On 16 April 2026, the National Treasury published the draft General Public Procurement Regulations, 2026 for public comment in terms of section 63(1) of the Public Procurement Act, 2024 (Act No. 28 of 2024), in Government Gazette Number 54528. The date for the submission of the comments was 60 days from the date of publication.
However, due to requests for the extension of this timeframe and recognising the complexities of these regulations, the Minister of Finance has determined it appropriate to allow for an extended period of a further 30 days to afford the public to submit comment and input. The revised due date for submissions is 15 July 2026 as per the attached Notice in Government Gazette Number 54827.
Written comments on the draft General Public Procurement Regulations, 2026 must be submitted to: DraftGeneralProcurementRegulations@treasury.gov.za.
Senior officials from Zambia’s Cabinet Office Management Development Division recently visited South Africa for a five-day study tour designed to enhance their expertise in public financial management and administration. Held from November 11-15, 2024, the programme was hosted by the Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC). The visit fostered knowledge-sharing and collaboration, focusing on strategic planning, compliance, knowledge management, and public financial reforms.
The delegation began their visit at the National Treasury, where GTAC’s leadership introduced them to the centre’s mandate, compliance frameworks, and innovative resourcing models. Presentations by GTAC staff, including Precious Thwala and Siya Sasayi, showcased strategic planning and monitoring frameworks critical to effective governance. A session on knowledge management, led by a multidisciplinary team, emphasised the importance of leveraging institutional knowledge to improve operational efficiency.
Midweek, the programme focused on Public Expenditure and Policy Analysis (PEPA) and the role of big data in conducting spending reviews. Delegates explored fiscal architecture in local governance, gaining valuable insights into efficient resource allocation. A field trip to Merafong Municipality in Carletonville allowed participants to observe these practices in action, offering a hands-on perspective.
On the fourth day, GTAC’s Institutional Development Support (IDS) unit led discussions on institutional strengthening methodologies. Case studies on public financial management and organisational development provided actionable insights. The day concluded with a networking session aimed at fostering collaboration between Zambian and South African officials.
The visit culminated in sessions on transaction advisory services and public-private partnerships (PPPs), with a particular focus on capital project appraisals. Delegates received a comprehensive overview of GTAC’s multifaceted role in supporting public sector development.
Reflecting on the visit, both delegations expressed optimism for future engagements to drive public sector excellence across the continent.
“This collaboration showcases what is unique about GTAC. We have immense institutional knowledge and expertise that is valuable in helping not just South African government departments but governments across the continent to develop their expertise to drive meaningful reform in public finance and administration to enhance service delivery. It was a pleasure to share some of our approaches with the Zambian delegation, and we look forward to collaborating further,” said Elaine Venter, GTAC Chief Director: Strategy, Management, and Communications.
This successful exchange underscores the importance of cross-border collaboration in building a stronger, more efficient public sector in Africa.
The Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC) is pleased to host a study tour for a delegation of officials from the Government of Zambia, taking place from 11 to 15 November. This initiative offers the visiting delegation an invaluable opportunity to gain direct exposure to GTAC’s operations and learn about the legal, policy, and institutional frameworks that contribute to its role in fostering an effective and capable state.
Ms. Elaine Venter, Chief Director of Strategy, Management and Communications (GTAC), Ms. Margaret Miyoba Nambwelu, Permanent Secretary for Management and Development Division (Zambian Treasury Office), and Nalini Naicker, Director of Human Capital Management (GTAC), accompanied by officials from Zambia and South Africa during the study tour on public sector operations.
The study tour is funded by the European Union, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and USAID, with implementation support from GIZ. It forms part of a larger initiative aimed at advancing public sector reform in Zambia. The insights gained during the tour will guide the restructuring of key Zambian institutions, including the Management Development Division (MMD), the Public Service Management Division (PSMD), and Public Financial Management (PFM) entities. These reforms are central to Zambia’s efforts to restore fiscal sustainability, optimize public resource allocation and spending, and improve service delivery.
The tour commenced with comprehensive presentations that introduced the Zambian delegation to GTAC’s various business units and covered critical topics such as knowledge management and resource allocation. On the second day, the delegation will engage with the Department of Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation (DPME), exploring best practices in intergovernmental coordination and public administration.
This knowledge-sharing initiative is a testament to GTAC’s commitment to supporting Zambia’s development objectives and strengthening regional collaboration. By fostering dialogue, learning, and innovation, the tour aims to contribute to the advancement of sustainable and effective governance in Southern Africa.
GTAC looks forward to continuing to build strong partnerships that drive impactful reforms and promote excellence in public sector management.
Day three of the conference started with a session on “Emerging technologies and the changing world of work.” This session started with an expert talk by Willem Fourie from the Policy Innovation Lab at the University of Stellenbosch. He looked at the promise and peril of using AI to analyse public data. This session covered the genesis of AI systems, he included examples of using AI to analyse qualitative data and the benefits and risks of using AI to analyse qualitative data.
He said: “Policy making is not only about writing policy, it is also about implementing and sometimes ending [policy]. Our institutions need to be ready for AI, we need to support human capability training.”
He took conference guests through an explanation of AI (technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human intelligence and problem-solving capabilities) and how it was inspired by the human body. He noted: “ChatGPT gives wonderful answers but it does not understand what it is telling you. It mimics human intelligence but it has no understanding.”
He covered the ways that AI learns and key ethical considerations and he elaborated on the need to keep data clean so you have reliable data, “It’s boring but very important.”
A panel discussion followed on using AI to analyse data and transform the products and services. Topics covered by panellists included cases of the use of AI in the private sector, the benefits of using AI to transform products and services and risks associated with using AI to transform products and services. Fourie highlighted “the emphasis is on keeping the human in the loop.”
On the panel was Lerato Mathabatha, Public Sector Director, Microsoft South Africa. She explained: “Generative AI has been around for decades, and now we’re at a point where we are putting it in people’s hands. There is a love-hate relationship with AI at the moment but its dependent on the user. It’s here and how do we help users to interact with AI that minimises the risk but leads with its benefits?”
She highlighted the need for prompt training, “If I know how to prompt [AI] and feed it the right information to get the quality of data that is substantial – all of that is on the human.’ She noted the challenge with getting reliable and clean data from the public sector – “our [government] data is paper based and the transition to digitise is slow.”
Thabo Makenete, Head of Public Policy, Southern Africa Region, Meta explained the ways that Meta uses AI in its products and to support government’s work. He explained the AI project Meta implemented with the IEC on the South African national elections to prevent the spread of misinformation.
Stephen Smith, Head, BCB Risk Decision Science, Standard Bank highlighted the emphasis on governance and risk frameworks in the commercial banking space. He said: “All our AI models must consider fairness, bias, ethics and must be implemented on a sound platform. Even if we don’t put in gender, age, race or income the historical data has bias. So we stick to algorithms like logistic regression as we can look inside the model.”
This next session delved deeper into emerging technology and looked at the topic of how digital technologies can enable equitable access to public services with examples from basic education, health and infrastructure. The panellists shared some fascinating case studies of how technology is enabling access to educational resources and healthcare.
Mark Horner the founder of Siyavula, a free platform focused on mathematics and physical sciences shared this impressive EdTech solution and shared how it is impacting learners in South Africa. He highlighted that their online textbooks are read by 50% of maths and science learners in South Africa and that this is made possible through zero rating of content by cellphone providers. “We can get to the majority of high school learners today if we leverage mobile phones.”
He finished by saying: “There are 100 EdTech companies in South Africa but there is no policy, we all have data but no way to share it with the Department of Basic Education. If you do have data we can make systemic changes.”
Next William Mapham, Founder of Vula Mobile presented his software that connects health workers to improve education outcomes. He shared that the Vula app has 37 000 healthcare workers and that they have helped 1,9 million patients. The app uses digital records, chat data and images to create a full patient profile. “We improve health outcomes and there is time and money saved for healthcare workers.”
The final presentation was from Phemelo Mahamuza: Gauteng City Region Observatory, she shared the infrastructure reporting model to track health facility construction. The model is used to determine if the infrastructure there, is it ready to use and how long did it take to build? This was initiated by the Department of Health to validate the construction of health care facilities using remote sensing and machine learning to classify land cover.
The next session looked at administration data for research and policymaking and featured researchers working at National Treasury’s Data Lab using tax data to inform policy and planning.
Bruce McDougall from UNU-WIDER shared information on the National Treasury’s Data Lab showcasing the data available and how the National Treasury is working with researchers to understand the implications of policy changes and to inform policy changes. He highlighted the benefits of using administrative data and also the challenges of this data including that “the downside is it’s not designed for research so its messy, little documentation, little control what is captured.”
Marlies Piek, Senior Economist, National Treasury said: “Many important policies are implemented based on household surveys and we don’t have accurate information, an example of this is the national minimum wage.”
She shared some case studies where this data has been used to reflect on the impact of policy reform including the mixed results of the introduction of the youth wage subsidy, that the introduction of the marginal tax rate actually resulted in a reduction in tax revenue due to a behavioural response from high-income earners. Finally she shared the impact of the agricultural minimum wage and that employers didn’t let go of staff but they stopped hiring new workers.
She concluded by saying: “I think we have showcased that data can be shared across institutions in a safe way and there is power in sharing data, it can improve the lives of citizens.”
Finally Andrew Nell from SEAD SA showcased the digital tool that has been created using this data to provide data at a municipal level. He showcased the tool and highlighted that municipalities are using the tool to review economic activity and performance and the impact of disasters like Covid-19, flooding and riots.
This was followed by a lively debate between the students attending the conference. Ronette Engela: Acting Head, GTAC commented: “The energy and insight that you bring as youth is fantastic. Professional colleagues, lets take our leadership from the front benches where the energy is up. I hope you have found value in this conference.”
The conference conclude with a video message from Ashor Sarupen: Deputy Minister of Finance. He said: “This topic is timely and crucial for the growth and development of our country. The sessions have demonstrated the breadth and depth of opportunities available in digital technologies. We see how innovation can drive efficiency and effectiveness in government service delivery, as well as the collective effort required to drive transformation. We must work together. The knowledge shared here will shape policies and strategies. I urge you all to take the insights gained here back to you institutions. Together we have the power transform the lives of millions of South Africa.”
If you missed the sessions you can download all the presentations here or catch the recordings on YouTube.
Day two of the Public Economics Conference focused on the themes of digital inclusion and digital dividends, with panellists and presenters sharing insights on how to make technology accessible to everyone and the need for regulatory frameworks crucial for establishing a ‘digital government’.
Sessions touched on how to evaluate and develop policies that encourage technology adoption while promoting inclusivity and accessibility in communities. The day saw government departments sharing case studies and ended with a review of the effects of digitisation on labour markets and employment.
The first session of the day kicked off with a presentation by Alison Gillwald: Executive Director, Research ICT Africa (RIA) and adjunct professor at University of Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance and unpacked digital inclusion and digital inequality.
Alison’s presentation “Measuring, assessing and redressing digital inequality and data injustice on the continent: The need for nationally representative demand side survey on digital access and use and individual, household and informal sector for evidence-based policy” focused on the topic of the digital inequality paradox.
She said: “Policies have fallen short in fostering equitable digital inclusion. We see that structural inequalities are reflected in the extent and use of technologies.”
She highlighted the need for nationally representative demand-side data on ICT access and use in order to develop policy effectively. She highlighted data pricing as a barrier to access. She said: “Data is too high for our citizens. Most citizens in Africa can’t afford GSM services.”
She also highlighted that low levels of education is a barrier to online access but we see that 71% of people now have a smartphone but for the vast majority of people these aren’t being used for much more than WhatsApp, so this is not true digital access.
Her presentation was followed by a panel discussion which tackled the topic of establishing an enhanced evidence base for equitable and inclusive digital economy and society and unpacked if government strategies are considering key complexities.
Panellists discussed questions like if South Africa has adequate digital public statistics to inform policy, using data as public good as well as what evidence we need to answer complex policy questions? As well as if there are any multisector strategies in place to redress digital inequality?
Ashwell Jenneker, Deputy Director General, Stats SA & co-chair of UN expert group on big data said:
“If you think about policy needs, you have demands and then you have the supply of data. When look at SDG, we only respond to 72% of SDGS, so we need to look at the data ecosystem. There is administrative data, big data or alternative data. [We are looking at] what policy prescripts are, to know where the gaps are and where should we invest limited resources.”
Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyani: Director General, Department of Communications and Digital Technologies said: “We are at the heart of connecting every single citizen. We’ve achieved many things, first was national broadband policy. The population is 99% covered however we need meaningful connectivity with devices, affordable access to data and digital skills. Access from e-Government strategy need to ensure and enable government to talk to citizens and business. We also have a digital economy masterplan this multisectoral approach is a big gamechanger to help ensure inclusive participation for growth, job creation, SMME empowerment.”
Jabu Mtsweni: National Policy Data Observatory explained: “We generate a lot of data both in the public and private sector. But there is an issue of co-ordination from service providers and this was evident during the pandemic. If we co-ordinate we can make data-driven decisions. So data collection is important. In issues of service delivery, when disasters happen like the KZN floods, data is siloed and this limits the speed of response.”
The panel finished with Paul Plantinga, Digital Strategies & Engagement, Human Sciences Research Council he touched on indigenous languages use in large language models, “we need more data sets with different languages from across the country, so we need to build data pipelines to enable AI. SABC has incredibly valuable language data..”
The next session was an expert talk by Melanie Garson from Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and University College London and her presentation was titled “State of compute access: How to bridge the new digital divide, considering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”. She focused on compute access (the computational resources required for artificial intelligence systems to perform tasks).
She said: “Compute is the modern agent of change but access to compute is a bottleneck in AI, this is another inequality in the system that will be opened up. Access to compute is the basis of the next digital divide and countries without compute may be cut off from progress.”
She pointed to the Tony Blair Institutes Compute Index to monitor country level compute use. “We see a stark compute divide but [the index shows us] where countries are, what levers they have, where countries are in their journey and where should invest to accelerate compute journey.”
She said: “The Index is about identifying where leaders of government must invest. What are a country’s strengths within the compute ecosystem? This is where the resource infrastructure is and how this can link to a regional digital transformation strategy.”
She shared recommendations for emerging countries including reviewing compute capacity, creating a consortium or regional framework (consider joint super-computing initiatives), target R&D investment and improve their security.
Kathy Nicolaou: Long Term Advisor, GTAC launched the topic of ‘interoperability for what’. Kathy highlighted how data is used in government to improve operational efficiencies, inform research and inform policy and lastly to improve client centric service delivery.
She outlined the digital stack approach which includes three layers: data and hardware (as the foundation), shared infrastructure (how use data to service an individual) and the top layer is the services layer (beneficiary layer). She touched on how SASSA used this approach to develop the SRD grant system. She touched on the benefits of event driven architecture, she said: “This allows you to access data across all govt departments, so departments have to maintain and clean their own data but you allow each ministry to access the data. The most important thing with this is to get right the data standards and harmonisation of systems.”
She finished by highlighting that: “We’re starting to look at a digital stack for South Africa and using interoperability to link social development and jobs to create an integrated social support system.”
This was followed by a panel discussion on using big data analytics and building digital infrastructure to connect governments and citizens, taxpayers, users of services.
Una Rautenbach: Intergovernmental Relations, National Treasury talked about the local government database and reporting system. “This systems contains financial, non-financial and documents for all 270 municipalities. We have more than 2000 registered users. We want to make sure the data is credible, we don’t want people to come to the wrong conclusions. This data is used by government departments to inform policy decisions and allocation of equitable share of budget. We also provide information to the public to enhance public consultation performance and we present it in an easy to use way.”
Sello Ndhlovu:, Senior Manager, Enterprise Information Management, Companies and Intellectual Property Commission shared the CIPC’s journey from being an organisation “that collected documents to an organisation that collected data”. He outlined that the CIPC aims to serve citizens and has moved away from being seen as a register and as a regulator.
“We needed to shift focus to service citizens and that needs us to be effective and efficient. We need to stop the process of collecting documents, that’s a challenge and its tedious for citizens. We simplified the process and stopped processing documents and started processing data. Now there is big demand for this data. We have worked on our integration – how simplify the process, we are proud of our one-stop-shop where someone can start a company through CIPC, with SARS, UIF, commercial banks.”
Moipone Shabalala from the South African Social Security Agency shared their experience with the introduction of the SRD grant. She said: “Our services were office based, people had to queue to get paid but we transformed through the SRD grant, we were forced by lockdown to change the way we service our grants. We followed a simple process, we asked how do we make sure our digital platforms are usable and scalable for the community? With the SRD platform, we used an ‘API first’ principle. We used 100% external data to drive this grant, that is at the core of the administration of this grant. We did this to save time and cost to deliver this system.”
Also on the panel was Intikhab Shaik, Head of Technology & Solutions, South African Revenue Service. He shared the SARS vision “to be a smart modern SARS with integrity that is trusted.” He outlined SARS objectives to provide clarity and certainty and make it easy for taxpayers to live up to their obligations and for those that don’t comply we want to make it hard and costly.
“When people use interoperability they think IT, that’s a misnomer. We have to realise people are our greatest asset. Anything you design you should think from the users perspective. There is no interoperability without policy, make sure that your business processes support the technology to enable it. Auto assessments – we receive 300 million pieces of data from banks, insurers, medical aid – we managed to integrate all that data and risk assess it. We managed to pay R10 billion in refunds so this puts money back into the economy.”
He closed by saying: “While there is an increase in AI there mustn’t be a decrease in real intelligence.”
The session after lunch kicked off with a presentation by Michelle Harding: Programme Manager, Department of Science and Technology. Her presentation “Digital Integration in Support of an Enabling Ecosystem Environment”. Her presentation focused on the entrepreneurship ecosystem and the lessons learnt through the DSI’s Innovation Bridge Portal. She shared that the Innovation Bridge is a dashboard of entrepreneurial resources across multiple ecosystems to “provide access to quality, relevant information at the right time.”
The panellists discussed how to ensure efficiency through digital data-driven interventions and they interrogated where we are in the journey to offer holistic ecosystem support.
Amanda Lotheringen: Senior Manager Copyright and Intellectual Property Enforcement, Companies and Intellectual Property Commission. “We realised early on that the Innovation Bridge is creating a biosphere of support and we ourselves have experienced the benefits of utilising the system. We excited to stand behind this project.”
Darlene Menzies: CEO, Finfind referenced a USAID study that found that funding literacy, finance readiness and a ready pipeline for equity or debt where the major challenges that entrepreneurs faced. “The providers and seekers couldn’t find each other. What we didn’t realise at the beginning is that we were building data, the opportunity is really an eco-system within an eco-system. There are lots of viable SMEs going out of business because they don’t have access to these vital services.”
Smita Kuriakose from the World Bank and partner on the project said: “We have partnered with DSI, undertaking a survey. We want to know what the existing fragmentation is and how, through policy, can an entrepreneur be served better. We want to use data and build a more interactive system where an entrepreneur can get all the information at a one-stop shop.”
Next up was a review of the rationale and justification of e-Learning Programmes in the Western Cape Education Department and the Gauteng Education Department.
Zanele Chauke from Gauteng Treasury shared a presentation on the rationale for the elearning platforms which include challenges with overcrowding and poor learner-teacher ratios. She highlighted that in Gauteng 26% of schools have an ICT deployment package, she shared that the programme started with schools in urban areas but the risk of this approach is it could exasperate existing inequalities.
This was followed by a presentation by Shaheed Arnold & Nicolette Van Wyk from Western Cape Treasury. Shaheed shared that the WC has made significant headway with broadband rollout, with 84% of schools equipped with broadband. He also showed that LAN connectivity is highest in quintile 2 – 4 schools. He also highlighted that in the expenditure analysis management fees increased at 48% per year but overall expenditure has declined as more schools are connected.
The next session unpacked digital skills and labour market adaptation covering topics of how digital literacy impacts the labour market and the broader economy, reviewing what is happening in the training and capacity building state to address unemployment.
Kuben Nair, Technology Director from Harambee said: “We live in a broken system, when GDP grows it comes with job growth but not for youth. Our labour market is exclusionary of young people by design. That’s why we have the worst unemployment for youth in the world. To employers youth seem to not have value. But they do have value, how do we make those young people visible to the economy? We have to use technology to help employers see the skills that young people have.”
He outlined Harambee’s inclusive hiring process and how they worked with government using innovative technology to digitise their matching tools and data and build an online platform for young people to find opportunities near them. He also said: “We have a broken skilling system – we incentivise skilling providers to train people to get certificates not jobs. We pay for outputs not outcomes. We must be more demand led.”
Ruth Castel-Branco: Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand joined the panel discussion and she highlighted: “South Africa has always been at the forefront on how to extend labour protection to workers. We have a broad definition and this allows it to adapt to a changing environment. We need to develop collective bargaining platforms of workers, platforms are unwilling to share data but we need to capture better the digital worker. The standard role of employers has been outsourced as these new employers have refused to take on that responsibility.”
The final session looked at defining AI and then interrogated the ethical and AI security issues. Prof Uche Mbanaso: Executive Director, Centre for Cyberspace Studies, Nasarawa State University, Nigeria presented on ethical concerns like partial discriminatory, creativity and ownership, privacy, security and safety, autonomous weapons, transparency and accountability, social manipulation and job displacement.
This was followed by a presentation from Thato Toko from SENTECH. He looked at the regulation of AI and the National AI Policy Framework and the need to regulate due to the impact of AI on geopolitics. The framework is grounded in the SA Constitution and aligns with the National Development Plan and is risk based and principle based. The key pillars of the framework are human-centric, ethical development and use of general purpose AI.
You can download all the presentations here. If you missed any sessions catch up on YouTube.
Today GTAC’s 2024 Public Economic Conference kicked off with a jam packed programme. The three day conference will be looking at how technology and data can be used to enhance government service delivery.
The conference was opened by Ronette Engela, Acting Head of GTAC. She said: “This event has great significance for us all. National Treasury and GTAC, launched the Public Economics Conference in 2016 with 250 people and today we have over 1000 people joining us. Today we are discussing the intersection of technology, data and service delivery. This is where [GTAC] wants to situate ourselves, our goal is to improve government service delivery. This conference reflects our commitment to harnessing technology and data to do this. Let us listen, learn and lead.”
The conference started with a fascinating conversation between Duncan Pieterse: Director General at National Treasury and Edward Kieswetter, SARS Commissioner. The two discussed the topic of “Harnessing Technology and Data: Shaping the future of South Africa’s public finances.”
Kieswetter started the conversation by highlighting that SARS insists on a clear purpose before developing a digital strategy, “We don’t start with their digital strategy, we start with the business strategy. You need clarity of purpose right up front. For us, it is always about using data and technology to enhance the experience of the tax payer. Our objectives are to make it clear and certain for taxpayers, we increasingly want to make tax a non-event and finally we want to detect and respond to non-compliance. You can also use digital transformation to solve the problems but you must be clear what problem you are trying to solve.”
He elaborated that SARS has added 14,5 million tax payers over the last 30 years and the workload stemming from this was huge. “Imagine we had to capture this and our assessment staff then had to produce an assessment outcome. We couldn’t do that successfully and this would have an impact on the country’s revenue.” As a result SARS looked to technology, machine learning and AI to reduce the workload and this resulted in SARS eliminating the need for five million taxpayers to submit a tax return. Their system uses only 3rd party data from banks, medical schemes, retirement schemes and payroll data to produce a tax assessment, which was accepted by 98% of eligible tax payers.
Duncan Pieterse emphasised that government thinks about digitisation in two ways, service delivery departments must think about how use data and analytics to enhance the service delivery experience for citizens that you serve. While policy departments, like National Treasury, its about how use data analytics to create better quality policies and using data to deliver better policy outcomes.
He pointed to the case study of the introduction of the Special Relief of Distress Grant (SRD). “Often a crisis situation can initiate quite significant changes from the state’s ability to leverage technology to have a good impact. SASSA with the help of other departments, transitioned to digital enrolment and verification. Enrolment was through WhatsApp and the website. On the verification side, they introduced innovations that weren’t there before.”
He highlighted that SASSA we were able to leverage other databases (UIF, Home Affairs and NSFAS) to harness power of administrative data that exists in the state to verify eligibility. He continued, “We were able to virtually means test a grant for first time, we introduced cross checking with commercial banks. Finally we were able to pay via EFT, so this was a major change in the social grant landscape and what is happening now, we are extending the lessons from SRD into other grants base. We are thinking about how we enrol and verify, eventually all grant recipients or UIF beneficiary will be on one database.”
The conversation then moved onto how lessons learnt can be extend throughout government. Kieswetter explained that SARS is looking at how it can build on its fraud detection approach that uses machine learning and AI and to extend this technology into the verification component. He explained: “If it can be done better and faster using a script or code then let’s do that. But always start with the end in mind, which in our case is to raise additional taxes.”
He also pointed to the innovative system established to support the introduction of the Two-Pot Retirement System and that SARS allows retirement fund members to submit a withdrawal directive easily and for SARS to quickly process this directive and disburse the funds.
The conversation then turned to how National Treasury is using big data in policy making and economic modelling. Pieterse said: “Internally we have to have a lot of research and modelling capability to advise the minister, cabinet and parliament. In 2014 we were one of first countries in the world who started thinking about how to bring anonymised data to inform our work. In 2017 we introduced a data lab (in collaboration with SARS) and we now have panel data on tax payers over time and we can think through impact on labour market.”
Both Pieterse and Kieswetter advocated for unique digital identifier for each citizen, resident and business. “By using a single identifier we can see the connection to other databases. It will enable better tracking – this has to be driven by head of state,” explained Kieswetter.
Kieswetter also spoke about an exciting partnership with Home Affairs, where they are working develop a visa approval system, which produces a result in under five seconds like the tax assessment system. He also highlighted another project that SARS is working on with South African Reserve Bank to develop an instant payment system that has zero cost to client and near zero cost to service provider. He pointed to a similar initiative in Brazil which helped increase banking inclusion to 90%.
He finished by saying: “We need clarity of purpose and to build the right organisational environment. It is a whole of government approach, which requires policy and strong leadership and culture of collaboration – as each government department is working to his own agenda.”
Pieterse introduced a new project in Treasury which seeks to bring SEO procurement data into the National Treasury. He said: “Now we are starting to get this data and now compare with different data sets including PERSAL and we are getting interesting insights into government staff who are suppliers to government when they shouldn’t be. Next we want to make the data public, at a transaction level – we can then validate for value for money, see procurement trends and feed into procurement reforms. We gather data, set up system so that we can use the data for policy insights.”
Pieterse also covered some of the challenges with digital transformation. He said: “Availability of data scientists [is a challenge] – there are simply not enough data scientists available. We share these scare resources with SARS. Many government departments don’t have the core expertise to fully transition to adopt new digital infrastructure.”
The conversation finished on the topic of budgets required for the innovative use of technology. Kieswetter said: “We are spending far too little money on IT – in the next three years we need a billion rand per year but we can demonstrate that it has a huge return on investment. On another project we returned R22 billion on a R1 billion investment, where else does government get 63% back on an investment?”
The duo closed on their wish list for how technology can be used to deliver impact. Kieswetter said: “If I had a magic wand I would do two things, create a common government payment system and a common disbursement platform.”
This session was followed by the keynote address by Melanie Garson from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and University, College London. His address was titled “How build a 21st century government.”
She highlighted that the Covid-19 pandemic saw a spike in claims and the UK government didn’t have the personnel to process these claims and set about hiring more staff but by the time staff were onboard the pandemic spike had passed. This revealed the need for reimagining the state for the 21st century needs, “we need a state that reimagines government itself, how it operates for better citizen engagement.”
She highlighted that the 20th century state required a huge human effort to deliver services and had only a few tools for governing. “But there is a lack of faith in government, the government needs to be of service to people. The state has evolved in the past and it needs to do it again but deep reform is needed to entrenched approaches.”
She highlighted that in the developing world there is opportunity to avoid replicating old systems and leap frog to a 21st century state but the challenge is creating brand new systems. She highlighted that AI gives humans the power and knowledge of machines “the [digital] revolution is unprecedented in scale and scope and reshaping the very fabric of how we operate. We must put AI in the service of the state, use it to break through bureaucracy and create new connections and new opportunities.”
This was followed by sessions that covered continental perspectives on digital transformation and digital transformation scenarios for SA. Alison Gillwald: Executive Director, Research ICT Africa (RIA) and adjunct professor at University of Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance said: “Digital transformation is a seismic shift that could result in greater equality or inequality. There is more evidence to illustrate that digital transformation is driving inequality, perpetuating historical inequalities. Digital inequality paradox lies in the fact that increasingly advanced technologies are being overlaid on existing digital inequalities and reflect deeper structural inequalities.”
She emphasised that: “AI is perpetuating historical injustices through invisibility, misrepresentation and discrimination of, particularly African people in advanced data-driven technologies such as being used to automated millions of decisions around the world daily.”
Lucienne Abrahams, Director, LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand looked at the value of AI in education. She said, “across the African environment, many institutions are not yet fit for purpose to build digital government extensively.”
This was followed by a panel discussion “How does government use AI and big data to forecast demand for public services, allocate resources effectively and address emerging needs of citizens? What are the wins, what are the unintended consequences?” Andrew Boulle, School of Public Health & Family Medicine, University of Cape Town presented on the use of (data and) AI in streamlining and optimising service delivery in healthcare. He said: “Joining the digital dots can really transform health service delivery. When people know that data is safe we can leverage our data assets to free up healthcare workers to care with the human touch.”
After lunch two spending reviews were presented on “Effectiveness of procuring the Gauteng Broadband Network Project through SITA” and “Improving the efficiency & effectiveness of spending on ICT in the Eastern Cape.”
James Rautenbach from Eastern Cape Treasury said: “The unequal expenditure across departments, personnel and systems and technology was marked. Lack of consistency with how IT is established. Lots of expenditure is around keeping the lights on and not on innovation. It showed us insourcing was more efficient, cheaper – so nice to see the need to invest in people. Expenditure is high, over the 5 year period we saw a decline in expenditure, so that is a concern. Need to focus our IT expenditure on returns.”
The next session looked at perspectives on digitising public sector service delivery: Sharing shortcomings, successes and strategies from other developing countries.
Bita Mortazavi: Inter-regional coordinator, UN Trade and Development presented a UNCTD tool which includes information on how to navigate government processes. Government delivers the information according to a user’s needs and includes cost and applicable laws, time frames, contact details and even opening times. She said: “This brings clarity for people on how to go about a procedure. It’s also an eye-opener for people in charge of different agencies and this often leads to changes in procedures and system.”
The final session was by Petra Digital Transformation Adviser at e-Estonia Briefing Centre. She shared Estonia’s unique approach to digital transformation and how the entire government has gone 99.9% digital. She shared the background to Estonia’s digital transformation. She shared the essential ingredients in digital transformation which include “a citizen-centric approach, once-only principle we don’t duplicate data needlessly, digital minded leadership to secure funding, internet access for everybody and individuals own their data and government reports to citizen on their data.”
To watch the full conference visit our YouTube page and to take a look at the presentations click here.
Enoch Godongwana, South Africa’s Minister of Finance delivered the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday 1 November 2023.
The best place to access user friendly information about the MTBPS is on the Vulekamali website. National Treasury has developed this online budget data portal in partnership with IMALI YETHU. Through Vulekamali, National Treasury continues to entrench its commitment to transparency and budget participation reforms. You can, as an example, see the summary of each department`s budget on the department pages, or watch a video explaining the budget process.
The key documents as well as analysis are available here:
Medium Term Budget Policy full document
Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (speech)
Medium Term Budget Policy Statement Presentation
Also see PWC’s take on the fiscal perspectives ahead of the MTBPS
The First Edition of the Covid-19 Country Report was launched on 30 June 2022 at the Albert Luthuli Auditorium in Pretoria by Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele. GTAC’s head, Ms Ronette Engela, as well as Dr Beverley Damonse, Group Executive of the National Research Foundation welcomed the participants, after which Minister Gungubele launched the 700 page report. Dr Stephen Porter, an independent reviewer of the report reflected on its contribution, and there was ample time for the participants to discuss the content.
This official government report covers the first year of the pandemic. It records measures and interventions adopted by the South African government in partnership with its social partners to combat the spread of the virus and manage the negative socio-economic impact impacts of the pandemic. As News24 reported ‘Instead of spinning Covid-19 outcomes for ‘political gain’ this is what government needs to prioritise’. The report was well received and, as Dr Porter said, the report offers “a storyline and record” as well as “an almost real time assessment of government’s response to the pandemic”. Please take your time to study the report, which covers all dimensions of the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Click here for the final 1st Edition Country report
The Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) provides statistics on non-agricultural formal employment by sector, on a quarterly basis. The QES survey covers VAT registered businesses (exclu
ding agriculture). Non-agricultural formal employment increased by 42 000 (+0.4% q/q), from 10 062 000 in Q4 2021 to 10 104 000 in Q2 2022. The quarter’s increase was largely due to jobs created in community services (+69 000 or 2.4% q/q), manufacturing (+8 000 or 0.7 q/q) and mining (+2 000 or 0.4% q/q) industries.
On a yearly basis, total employment increased by 200 000 (+2.0% y/y) compared to Q1 2021, and Nominal gross earnings decreased by R28.2 billion (-3.47% q/q) from R827.3 billion in Q4 2021 to R799.1 billion in Q1 2022. This was largely due to decreases in community services, manufacturing, transport, trade, construction, and electricity. The mining and business services industries, by contrast, reported a quarterly increase in gross earnings.
The annual State of South African Cities Report (SoCR) is highly relevant to the theme of the 2022 Winter School.
The SoCR presents a five-year perspective on the performance and analysis of the conditions of South Africa’s largest cities. The SoCR offers solid and up-to-date information that helps inform and support the work of urban actors across different sectors of society, as well as research into how to make South African cities functional.
This report, which covers nine South African cities (Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, City of Cape Town, City of Ekurhuleni, City of Joburg, City of Tshwane, eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, Msunduzi Local Municipality, and Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality), is the fifth edition of the SoCR and is being released at a time of great disruption and uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic and many other disruptions in our country.
