1-2).

PA as described by Chandler (4) is a set of practices and activities that literally as well as figuratively define what government "does" and "how it does it." From the broad development of national budgets to the allocations of financial resources at the level of towns and villages or even precincts, PA encompasses economic decision-making and programming as well as other areas of activity.

PA, therefore, is both a field of study and a set of integrated activities that represent "government at work.

n into the labor market just as the demand for less skilled workers declined. Rationale for Policy South Africa, having emerged from decades of racial segregation, oppression, and injustice due to the policy of apartheid imposed on people of color by the white minority, faces multiple challenges. Political scientist Michael Sodaro (707) characterized the "new South Africa" as a country in which mineral wealth, lingering antagonisms due to the apartheid system, rising urban crime rates, political divisions and tribal conflicts, a growing HIV/AIDS pandemic, an influx of immigrants from neighboring African countries, and a position in a region characterized by ongoing conflict and violence are dominant cultural, political, and economic influences. Though it has become in relatively short order "a model of interracial reconciliation and a powerhouse in sub-Saharan Africa, with the largest economy and military force, it is increasingly being called upon to assume a leadership role in world affairs" (Sodaro 713). Further exacerbating the problem, according to The Economist ("Shades of Black," 48), is the fact that the African National Congress (ANC) politicians in the government are focusing on developing black economic emp