Covid-19 only exacerbated the dire straits that the South African economy found itself in last year. To compliment the millions of job losses and business closures, was the downgrading to junk status. A contracted workforce means reduced tax revenue, meaning that the South African government will have to ‘do more with less’, according to Mcebisi Ndletyana. Reducing government spend is one place to start. It seems to be the right place, too, as Ndletyana explains. ‘According to the Auditor General, in national and provincial departments alone for the year 2017/18, the amount wasted stood at a staggering R2.57bn. While the government denounces ‘the lack of professionalism in the public service’, Ndletyana believes the problem stems from something deeper than