From Cadres to Competence: Reforming South Africa’s Public Service with the Singapore Way

Introduction

South Africa has a few important decisions to make. Our public service, once envisioned as the engine of national development, is increasingly seen as a source of frustration and stagnation. For millions of citizens, interacting with the state has become a painful exercise in endurance. They are forced to wait months for an ID, face endless bureaucracy to register a small business, and have to bounce between indifferent officials at a public clinic; the experience is too often marked by inefficiency, poor service, and broken trust.

This crisis is not merely one of capacity; it’s a crisis of culture. Our public service, one of the largest employers in the country, has become bloated, overly politicised, and resistant to accountability. Political loyalty and cadre deployment continue to trump competence. The result is a state apparatus that struggles to deliver even the most basic services, especially to the poor.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Singapore offers a powerful counterexample. Faced with its own post-colonial challenges decades ago, the city-state made a bold bet: build a public service defined by performance, not by politics. Civil servants were recruited based on merit, trained rigorously, and held to the highest standards of integrity. Top performers were rewarded, not sidelined. Mediocrity was not tolerated, and corruption was treated as a national threat.

Today, Singapore’s public service is one of the most effective and trusted in the world; not because it is big, but because it is smart. Civil servants are not paper-pushers. They are problem-solvers, system designers, and nation-builders.

So what would it mean to apply the Singapore Way to South Africa?

It starts with a fundamental shift from loyalty to capability, from political deployment to professional service. We must reimagine recruitment. Hiring not based on connections, but on qualifications and potential. We must invest in real training, not tick-box workshops. And we must create a culture of accountability where good work is recognised and rewarded, while poor performance carries consequences.

This is not about importing a foreign model wholesale. South Africa’s context is unique. But the principles behind Singapore’s success, like competence, meritocracy, discipline, and long-term planning, are universal. They are not just desirable; they are necessary if we are to restore public trust and build a capable state.

Reforming our civil service isn’t only about removing the wrong people. It’s about building the right systems. Systems that attract and retain talent. That empower problem-solvers. That put citizens first.

Because in the end, a nation’s future depends not just on who leads it, but on how well it is served.