A defining feature of
freedom is that as the frontiers of society’s knowledge about it are extended,
new mysteries beyond the frontiers become the sharper focus. Post-1994-South
Africa is entering a stage where its freedom is gradually getting unencumbered
to individuals, institutions, organisations, and political parties that played
a role in its attainment. The deeper society gets to experience the joys of
determining its arrangements on how to govern itself, the more the democratic
and constitutional order offers fears, conjectures, and hopes about what lies
ahead. The sheer thrill of reconfiguring political power arrangements through a
vote gives society greater insight into how democracy enables it to use the universal
franchise to its advantage without being beholden to dogma, nostalgia, and
ideology. 

In
RSA, the prospects of the political system becoming vulnerable to the influence
of individuals or personality cults who can create cataclysms are neutralised
by the form and character of the Constitution. The cumulative advance of the
constitutionalism RSA has painstakingly threaded requires new breeds of
leadership and technical capability in symbiosis with context-relevant
development theory and social justice insight. The democratic order faces
threats from the national political economy and globally determined
geopolitical interests. Still, it has not yet demonstrated a capability to
control and forecast. Notwithstanding the resilience of its constitutional
order to offer legal mandates to neutralise these threats, the capability of
those in charge of the system still poses the most significant risk to the
survival of the reigning RSA order. 

 

The
potential of technological innovation, particularly artificial intelligence, is
a beacon of hope for the future of public administration. With AI making
significant strides in public service, there is a sense of optimism about the
enhanced capability and creativity it will bring. In several service delivery
areas, this capability might mean machine intelligence replacing, if not
complementing, the human element with zero defects outcomes. The ability of AI
to analyse vast volumes of data and rapidly manipulate and respond to complex
inputs will create a convergence of service delivery needs and the algorithms
through which the bias of politics is managed out of the system. The state
might be compelled to cede several human responsibilities, not accountability,
to AI despite the ethical limitations.  

 

The
nature, form, and character of public administration will, in such a non-human
capability context, be upended to include machines and the expertise they will
be accumulating as artificial intelligence as a significantly influential part
of the public service as an institution. The information-intensive organs of
the state will not only have to be like other non-state institutions dependent on
data of and about citizens but have the added burden of being better. Every significant
aspect of politics, government, public administration, public service, and the
public sector must be completely reimagined. 

 

Unlike
before, where technology evolved slowly and linearly, allowing humanity to take
along generations, the exponential pace of digital transformation and AI is
different. The competitiveness of nations, mainly how their political and
economic order is managed, is now a function of their human capital’s depth of
accelerating its acceleration. Paradigm-shifting, game-changing, nothing-is-ever-the-same-again
corporate competence development of organs of the state will redefine what a capable state is. The pace of public service reform required to meet the annually
doubling demands of the digital transformation era, the convergences of policy intents,
and the undergirding technological requirements will have secondary
effects. 

 

The
transformative power of technology underscores the urgency of a new culture of
government. Technology will save time and distance required to govern society. Data accuracy will give public policy and expenditure spatial expression, thus
reducing blockages in the value chain of intergovernmental relations. State-wide planning will benefit from crowd ideation without the limitations of
distance but with the advantage of context being part of the inputs to the
centre. True models for planning will change district development approaches. As machine memory generates artificial intelligence, the costs of data and
evidence-based planning will exponentially decrease and release resources for
new areas of human development. The urgency of this cultural shift is apparent,
and it is a call to action for all involved in governance. 

 

The
release of time back to society will spur new genius in governance. The new
networked governance system, a model where data and information are widely
accessible, will break the traditional silos characteristic of state
administration. This system, which promotes transparency and collaboration,
will crumble the negative aspects of hierarchies and bureaucracies on
innovation. Increased advances and discoverability of data, information, and
knowledge will accelerate the culture of sharing ideas in the public sector. This will amplify the network effect on public administration, creating communication
abundance, a condition precedent for building a competitive society. Enhanced
communication and networks will shorten the time between idea and service
delivery. 

 

The
traditional notion of public service as a slow and time-intensive vocation will
be replaced by an agile context required for competitiveness. This agile
context will be a makeover environment characterised by flexibility, adaptability, and rapid response to change. ‘The opportunities will be incredible
for entrepreneurs, innovators, leaders, and anyone sufficiently nimble and
adventurous’. Solving our societal woes requires technology, but it also demands one of the most significant cooperative efforts in history. The challenges we face might seem dire, but the solutions we already possess
will only continue to increase in power. 

 

A
collaborative effort between institutions of higher learning and the public
service environment is not just a suggestion but a necessity to recalibrate the
breeds of human organs of state, elected and appointed, to bolster the
faltering state capacity and capability for long-term thinking. Long-term
thinking should be predicated on the prevention of policy catastrophes. This
should converge AI, network governance, and risk sensitivity. Acutely, the
government must devise quicker response systems to change as a defining
feature, attribute, or characteristic of its capability. This collaboration is beneficial and essential for the future of governance in South Africa,
and our role in it is crucial.