The direction quality assurance and its ancillary practices is taking in the transformation process in South Africa is discussed in this article. The article argues that it is incorrect to suggest that the higher education system has been captured by managerialism. While efficiency is an important driver of the system, the imperatives of redress and equality, on the one hand, and quality, on the other, are not insignificant. However, these discourses are substantially asymmetrical. The purpose of this article is two-fold: in the first instance it seeks to describe the range of state-mandated initiatives that have been instituted to give substance to the transformation process in higher education and particularly those that have a bearing on the production and promotion of quality. In the second instance, it attempts to highlight and analyse the implications of these mandates for the impact and significance they have for the character of South African higher education.