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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

Moshoeshoe - lessons from an African icon - by Prof Frederick Fourie
2004-11-03

(The full text of the article that appeared in City Press and Sunday Independent)

Our understanding of history informs our understanding of the present. No wonder the contestation over historical figures in South Africa’s past is so fierce and so divisive.
The question is: could it be any other way? I would like to think that it could; that black and white South Africans, across linguistic, cultural, religious and other divides, can develop a shared appreciation of our history – at least with certain periods and personalities as a starting point.

One such personality whose legacy I believe offers a possible platform for unifying our still divided country is King Moshoeshoe, who lived from 1786 to 1870, and is acknowledged as the founder of the Basotho.

King Moshoeshoe is the topic of a documentary that has been commissioned by the University of the Free State as part of its Centenary celebrations this year. It is part of a larger project to honour and research the legacy of Moshoeshoe. The documentary will be screened on SABC 2 at 21:00 on November 4th.

Moshoeshoe rose to prominence at a time of great upheaval and conflict in South Africa – the 19th century, a time when British colonialism was entrenching itself, when the Boer trekkers were migrating from the Cape and when numerous indigenous chiefdoms and groupings were engaged in territorial conquests. It was the time of the Difaqane, a period when society in the central parts of the later South Africa and Lesotho was fractured, destabilised and caught in a cycle of violence and aggression.

In this period Moshoeshoe displayed a unique and innovative model of leadership that resulted in reconciliation, peace and stability in the area that later became Lesotho and Free State. It made him stand out from many of his contemporaries and also caught the attention of his colonial adversaries.

Such an evaluation is not a judgment about which model of leadership is right and which is wrong, or which leader was better than another; but merely an attempt to explore what we can learn from a particular exemplar.
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Historians point to the many progressive leadership qualities displayed by Moshoeshoe which he used effectively in establishing the Basotho nation and in defending it.
First, there is his humanism and sense of justice worthy of any great statesman. Confronted by a situation in which cannibals murdered and devoured his grandfather, Moshoeshoe chose not to take revenge. Instead he opted to rehabilitate them and feed them as he believed hunger drove them to cannibalism.

Secondly, there is his skilful alliance-building with his contemporaries such as Shaka in an attempt to neutralize those rivals who were intent on attacking his followers. This is also displayed in the way he sought the protection of the British to keep the Boer forces at bay.
Thirdly, his emphasis on peaceful options is also seen in his defensive military strategy which saw him retreat to a mountain fortress to be able to protect and build a burgeoning nation in the face of the many forces threatening its survival.

Fourthly, there is his remarkable inclusivity and tolerance for diversity which saw him unite disparate groups of refugees from the violence and hunger that displaced them and then weld them into the Basotho nation. He also engaged with French missionaries, inviting them to stay with him and advise him on Western thought, technology and religion.
These are but some of the qualities which belie the notion that all 19th century African leaders were merely marauders and conquerors that gained their ascendancy through violence. Instead Moshoeshoe is a prime example of the human-centred, democratic and pluralist roots of South African, indeed African society.

The Moshoeshoe project that we have initiated (of which the documentary, called “The Renaissance King”, forms but one part) derives from our location as a university in the Free State, a province with a particular history and a particular political culture that developed as a result of this very model of leadership. This province has benefited tremendously from leaders such as Moshoeshoe and president MT Steyn, both of whom many observers credit with establishing a climate of tolerance, respect for diversity of opinion, political accommodation and peaceful methods of pursuing political objectives in the province. Their legacy is real – and Moshoeshoe’s role can not be overstated.
In addition the project derives from the University of the Free State being a site of higher learning in a broader geo-political sense. As a university in Africa we are called upon to understand and critically engage with this history, this context and this legacy.
Besides the documentary, the UFS is also planning to establish an annual Moshoeshoe memorial lecture which will focus on and interrogate models of African leadership, nation-building, reconciliation, diversity management and political tolerance.

In tackling such projects, there may be a temptation to engage in myth-making. It is a trap we must be wary of, especially as an institution of higher learning. We need to ask critical questions about some aspects of Moshoeshoe’s leadership but of current political leadership as well. Thus there is a need for rigorous academic research into aspects of the Moshoeshoe legacy in particular but also into these above-mentioned issues.
While the documentary was commissioned to coincide with the University of the Free State’s centenary and our country’s ten years of democracy, it is a project that has a much wider significance. It is an attempt to get people talking about our past and about our future, as a campus, as a province and as a country – even as a continent, given the NEPAD initiatives to promote democracy and good governance.

The project therefore has particular relevance for the continued transformation of institutions such as universities and the transformation of our society. Hopefully it will assist those who are confronted by the question how to bring about new institutional cultures or even a national political culture that is truly inclusive, tolerant, democratic, non-sexist, non-racial, multilingual and multicultural.

I believe that the Moshoeshoe model of leadership can be emulated and provide some point of convergence. A fractured society such as ours needs points of convergence, icons and heroes which we can share. Moshoeshoe is one such an African icon – in a world with too few of them.

Prof Frederick Fourie is the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State

* The documentary on “Moshoeshoe: The Renaissance King” will be screened on SABC2 on 4 November 2004 at 21:00.

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