Hersov, Augoustatos: South Africa’s bureaucratic bloat – we need a DOGE!
South Africa's government is drowning in inefficiency, with a massive public sector wage bill of R721 billion consuming 10.5% of the nation's GDP. Despite this staggering expenditure, service delivery continues to collapse, leaving citizens with dry taps, crumbling roads, and failing schools. In this compelling critique, Rob Hersov and Nik Augoustatos expose the bloated bureaucracy that stifles progress and propose actionable reforms, including ministry mergers, privatization, and streamlined spending. With over half the population living below the poverty line and debt-service costs soaring, South Africa cannot afford to wait. This is a call to action for bold reforms to save the country from financial and social ruin.
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By Rob Hersov and Nik Augoustatos
Every morning across South Africa, millions of taps run dry. Textbooks fail to arrive at schools. Roads crumble beneath vehicles. Meanwhile, in pristine government offices, a massive bureaucracy continues to grow, consuming R721 billion annually in wages alone while basic services collapse around it. For every bloated salary, there's a broken school, a leaking hospital, or a crumbling road.
This is the paradox at the heart of South Africa's governance crisis: a government so large it struggles to move, so expensive it can barely pay for itself, and so fragmented it often works against its own objectives. We have a bloated system that eats resources but doesn't feed results.
The Price of Bureaucracy
South Africa's public sector wage bill, according to the 2023/24 Budget Review by the National Treasury, consumes a staggering R721 billion annually, accounting for about 31% of the government's total expenditure. At the same time, over half the population—55.5%—lives below the national poverty line, and unemployment hovers at 32.9% as of 2024, as reported by StatsSA.
Shockingly, R721 billion is 10.5% of South Africa's GDP, making South Africa the third-highest public sector wage spender in the world. For context, only Iceland and Denmark beat us. And what do we have to show for it? The Auditor-General's latest report shows that only 43% of national and provincial departments meet their performance targets. South Africans have grown accustomed to a government that simply spends more and delivers less.
An idea of South Africa's bureaucratic burden:
| Salary Level | Average Annual Salary (per government official) | Total Annual Wage Burden (per salary level) |
| 1 | R123,741 | R2.1 billion |
| 7 | R327,819 | R101 billion |
| 9 | R462,972 | R44 billion |
| 12 | R1,080,681 | R32.6 billion |
| 16 | R2,158,533 | R300 million |
A System Set Up to Fail
The bloated structure of 32 government ministries—established under constitutional provisions—has created a labyrinthine bureaucracy. The Public Affairs Research Institute aptly describes this as "administrative paralysis," where overlapping responsibilities and poor coordination prevent effective service delivery.
Data from the Infrastructure Development Act reveals that infrastructure projects requiring coordination between multiple departments take on average, 2.3 times longer to complete than those managed by a single entity. The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, in its 2023 annual report, attributes delay in 67% of stalled projects to the complexities of inter-departmental coordination.
Plan of Action
Our plan is clear and coordinated. In the short term, the government must merge ministries, privatize SOEs, and deregulate where possible. Long-term actions include prioritizing spending on core government functions that deliver real public goods, overhauling public sector employment, and streamlining unnecessary subsidies and grants. South Africa must start balancing the books. In the 2024 Budget, debt-service costs are projected to reach R382.2 billion—the second-largest expenditure after social protection. These costs are expected to increase from 20.7% of revenue in 2023/24 to 22.1% by 2026/27.
Merging South Africa's ministries is a straightforward way to cut costs and boost efficiency. Combining Economic Development and Labour would streamline job creation and economic policies. Merging Transport and Public Works would centralize infrastructure planning, cutting duplication. Uniting Small Business Development with Trade and Industry would improve business support, while combining Sport, Arts, and Culture with Tourism would consolidate promotional efforts. Merging Social Development and Health would streamline grants and services. These mergers would eliminate redundancies, reduce overhead, and create a leaner, more effective government.
The Cost of Inaction
Failing to act on these reforms has immense financial and social consequences. The Financial and Fiscal Commission estimates that the inefficiency of South Africa's current governance model costs the nation R7.2 billion annually. This figure excludes the broader economic damage caused by delayed projects and deteriorating services.
Every day of delay compounds the problem, with another R2 billion spent on wages while critical services continue to falter. South Africa does not need more bureaucracy—it needs better bureaucracy. The time to act is now.
South Africa's bloated government is failing to deliver, weighed down by wasteful spending and rampant corruption. It's time for the business community, politicians, and citizens to unite and demand a dramatic overhaul. Streamlining the government is long overdue, and cutting costs is essential to stop the financial drain. This change can only happen if these plans get the airtime they deserve—turning rhetoric into action and making real reform a reality. The numbers don't lie, but it's clear our government is counting on us not paying attention.
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Sources: National Treasury Budget Review 2023/24, Statistics South Africa Quarterly Labour Force Survey Q4 2023, Public Service Commission Annual Report 2023, Auditor-General's Report 2022/23, Department of Public Works and Infrastructure Annual Report 2023, Financial and Fiscal Commission Submission for the Division of Revenue 2023/24.