South African Revenue Service (SARS) commissioner Edward Kieswetter walked away with the coveted technology leader award at this year’s Digital Public Service Awards.
Hosted on the sidelines of the State Information Technology Agency’s (SITA’s) GovTech 2025 conference, the awards recognise excellence, innovation and digital advancement in education, governance, innovation and community development across SA.
Through the awards, SITA aims to acknowledge government institutions, innovators and leaders from government who are leveraging technology to improve the lives of South Africans.
According to the agency, this year’s awards attracted 150 nominations across the eight categories.
“We were faced with the exciting yet challenging task of selecting winners from such a pool of brilliance,” said Gopal Reddy, acting MD of SITA. “The awards are more than just a celebration of winners; they are a recognition of the incredible role technology plays in transforming public services and improving the lives of South Africans.”
Kieswetter’s win as technology leader recognises his work at SARS, which has prioritised boosting technological capacity and deriving insights from data.
Since taking office in May 2019, Kieswetter has been candid about some of the revenue collection service’s limitations, previously saying SARS had been “dumbed-down” to the point of tears.
Under its current leadership, SARS set a new vision, aiming to become a smart, modern revenue service, where its work will increasingly be informed by data-driven insights, self-learning computers, artificial intelligence and interconnectivity of people and devices.
In addition, the taxman has committed to attracting highly-skilled and experienced individuals in areas such as IT, data management, legal specialist services, and audit and risk.
Another state institution recognised at this year’s awards is the Information Regulator (InfoReg), which walked away with two first runner-up awards.
The first award was for digital governance, which recognised the innovative work done through the regulator’s e-services and myRegulator portals. The platforms, says the InfoReg, have transformed the regulator from heavily manual processes to a modern, digital-first institution.
The second award was for digital partnerships, which recognised the strategic collaboration the regulator established with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC). This includes the secure application programme interfaces integration that allows the regulator to verify CIPC-registered entities in real-time, ensuring accurate data when they register.
“While we did not secure first place, achieving two first runner-up awards in such competitive fields is a major recognition of the progress that the regulator is making. It affirms that our digital transformation journey is being noticed, and appreciated by peers and leaders in the public service and ICT sectors,” said InfoReg CIO Tando Luyaba.
Other winners include:
- Digital woman award: Tsholofelo Ramokoka
- Innovative woman in youth award: Sibongile Mbodlela
- Digital governance award: South African Local Government Association
- Digital education award: Letlaka Mphuthi
- ICT large companies award: Techsys Digital
- Digital partnership award: University of the Witwatersrand, TENET and City of Johannesburg
- Community builder recognition award: GoDigitalSA Foundation
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