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The study explored the challenges faced by principals in implementing policies with a focus on the Policy on the South African Standard for Principalship. The implementation of policies globally and in South Africa has experienced a high rate of failure. The problem is that in many organisations' implementing policies, policy implementers are not concerned with challenges that employees face when implementing policies. This lack of focus on challenges has often resulted in policy implementation failure. This article focuses on the perceptions of principals regarding challenges they encounter in implementing policies using a qualitative approach. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews with fifteen principals from schools in Mopani East district, Limpopo province, and used a qualitative inductive analysis. The study revealed that principals encounter challenges that are both systemic DBE-based (Department of Basic Education) and school-based. The study recommends that the Department of Basic Education should focus on mediating the challenges using effective strategies to enhance the chances of policy success. 

The erosion of the South African state and its public services can be understood through various social, political and economic factors. These issues are complex and multifaceted, often intertwined and mutually reinforcing. Several theories and patterns can help explain the erosion of the state and public services in the country. The core objective of this paper is to elucidate the foregoing factors, using purposely selected theories as philosophical lenses through which to understand why service delivery dilemmas prevail, and why state institutions are eroding. This paper is located within a qualitative paradigm, in particular narrative reviews, where secondary sources of information was consulted. This paper makes a conceptual contribution to the notion of the erosion of South African public sector institutions in general, and the field of Public Administration in particular. The paper recognises that addressing the erosion of the South African state and public services requires comprehensive strategies and reforms, including tackling corruption, improving the education and healthcare systems, creating jobs, and addressing economic inequalities. It also necessitates strengthening institutions and promoting good governance to restore public trust and to ensure sustainable development.

The South African National Framework towards the Professionalization of the Public Service, moots the belief that professionalizing public administration is one of the key requirements for building state capacity. An efficient and effective public service may positively impact the state’s development agenda. The United Nations’ (UN) 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) serve as a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all with the focus on an end to poverty, and inequality, the protection of the planet, and the assurance that global citizens enjoy health, justice and prosperity. The core question that this paper addresses is: To what extent will professionalization of the South African public sector through learning and training programs offered at the National School of Government (NSG), contribute to the UN’s SDGs specifically and Africa Agenda 2063 (Agenda 2063) and the South African National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 in general? The paper is premised on a systematic stand-alone literature review. Content analysis was used to make sense of the secondary data consulted by honing in on pre-identified search terms. The study found that while the training programs offered at the NSG are aligned with the government’s focus on professionalization of the public service, specific mention of the SDGs, the NDP and Agenda 2063, are not made. It is recommended that with much talk around the re-calibration of the public sector by way of the NSG, an opportunity exists to explicitly teach the principles, objectives and aims of the aforementioned SDGs, NDP goals and Agenda 2063 objectives, in all its training programs, or that new programs are devised by the NSG solely focused on the attainment of the SDGs.