Innovative measures of the South African Government to provide services to the public during COVID-19: A transformational leadership perspective

Abstract

Covid-19 has exposed lack of transformation in the provision of services in government, this has occurred amidst the claims of available e-services across all government departments. Many services, which could have been accessed online, were not available. For example, a considerable number of South Africans were not able to apply for social grants online during the lockdown period, especially those that are residing in the rural areas. Furthe rmore, many schools and universities had to shut down completely as government has delayed in incorporate technology in teaching and learning. Thus, government was forced to be innovative in its approach to deliver essential services and in mitigating the effects of Covid-19 pandemic. Covid-19 pandemic is predicted to remain with the public for a near future whilst trials are being conducted to find a vaccine. Therefore, this article is based on a research that was conducted on the innovative measures that were implored by government to respond to Covid-19 pandemic. A qualitative research approach was used to conduct a desk top analysis. Data was collected through extensive review of literature. Thus, the study concluded that the government is not proactive in making e-services available in remote areas. One of the recommendations is that government has to transform, and that can happen if transformational leadership is pursued across the departments.