Johannesburg: In South Africa frequent protests by ordinary citizens is a clear indication that public servants do not always deliver the goods. This was confirmed by President Jacob Zuma when he said "Faced with these problems, citizens become dissatisfied and disillusioned with the public service. Some take drastic measures to express their dissatisfaction, as we have seen in the recent service delivery protests."  The reasons why service delivery mostly falls short in South Africa are myriad. However, South Africa does not have a shortage of institutions where good public policy and management is taught at the highest level, as Thabo Mbeki's speech at the World Economic Forum would suggest.

To name a few institutions where world-class programmes are offered: the University of Western Cape's School of Government, and the Graduate School of Public and Development Management at Wits and at Stellenbosch university's School of Public Leadership.  The SPL is the only school of its kind that combines all three pillars of good public leadership in one package - good governance, environmental management and sustainable development.

In spite of established institutions, there have been efforts to buy expertise from abroad. This is problematic. Looking at institutions like Harvard or Yale to help find solutions for uniquely African problems is not the answer.

South Africa and other African countries should find solutions for their own problems and not have a foreign blueprint imposed on them. We have the capacity in Africa to train effective and ethical public-service leaders.

The reason for the existence of the established schools and institutions is to assist public leaders to translate public policies into actions.  Through honours, masters and PhD training, the schools have created pockets of public-sector excellence. Spread throughout South Africa is a pool of hundreds, if not thousands, of researchers who are generating new knowledge about public policy implementation from within Africa. It is a pity the authorities often choose to ignore the existence of these centres of knowledge and expertise.

Mbeki said there is no shortage of indigenous policies to tackle Africa's challenges. He is correct in the sense that there are policies that look wonderful on paper. However, many of these policies are not necessarily suited to the problems facing African countries. We need to interrogate the relevance of these policies.

But even if all these policies were relevant, there are still problems with implementation. The problems have to do with African institutional issues related to the quality of public leadership, adherence to the rule of law, deficiencies in good governance, a lack of respect for human rights, the ineffectiveness of some local markets in Africa, inability to promote regional and cross-border trade and mobility and restrictions on media freedom. In short, there is a lack of institutional capacity regarding good governance and solid democratic institutions.

A centralised, one-school-fits-all concept is funded by an over-ambitious foreign organisation or company with a specific ideology is not the answer. We need African institutions to create networks of excellence where ideas can be exchanged while fostering a culture of competitiveness. Competition of ideas motivates individuals and organisations towards excellence.

There is already an active professional network of higher education schools and departments in the disciplines of public administration, public management, public governance and development management in Southern Africa. The Association of Southern African Schools and Departments of Public Administration and Management was established in 2002 to promote the interests of these disciplines and of scholars active in these fields. In September it will host a conference in Cape Town with the theme "Public Management at a Crossroads in a Changing World".

African institutions also have close ties with the Commonwealth Association of Public Administration and Management. These ties can be strengthened to increase knowledge of how public service delivery is implemented in different countries.

An exchange of knowledge can be mutually beneficent - as long as we are vigilant against being co-opted by foreign agendas that have little or no relevance to the problems faced by Africa. We probably do not need a centralised continental school prone to manipulation by powerful individuals, but rather a pluralistic number of knowledge centres of excellence bound into an effective global and continental knowledge network.

South Africa has great public service delivery policies. It is up to the citizens to hold leaders accountable when they fail to implement them.

• Erwin Schwella is professor in public leadership at the School of Public Leadership at Stellenbosch University