Sarah Blignaut, Business Area Head: Digital Solutions and Services, SARS

With a career spanning some 34 years, Sarah Blignaut, Business Area Head: Digital Solutions and Services, South African Revenue Services (SARS), has played a key role in the modernisation of SARS over the past 25 years. In her current role – which she has held since 2020 – she leads a team of more than 250 technical specialists and manages multiple million-rand technical contracts. She has a proven track record of building and leading high performance teams, delivering complex projects across diverse systems, platforms, and technologies.

“In the early 2000s, the personal income tax return modernisation process was batch-orientated, paper driven and required the bulk data capture of millions of complex 12-page returns. On average, it took 119 days to assess a return,” says Blignaut. “The weight of all this paper threatened the integrity of the building foundations where it was housed!

“SARS now has a wizard-driven, two-page electronic return that can be expanded depending on requirements, is fully electronic via channels of choice such as eFiling or the Mobi App. Annually, over 140 million records of third-party data are gathered, scrubbed and matched, enabling the pre-population of data on tax returns. In the 2023/24 tax year, over five million taxpayers were auto assessed.

“For the period from June 2024 to January 2025, approximately 70% of individual taxpayers were disintermediated from filing returns. For those still required to submit returns, we assessed 91.8% of income tax returns in five seconds and 70.27% of refunds were paid within 72 hours, injecting vital stimulus into the economy.

“This auto assessment process saves over a million person hours annually, enabling SARS staff to attend to high value-adding tasks. This initiative eliminates the need for taxpayers to take time off work to manage their tax affairs, reducing associated transport costs and having to wait in long queues at our offices. SARS is one of only a few tax authorities internationally to have successfully implemented auto assessments.

“However, we don’t implement technology without a sound business case and most recently, we implemented AI assistant on our digital channels and are busy with other exciting AI projects. Getting SARS to this level of efficiency is a true career highlight for me, especially as it helps government towards creating a better South Africa for all citizens.”

As an ICT leader, Blignaut says her style has evolved from being a transactional leader, focusing “myopically” on tasks with clearly specified goals, delivery dates and short-term rewards, into a more servant-leadership style, empowering and supporting others to help them reach their full potential, providing a shared purpose within the team, encouraging collaboration and a culture of trust and mutual respect. “What has not changed is that I’m still proud to lead from the front, getting involved, and assisting where required without micro-managing – and I get way more out of my team.”

Beyond her professional accomplishments, Blignaut is passionate about fostering the next generation of leaders, particularly young women in technology. She is a staunch advocate for graduate programmes and talent development, dedicating time to creating opportunities for emerging leaders. She believes in the transformative power of mentorship and is actively engaged in guiding young women to reach their full potential.

“There is still a massive amount to do. There are too few women in the IT arena and as women leaders who have climbed the corporate ladder, we need to keep passing the ladder down to others. Mentor and grow them and be role models to prove that it is possible for women to succeed in this very maledominated industry.”

everywhere you go www.mtnbusiness.co.za

For more information on how MTN Business can co-create solutions for your business, contact us on MTNBusiness.Marketing@mtn.com