South Africa is at a critical juncture — the government is rising to the challenge
Daily Maverick's Managing Editor for News and Maverick Citizen, Ms Zukiswa Pikoli, penned an opinion piece published on 19 May 2025, lamenting a perceived lack of monitoring and evaluation in the country's governance.
While Ms Pikoli is entitled to her views on the 'state of things' as she sets out, her opinion piece shows a misplaced understanding of the work of the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), and the interventions of the department in efforts to deepen the state's capacity.
South Africa, like many democracies facing complex developmental challenges, is at a critical juncture. While concerns about departmental and institutional performance are legitimate, the idea that the state is teetering on the edge of complete failure misses the real, measurable progress being driven in key areas of government, particularly by the DPME.
The DPME is not an inspectorate or a police force for other government departments. Rather, the department promotes coherence in government through the institutionalising of planning, developing a robust evidence-based and integrated monitoring system to monitor the implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP) Vision 2030 and the recently approved Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP), evaluating critical government programmes, and producing research outputs to inform evidence-based decision-making in government.
Fostering a performance-driven culture across the public service is not optional, but essential. The commitment to building a capable, ethical and results-oriented state is reflected in a comprehensive effort to transform how government plans, delivers and accounts for its work.
At the heart of this transformation is the development of an integrated planning system grounded in the MTDP and its Results Framework. The MTDP is the five-year programme of action that is guiding the work of the 7th administration.
The DPME has played a critical role in coordinating the finalisation of the MTDP and will continue to do so in its implementation. In an unprecedented time in our nation's democracy, we engaged and consulted extensively with the Government of National Unity (GNU) partners, national departments and all spheres of government and stakeholders, to translate the strategic priorities of the GNU into measurable outcomes and sector-specific targets which are set in the MTDP.
Through the MTDP, the DPME is playing an important role in transforming South Africa's planning system to consist of measurable priorities and a results-based implementation framework.
This ensures that government departments are not just drafting plans for compliance, but also align their strategies with national priorities and measurable development outcomes.
A new Policy Framework on Integrated Planning provides further guidance and structure, ensuring that strategic plans (SPs) and annual performance plans (APPs) are assessed for quality, consistency and alignment with regular consultations to strengthen coherence across departments and spheres of government.
Monitoring
Planning is only one side of the coin. To monitor and measure progress, the DPME has developed a robust Integrated Monitoring Framework, which enables the tracking of key performance indicators in real time.
In a significant move towards transparency and citizen empowerment, we are spearheading the launch of a public-facing digital performance dashboard. This platform will allow South Africans to monitor government performance online, ensuring that departments are held accountable, and that citizens are informed participants in democratic governance.
In addition to these system-level reforms, the DPME continues to conduct frontline monitoring and provide targeted intervention support to identify and resolve service delivery challenges on the ground.
These efforts are about more than just oversight. They are about improving outcomes where it matters most, at the point of contact between citizens and the state.
The DPME is strengthening partnerships and collaboration to achieve development priorities and build capacity in the state through enhancing planning, monitoring and evaluation.
In advancing a whole-of-society approach to meet government's strategic priorities, we continue to engage and deepen collaboration with the private sector, civil society, research institutions and academia, governments and multilateral institutions, to strengthen policy development, implementation support and independent accountability in the state.
The DPME's work and approach recognise the levers that must be pulled to drive meaningful change in the public sector. Government's comprehensive 30-Year Review of South Africa's Democracy 1994-2024, which was led by the DPME, highlights the extent to which government policies have succeeded in improving people's lives since South Africa's transition to democracy, and the lessons towards achieving the country's development goals.
We have worked hard to ensure that the building blocks are firmly in place with planning, monitoring and evaluation systems becoming more integrated, transparent and citizen-focused than ever before.
South Africa is not without challenges, but it is through this kind of clear-eyed, system-wide reform that is grounded in planning, driven by data and accountable to the people that we can build a state that works.
We are resolute in our interventions, which are repositioning the DPME as a strategic centre of government, committed to results and integrity. DM
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