25 May 2022 - Centre-stage in South Africa’s governance crisis is the question of the competence and fitness-for-purpose of its civil service – or rather, how the latter is lacking in these qualities. There is no longer any real debate about the severity of the crises that have arisen, daily illustrations of which range from brazen and pervasive corruption, to official indifference to performing its tasks, to the outright collapse of administration across large parts of the country.