Description

The importance of this study is highlighted by the fact that South Africa has been flooded with service delivery protests. Municipal IQ reported that there were 164 service delivery protests against local government in 2015. The reasons for community protests were varied.
Research undertaken at the University of Johannesburg showed that the top five grievances were about service delivery, in general, housing, water and sanitation, political representation and electricity. Corruption, municipal, administration, roads, unemployment, demarcation, land, health and crime, also featured. It is clear from this manifestation that transformation of government performance is urgently required.
In 2007/2008 the South African Revenue Service (SARS) embarked on the first year of its modernisation journey. The journey focused on five cogs in the wheel i.e. people, process, policy, technology and information management. The modernised process has significantly contributed to improve service delivery and performance at the South African Revenue Service.
The primary purpose of this study was to determine if legislation and operational policy promote the harnessing of innovative business process management, technology enablement and process improvement to transform service delivery.
The study data was primarily collected from personnel in SARS. Data was collected by means of unstructured interviews and questionnaires. The sample population consisted of respondents from an internal business unit in SARS known as Enterprise Business Enablement (EBE). Process management and policy management related work is performed by this unit. This unit consists of a specialised skills set of process analysts, process engineers, policy analysts and policy specialists.
The research results in the study confirmed the following:
• When business process management, technology enablement and process improvement is implemented it provides tailored business solutions for the organisation.

• Business process management, technology enablement and process improvement is a significant contributor to achieving the organisation’s objectives.
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• Business process management, technology enablement and process improvement delivers value for internal and external customers.

• Policy setting in the organisation should pave the way for process management, technology enablement and process improvements.

• Policy must be revisited, to be relevant and current to address any gaps in the design journey.