Assessing the (Ir)Reversibility of a Transformational Government Project in South Africa

Abstract

Purpose - The paper traces the trajectory of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, an electronic tolling programme based in South Africa, to argue for the importance of taking advantage of the public project opportunity to introduce the concept of Transformational Government (t-Government).

Design/methodology/approach - The research employs an interpretive perspective and utilises Actor Network Theory (ANT) to understand the roles and interests of the various stakeholders within the project and assess how each stakeholder has influenced the project’s sustainability.

Findings - The findings suggest that the attachment of global actors appears to be waning; and events support the idea that there is a moderate degree of mobilization of local actors, which is reducing. This allowed us to make a claim that the project remains solid and indispensable, even though there are ‘discordant’ voices in the local actor groups as well as waning global actor network attachment. Part of this claim is hinged on the view that the e-toll has become a visible technical artefact, which has managed to embody its own patterns of use characterised by various viewpoints, values, opinions and rhetoric.

Practical implications - The paper elevates the opportunity of using the notion of t-Government as an extension of our understanding of factors influencing e-government such as public participation. We show that unless governments employ participatory approaches to similar programmes in future, they may jeopardize a critical requirement of t-Government namely the need for the service experience of stakeholders to continuously support participatory governance principles.

Originality/value - This paper contributes to the research on the emerging discourse on t-Government. The paper also highlights the utility of ANT as a tool for understanding dynamic public sector e-government programmes, their associated complexities and unintended consequences