An analysis of the South African Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) policy implementation paradigm

M.Phil.Considerable research on public policymaking has been carried out over the years. A number of theoretical frameworks have been developed to try to understand the complexities of the policy process. Nevertheless, the implementation of policy remains, as deLeon and deLeon (2001) state “the most devilish of wicked problems”. It is this wicked problem that this thesis attempts to comprehend a little better in the context of public transport. There is a broadly expressed belief in South Africa that while we have developed some fairly robust public transport policies, we fall down when it comes to the implementation of these policies. However, policies are not equally complex in nature and surely therefore not equally demanding in implementation. While it is accepted that a number of political, economic and social factors are necessary for policy implementation, it is nevertheless hypothesised that the nature and complexity of a policy will influence the paradigm within which implementation will take place. Furthermore, the ‘success’ of the implementation process needs to be located within the context of the specific implementation paradigm. The objective of this thesis has been to (i) identify and (ii) apply an appropriate policy implementation framework or model to the implementation of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) programme in South Africa to understand the BRT policy implementation process that has emerged thus far and whether its very nature and characteristics place it within a certain policy implementation paradigm