This paper firstly examines : service delivery performance by the South African public service? Secondly, it proposes a transformative African leadership and governance approach to improve public service delivery in South Africa. To this end the author conducted an intensive research study in 2004, to analyse service delivery performance in selected South African public service departments. The findings of the research suggests that although the South African public service has been successful in meeting its service delivery objectives, the current strategies and approaches are not very effective in rapidly improving and redressing service delivery, to the extent and at the pace that is currently needed in South Africa. There are a number of interrelated variables which impact of service delivery performance. There are several parallel initiatives that should be undertaken to address challenges impacting on service delivery. The Sout