The South African public sector has gradually introduced a comprehensive performance management system since the publication of the Presidential Review Commission's Report to former President Nelson Mandela in 1998 as its micro management framework. This system is based on the application of two distinct, yet mutually dependent management techniques, viz. strategic planning and performance management. Strategic planning allows for an institution to set its strategic direction based on an analysis of the conditions and needs in the external management environment, matched with institutional capacity. Performance management then provides the management applications to enable the institution to arrange its structures, organisational set-up, institutional systems and management processes around the strategic direction determined during the strategic planning phase of the integrated process. The management framework that gradually too