By Prof Busisiwe Mavuso
South Africa knows what institutional failure looks like. We see it in departments that cannot account for public funds, municipalities that cannot deliver basic services, and agencies hollowed out by patronage. We are, perhaps, less practised at recognising and learning from institutional success. Edward Kieswetter’s tenure as Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service, which ends this month after seven years, offers a working model of what ethical, values-driven leadership achieves in the public sector.
Kieswetter inherited a workforce he described as “traumatised” by state capture: an institution that had been demoralised, operationally degraded, and, as a result, distrusted. He anchored its recovery in a clear ethical framework. On public platforms, he consistently returned to the qualities he believed essential to institutional renewal; at a News24 post Budget Speech panel in February, where we with both panellists, and on many other platforms he occupies, he has been very deliberate about suggesting that we learn from countries such as China, “where qualities such as discipline, collective responsibility, and integrity are deeply valued among employees and leaders alike.” He embedded these shared values across an organisation of more than 12 000 people. He established meritocratic systems and invested in human capital development, including upskilling cleaning staff to become customs officers.
He invested in people first, and the operational results followed. Under Kieswetter, SARS rebuilt its investigative capacity, re-establishing the enforcement capability that state capture had deliberately dismantled. The institution recovered over R200 billion in undeclared taxes and illicit financial flows in two years, through rigorous internal reforms and zero tolerance for misconduct. It drew a firm line against the illicit economy, emphasised compliance as a civic obligation, and showed that evasion carries consequences. It modernised its systems, treating technology as an extension of good governance, and achieved faster refunds and improved audit outcomes as a result. Compliance rates rose. Public trust was restored.
SARS’s institutional integrity also had consequences beyond tax administration. South Africa’s exit from the FATF grey list in October 2025 depended on a credible compliance architecture, and SARS was a central component of it. Sovereign credibility is built on precisely this kind of sustained performance, and it erodes quickly when institutional standards slip. Conversely, the grey list exit demonstrated that ethical governance, consistently applied, produces results the world recognises and rewards.
The significance of Kieswetter’s record becomes clearer against the state of public administration elsewhere. Departments and municipalities remain mired in mismanagement, service delivery collapse, and financial dysfunction. Recently, Moody’s subsidiary Global Credit Rating Company placed Johannesburg on negative watch after the city failed to publish annual financial statements for the year ended June 2025, which also resulted in the JSE suspending trading of the city’s bonds. These are the predictable outcomes when the qualities Kieswetter championed at SARS are absent from institutional leadership.
Recent legislation flowing from the Zondo Commission’s recommendations, including the Public Service Amendment Act and the Protected Disclosures Bill, provides a stronger structural framework for this effort. These reforms shift administrative power to professional heads of department and strengthen protections for whistleblowers. They are welcome and hard-won. Legislation, though, creates the conditions for good governance; it cannot compel it. These reforms will succeed only where leaders build institutional cultures in which employees are well supported and held to exceptional standards.
Dr Ngobani Johnstone Makhubu, who takes over as SARS Commissioner on 1 May, has signalled his commitment to maintaining the values and operational standards Kieswetter established. His appointment from within the institution is itself a measure of the depth of the culture Kieswetter built. I wish him well and the business community stands ready to support him.
The larger question extends beyond SARS. Edward Kieswetter has shown that a public institution, given principled leadership and enough time, can be transformed from a symbol of state failure into a benchmark for what South Africa is capable of. Every minister, premier, mayor, and board chair responsible for a public entity should ask themselves: What standard of leadership will I set, and what will I leave behind? South Africa has proof that ethical governance works. The country can no longer afford leaders who consider these standards someone else’s responsibility.
