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Ambrose du Plessis
Dr Ambrosé du Plessis, lecturer in the Department of Public Administration and Management, at his graduation of the University of the Free State (UFS) April graduation ceremonies.

With coalition governments becoming more common in South Africa and proven to be unstable, a lecturer at the University of the Free State (UFS) devised an alternative contextual coalition-led framework towards a functioning political-administrative dichotomy. This instability adversely affects service delivery. 

The framework was devised by Dr Ambrosé du Plessis, lecturer in the UFS Department of Public Administration and Management, as part of his PhD research and focused on the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. He hopes it can offer valuable lessons for the broader context of South Africa’s evolving political landscape, particularly in light of the 2024 national coalition-led Government of national Unity (GNU). 

Dr Du Plessis graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy with specialisation in Public Administration and management at the UFS April graduation ceremonies. Prof Liezel Lues, Professor of Public Administration and Management, in the Department of Public Administration and Management, was his supervisor. 

Dr Du Plessis is part of the newest cohort of the Emerging Scholar Accelerator (ESAP) mentoring programme for mostly lecturers who are less than five years post-PhD. This group falls within the Transformation of the Professoriate Mentoring Programme which aims to grow a critical mass of excellent emerging scholars at the university who are equipped to assume senior academic and research positions. 

 

Political-administrative dichotomy

With his thesis titled ‘The Political-Administrative Dichotomy in coalition-led metropolitan municipalities: A South African Perspective’, he focuses on the interface between politics and administration. Says Dr Du Plessis: “The political-administrative dichotomy discourse is unable to account for coalition politics in most of South Africa’s metropolitan municipalities. More importantly, political and administrative instability has become common in most of South Africa’s coalition-led metropolitan municipalities.

“What makes my research particularly interesting is that it transcends Public Administration by incorporating contributions from Political Science through critical discourse analysis. I also conducted interviews with political office-bearers, the South African Local Government Association in Gauteng province, as well as subject experts – both national and international – in public administration, political science, and constitutionalism, to uncover deeper nuances relating to local lived experiences and international perspectives,” says Dr Du Plessis. 

According to him, the increasing prevalence of coalition-led governments in South Africa’s metropolitan municipalities necessitates a reconceptualisation of the political-administrative interface. Traditional interpretations of the political-administrative dichotomy have proved inadequate in explaining the multifaceted and dynamic interactions characteristic of contemporary coalition governance. This study responds to that gap by proposing a nuanced, context-sensitive, and theoretically enriched framework that better reflects the realities of coalition-led metropolitan municipal governance in the South African context.

 

The findings of the research 

“Building on comparative and critical discourse analyses, this research advances a polychotomous framework – one that transcends mono-theoretical and discipline-bound approaches by integrating insights from Public Administration and Political Science. The framework acknowledges the existence of both formal and informal political-administrative relationships and interrogates how these configurations influence governance outcomes in coalition-led municipalities, with specific reference to the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) Metropolitan Municipality.

“The findings underscore the limitations of classical dichotomy theory, particularly in accounting for the intersectionality between coalition politics and the institutional architecture of local government. In contrast to the dichotomy discourse, which narrowly focuses on political principals and administrative office-bearers, this research situates the interface within a broader institutional and societal matrix that includes political parties, non-state actors, and citizen constituencies.”

Dr Du Plessis say although this study was confined to local government and the CoJ, he believes it makes a meaningful knowledge contribution with real-world impact, paving the way for continued exploration and innovation in both research and practice concerning the political-administrative interface in coalition-led metropolitan municipalities. “More importantly, I hope it sparks critical reflection on the central nervous system of government and governance in South Africa, highlighting the urgent need to reconfigure not only political and administrative arrangements, but also the broader governance frameworks required to manage coalition politics effectively.”

 

PhD journey 

Obtaining his PhD, Dr Du Plessis says, is extremely emotional as he hopes to have inspired the broader family and future generations of students. It is both a liberating and proud moment for him for which he is deeply grateful and extremely overjoyed. This is not only the achievement of a personal and academic goal, but also the fulfilment of a journey filled with perseverance, growth, and purpose.

Like most PhDs, his journey was characterised by challenges that not only tested his intellectual ability but also his drive to succeed. There were moments of “profound loneliness”, self-doubt and even an overwhelming sense of guilt and shame. He had to deal with mental health challenges and experienced the well-known imposter syndrome. However, the support from his wife, Natasha, and Prof Lues, as well as colleagues like Dr Marevé Biljohn, Head of the Department of Public Administration and Management, the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences PhD support group under the leadership of Prof Tina Kotze and Mrs Igna du Plooy and the REAP programme under the leadership of Dr Henriette van der Berg and Dr Karen Booysen, were essential in completing his PhD. They guided him through the academic and emotional trials of this journey with unwavering compassion.

News Archive

UFS to investigate implementation of quality-monitoring system for SA food industry
2006-02-07

Some of the guests who attended the workshop were from the left Prof James du Preez (Chairperson: Department of Biotechnology at the UFS); Prof Lodewyk Kock (Head: South African Fryer Oil Initiative (SAFOI) at the UFS)); Mrs Ina Wilken (Chairperson: South African National Consumer Union (SANCU)); Prof Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS) and Mr Joe Hanekom (Managing Director of Agri Inspec).
Photo: Stephen Collet
 

UFS to investigate implementation of quality-monitoring system for SA food industry

The University of the Free State (UFS) will be investigating the implementation of a quality-monitoring service for the South African food industry. 

This was decided during a workshop to discuss the external quality monitoring in the edible oil industry of South Africa, which was recently held at the UFS.

Major role players in the fast-food sector like Nando's, Spur, Captain
Dorego's, King Pie Holdings, Black Steer Holdings, etc and various oil
distributors like Felda Bridge Africa, Refill Oils, PSS Oils and Ilanga Oils attended
the workshop. Also present was Mrs Ina Wilken, Chairperson of the South African National Consumer Union (SANCU) and key-note speaker of this workshop. She represented the consumer.  

These role players all pledged their support to the implementation of this quality- monitoring system for the whole food industry. 

The decision to implement this system follows the various malpractices reported in the press and on TV concerning food adulteration (eg the recent Sudan Red Scare), misrepresentation (eg olive oil scandal exposed in 2001) and the misuse of edible frying oils by the fast-food sector. 

“One of the basic rights of consumers is the right to safe food. Consumers must be protected against foods and food production processes which are hazardous to their health. Sufficient guarantee of the safety of all food products and food production processes should be implemented. It does not help to have adequate food standards and legislation and there is no manpower to do the necessary investigation or monitoring,” said Mrs Wilken.

The South African Fryer Oil Initiative (SAFOI), under the auspices of the UFS Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology, currently monitors edible oils in the food industry and makes a seal of quality available to food distributors.

“Last week’s decision to implement the quality-monitoring system implies that we will now be involving also other departments in the UFS Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences who are involved in various aspects of the food chain in an endeavor to implement this quality monitoring system,” said Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean:  Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS and one of the main speakers at the workshop.

Prof van Schalkwyk said that the main aim of such a system will be to improve the competitiveness of the South African food industry.  “It is clear that the role players attending the workshop are serious about consumer service and that they agree that fraudulent practice should be monitored and corrected as far as possible.  Although some of the food outlets have the capacity to monitor the quality of their food, it may not seem to the consumer that this is an objective process.  The proposed external monitoring system would counteract this perception amongst consumers,” said Prof van Schalkwyk.

The workshop was also attended by representatives from SAFOI and Agri Inspec, a forensic investigation company collaborating with inter-state and government structures to combat fraud and international trade irregularities.

Agri Inspec has been working closely with SAFOI for a number of years to test the content of edible oils and fats.  “Extensive monitoring and control actions have been executed in the edible oil industry during the past four years to ensure that the content and labeling of oil products are correct.  Four years ago almost 90% of the samples taken indicated that the content differed from what is indicated on the label.  This has changed and the test results currently show that 90% of the products tested are in order. However, to maintain this quality standard, it is necessary that quality monitoring and educational campaigns are continuously performed,” said Mr Joe Hanekom, Managing Director of Agri Inspec. 

“The seal of quality presented by SAFOI should also be extended to include all the smaller oil containers used by households,” Mrs Wilken said.

The SAFOI seal of quality is currently displayed mainly on some oil brands packed in bigger 20 liter containers, which include sunflower oil, cottonseed oil, palm oil etc which are used by restaurants and fast food outlets.  “Any oil type is eligible to display the seal when meeting certain standards of authenticity.  In order to display the seal, the distributor must send a sample of each oil batch they receive from the manufacturer to SAFOI for testing for authenticity, ie that the container’s content matches the oil type described on the label. This is again double checked by Agri Inspec, which also draws samples countrywide from these certified brands from the end-user (restaurant or fast food outlets). If in breach, the seal must be removed from the faulty containers,” said Prof Lodewyk Kock, Head of SAFOI.

“It should however be taken into account that oils without a seal of quality from the UFS can still be of high quality and authentic. Other external laboratories equipped to perform effective authenticity tests may also be used in this respect,” said Prof Kock.

“It is also important to realise that any oil type of quality such as sunflower oil, cottonseed oil, palm oil etc can be used with great success in well controlled frying processes,” he said.

Further discussions will also be held with the Department of Health, the SA National Consumer Union and Agri Inspec to determine priority areas and to develop the most effective low-cost monitoring system.

More information on the UFS oil seal of quality and oil use can be obtained at www.uovs.ac.za/myoilguide

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel:   (051) 401-2584
Cell:  083 645 2454
E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
6 February 2006

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