AN INVESTIGATION OF STAFF PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS IN SOUTH AFRICA

: This article seeks to analyse the barriers to employee performance and productivity at the Department of Home Affairs' Richards Bay branch. The mandate of the public sector is to offer effective and efficient public service delivery to the public, and service provision is guaranteed by the South African constitution. There has been a public uproar about low worker performance and productivity at the Department of Home Affairs. The government is currently employing a Performance Management System (PMS) to improve the performance and productivity of public personnel. This paper will look at the feasibility of the PMS in terms of increasing the productivity and performance of DHA employees. The challenges encountered in the implementation of the PMS will be analysed and possible strategies to counter these challenges will be proposed. This article contends that the PMS is ineffective in addressing South African public servant performance. The government must create new measures to effectively implement the PMS as the current standard tool to improve civil servant performance and productivity. To fulfil the study's objectives, this paper used a qualitative technique, unstructured interviews were the data collection tool used and content analysis was used to analyse the data.