TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Dark weekend lies ahead thanks to you know who

      20 May 2022

      CSIR develops app to help kids learn to read

      20 May 2022

      Prosus to sell Russia’s Avito

      20 May 2022

      Shock as Mustek CEO David Kan dies

      19 May 2022

      Sabotage at Eskom’s Tutuka plant

      19 May 2022
    • World

      Chip giant ASML places big bets on a tiny future

      20 May 2022

      Musk moves to soothe investor fears over Tesla

      20 May 2022

      Apple is almost ready to show off its mixed-reality headset

      20 May 2022

      TikTok plans big push into gaming

      19 May 2022

      Musk says he will vote Republican, calls ESG a ‘scam’

      19 May 2022
    • In-depth

      Elon Musk is becoming like Henry Ford – and that’s not a good thing

      17 May 2022

      Stablecoins wend wobbly way into the unknown

      17 May 2022

      The standard model of particle physics may be broken

      11 May 2022

      Meet Jared Birchall, Elon Musk’s personal ‘fixer’

      6 May 2022

      Twitter takeover was brash and fast, with Musk calling the shots

      26 April 2022
    • Podcasts

      Dean Broadley on why product design at Yoco is an evolving art

      18 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E02 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 2’

      17 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E01 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 1’

      10 May 2022

      Llew Claasen on how exchange controls are harming SA tech start-ups

      2 May 2022

      The inside scoop on OVEX’s big expansion plans

      20 April 2022
    • Opinion

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022

      Cash is still king … but not for much longer

      31 March 2022

      Icasa on the role of TV white spaces and dynamic spectrum access

      31 March 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Opinion»James Francis»Problems at Sars place spotlight on government IT

    Problems at Sars place spotlight on government IT

    James Francis By James Francis31 October 2018
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    Revelations at the Nugent commission investigating the South African Revenue Service, once the crown jewel of public sector competence, have been jarring. But not all of it was surprising given the steady exodus of experienced staff from the agency in recent years.

    It almost risked becoming mundane: the settled narrative was one of gross incompetence, galvanising government critics and silencing its defenders. But none of that is really news.

    Then along came Mmamathe Makhekhe-Mokhuane, Sars’s chief officer for digital information services & technology, and definitively gave this parade of failure a poster child. Perhaps it was nerves, but she made a terrible mess of her interviews both to the media and at the commission.

    Amid the headlines of collapsing Sars systems, are we asking the right questions?

    Yet, amid the headlines of collapsing Sars systems, are we asking the right questions? For example, will we hear from Tau Mashigo, the former Sars chief information officer, who left the position in 2017 (and who was briefly acting chief officer for digital information services & technology in 2016)? He was there for many years and several technological improvements at Sars happened under his watch. Today he is Sars group executive for service delivery.

    Why was no handover done? Was there a handover? Makhekhe-Mokhuane claims the many things she is expected to answer happened before her tenure. Well, the person who was in charge is still at Sars. Don’t they talk to each other?

    Makhekhe-Mokhuane occupied not one, but at least three government CIO positions. A CIO is a serious, senior role — one where you at the very least ask what is going on inside an organisation. If the board wants to know what is happening with IT, the CEO looks to the CIO to establish that. Given the current wave of IT modernisation as we shift gear to more cloud-native methodologies, it’s a crucial executive position. CIO roles are so demanding and multi-faceted that the title is even becoming a stepping stone to the CEO’s office, so it’s as potent as being a chief financial officer or chief operating officer.

    Basic questions

    And yet an executive who has occupied several CIO roles couldn’t answer basic questions. Instead, she rattled off the buzzwords hacks like me use to sound savvy. Of course, I was never paid the rates Makhekhe-Mokhuane earned. But I would have done a better job faking my way through the interviews than she did.

    This can’t be left in isolation. In an era where modernisation is crucial for operational success, South Africa’s public sector CIOs appear to be hugely lacking. There are a few stars, but I can count them on one hand. Many others appear to be either incompetent or hamstrung by incompetent leaders (to quote a someone I interviewed recently, if a CIO doesn’t have the support of their CEO, they might as well go fishing).

    Mainstream reporting of the Sars IT saga is missing this point and has already moved on. I suspect that the country is largely oblivious to the symptomatic seriousness of Makhekhe-Mokhuane’s blundering.

    The author, James Francis, says there is an IT leadership deficit among government technologists

    There is an IT leadership deficit among government technologists. Makhekhe-Mokhuane’s interview just galvanised that.

    This doesn’t even touch on government’s IT policies or how the oversight of government IT functions seem to be fractured across multiple agencies all vying for political power. It is perhaps the crux of the problem: government CIOs might be keeping executive fiefdoms, so as to fit in with the patronage and rent-seeking networks inside the ANC that sustain its support among its power brokers. ANC cadres appear to rule by fear and seniority to mask their shortcomings (seen in full effect at Transnet). This is the exact opposite of what should be happening among IT modernisation projects.

    Makhekhe-Mokhuane’s interviews were funny and shocking. But we risk missing that they may be symptomatic of a much bigger and more widespread problem. Maybe we should cast that net wider and really see what SA’s public technologists are up to.

    • James Francis is a freelance writer
    James Francis Mmamathe Makhekhe-Mokhuane Sars top
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleApple unveils powerful new iPad Pro models
    Next Article Fortress Facebook suddenly looks vulnerable

    Related Posts

    Dark weekend lies ahead thanks to you know who

    20 May 2022

    CSIR develops app to help kids learn to read

    20 May 2022

    Fast-rising fintech Bankingly closes $11m investment round

    20 May 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Fast-rising fintech Bankingly closes $11m investment round

    20 May 2022

    Creating an effective employer value proposition for the new era of work

    20 May 2022

    Why fibre is the new utility – and what it means for South Africa

    19 May 2022
    Opinion

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

    19 April 2022

    How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

    8 April 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.