Critical Challenges This collection of essays from varying perspectives, The Zuma Administration: Critical Challenges rigorously engages with the issues facing the new South African government. The contributors provide a view into the future and explore the responsibilities that the Zuma administration must take on. The monograph seeks to stimulate debate and thinking, to challenge entrenched views and perceptions and to break new ground. Interpreting the dynamics since the birth of democracy in South Africa in1994, through the era of the Mbeki administration and the transition to the Zuma administration, it provides fresh perspectives on the questions of land reform, rural development, service delivery, intergovernmental relations, and poverty reduction in South Africa. Steering clear of biography, the book deals with the micro-mechanics of governance. It is written for policy-makers, scholars in the field of administration and governance and everyone with an interest in the political economy and public administration of South Africa. The issues that this book deals with are high on the research agenda of the Human Sciences Research Council’s Democracy and Governance research programme and are in line with its pursuit of informing policy development in South Africa.