Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) has officially launched a free online platform that provides a regularly updated view of the progress, or otherwise, government is making in implementing priority economic, governance and criminal justice reforms.

Dubbed the ‘BLSA Reform Tracker’, the platform provides a dashboard view of the reforms being implemented across the three areas, including the priority economic reforms being pursued under Operation Vulindlela, the joint project of the Presidency and the National Treasury set up in 2020 to address constraints to growth and investment.

Speaking at the launch of the platform in Johannesburg, BLSA CEO Busisiwe Mavuso described the tracker as a strategic tool to support government and business in understanding reform dynamics, including “what’s working, what’s stalled, and what’s needed to unlock progress”.

She said the decision to invest in the tracker was based on the importance business ascribed to the reforms to help improve investor confidence, raise investment and elevate growth to a level where the economy could begin creating jobs at the scale needed to address the prevailing extreme levels of unemployment.

She expressed optimism that the tracker would help empower business leaders to make informed decisions based on credible and up-to-date data.

Also speaking at the launch, Deputy Finance Minister Ashor Sarupen underlined the importance to the Government of National Unity of the reforms, insisting that they were “not an academic exercise”.

“They are the most direct route to raising South Africa’s potential growth rate, increasing competitiveness, and creating jobs,” Sarupen said, while welcoming the tracker for adding an additional layer of transparency to government’s reform agenda.

“The reforms we are implementing now will define our economic trajectory for the next decade. They demand persistence, collaboration, and an unwavering focus on outcomes,” he added.

The Presidency’s Rudi Dicks, who oversees Operation Vulindlela, said that, while the BLSA Reform Tracker went beyond the reforms being pursued under Operation Vulindlela, it could lend credibility to government’s own claims of reform progress, where advances were confirmed by the tracker, while adding pressure on government where progress was lagging.

Operation Vulindlela initially focused on reforms in the electricity, freight logistics, water, broadband spectrum and visa sectors, but its scope has been broadened in 'Phase 2' to include municipalities, digital governance and economy and addressing spatial inequality.

This sentiment was underlined by Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Maropene Ramokgopa, who said the tracker was not only a monitoring tool, but an “accountability mirror”.

Developed over the past two years by research consultancy Krutham, the BLSA Reform Tracker is monitoring progress across 240 ‘reform deliverables’, which are reviewed and scored quarterly.

These reviewed results are available at https://tracker.blsa.org.za/, with progress displayed using a colour-coded ‘heat map’, with ‘green’ indicating that the reform is on track, ‘amber’ indicating progress, but with challenges that need to be addressed and ‘red’ that there are critical obstacles preventing progress and that need immediate attention.

An inaugural Quarterly Review compiled using the information included in the tracker indicates that 26 reforms have been completed, 59 are showing strong progress, 108 are on track but in need attention, while 19 are facing major obstacles.