In an election year, and on the eve of the state of the nation address and budget speeches, you’d be right to brace yourself for news of exciting undertakings by our government of national unity (GNU) to drive economic growth, grow jobs and foster a more equal society.
The recent update from National Treasury director-general Duncan Pieterse on the concerted work under way to improve, among other things, the efficiency of government spending and consequent efficiency savings was a refreshing glimpse behind the curtain (“South Africa’s debt stabilisation marks a fiscal turning point”, January 26).
He rightly conceded to the need for difficult trade-offs and the simple benefit of time to unlock significant savings. But change is under way and we seem to finally be moving in the right direction, where low priority plans or underperforming programmes can be deprioritised in favour of what works more transparently. We can only define “what works” with “what delivers”.
To that end, faith is also being placed in the power of technology to eliminate state friction between departments, business and citizens in delivering vital services to restore trust in a tough environment. We can expect an update on the roll-out of MyMzansi, a new digital system initiated by the digital service unit in the presidency in late 2025 and expected to publicly launch in the first half of this year. This is intended to “simplify and improve how residents, businesses, and government interact by using shared technology, modern design and collaborative delivery models”.
One of the biggest human bottlenecks technology cannot solve is the absence of delivery-driven behaviour that is enabled and owned throughout the service delivery chain.
A digitally transformative approach to service delivery with an interface like MyMzansi is long overdue, but the success of any system-wide overhaul will hinge on a vital parallel and no less Herculean effort: addressing the structural vacuum of accountable digital skills and enabling flexible fiscal regulations. Without this, digital initiatives risk becoming expensive misconceptions that hobble along parallel to the real state and not substitute for change in real-time.
One of the biggest human bottlenecks technology cannot solve is the absence of delivery-driven behaviour that is enabled and owned throughout the service delivery chain. While technology can digitise processes, automate workflows and surface real-time data with surgical precision, it cannot push a decisionmaker to act on that data. It cannot correct misaligned incentives or dissolve political patronage. It cannot unite a fragmented team, choose between competing demands or shift funds mid-year to a stream that is yielding amazing results.
Accountability in any large organisation can easily and often be diffused across layers of hierarchy and disparate mandates. It is certainly the pervasive experience in South Africa for the people and businesses hustling a living here.
The inclusive growth, jobs and investment potential locked in our vast, unwieldy, siloed state is well documented, but it is the legacy skills and behaviours in our public service that risk becoming a more dangerous constraint. Our public service career path was designed for a paper-based bureaucracy, not a digital state, which means part of reforming service delivery in South Africa requires at least three adjustments.
Make the state ‘cool’ again
The tech and digital professionals required to build a modern state prioritise autonomy, modern tools, meaningful impact and a clear career path. Government must stop allowing itself to be positioned as a stagnant repository for administrators and career bureaucrats; instead, it should market itself as South Africa’s largest and only nation-scale laboratory for change-makers, innovators and technologists.
We need engineers who see the public sector as a place to build a reimagined reality, not only projects to maintain; teachers who see it as a place to create entirely new ways of learning; nurses whose deep understanding and passion can streamline processes for better patient care; and so many more. This push needs to be led by senior officials and leaders who have the respect and experience to drive a change that will be uncomfortable but necessary.
Let special skills shine
A modern state that anticipates and responds to delivery needs can build trust only if its personnel are properly skilled and accountable. Any hardened public servant will tell you the secret to career success is playing by the rules and roles set by the department of public administration, however antiquated they may be. If we want to break into a world where the state can be relied on to consistently deliver quality services by applying skills and sensibly deploying evolving technology, career coasting along an outdated map must be abandoned.
New roles for technical specialists must be supported and appropriately remunerated while existing roles are empowered with new skills. This means roles such as chief data officers, digital architects, AI governance specialists and more should be integrated into departmental structures and decisionmaking, not only shoehorned in alongside existing responsibilities.
Further, the right training must be prioritised at the right time. There is a rapidly evolving tech world that is challenging and delighting many of the people responsible for making our public service work. That deserves to be harnessed and multiplied across core functions immediately, and long before an annual performance plan is drafted, or a line is needed in a speech. We need to infuse the public service with the curiosity and possibility that responsible digital tools and skills inculcate.
Fiscal flexibility
Beyond leadership and skills, government must confront the reality that digital infrastructure is not funded like brick and mortar projects. Traditional procurement is designed for static assets, whereas technology is evolving, iterating and scaling in real-time.
The introduction of multiyear digital envelopes with quarterly releases tied to transparent performance metrics and clear delivery milestones could go some way to allocating capital to projects that work, not only those substantiated in a plan three years before. Even allowing more flexibility in re-allocating funds in-year can open the public sector to better efficiencies and results. Without supportive fiscal regulations that transparently enable agile decision-making based on live dynamics and performance, our dreams of an efficient state will remain just that.
If we are to truly bridge the aspiration gap between current technology and public service delivery, we must stop viewing digital transformation and its tech tools as a panacea. The reality is that a trusted, digitally transformed government is only possible when we marry agile fiscal frameworks with an appropriately skilled, accountable leadership core. Once we fix these foundational human and fiscal bedrocks, we can start to deliver an efficient state that truly works.
• Mogale is head of public sector at technology and management consultancy IQbusiness.
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