Measuring ICT Governance Compliance in South Africa’s Public Service: A Systematic Multivocal Review and Conceptual Framework

Digital transformation in the public sector has intensified the need to demonstrate not only adoption of ICT governance frameworks but sustained compliance with governance requirements. This systematic multivocal literature review developed a conceptual ICT Governance Compliance Measurement Framework for South Africa’s public service and was reported in accordance with PRISMA 2020. Peer-reviewed and authoritative grey literature published from January 2004 to May 2026 was searched across Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, and targeted institutional sources; the academic searches were updated through 31 May 2026. The protocol was registered on the Open Science Framework (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/YZVB3). Of 1380 records identified, 130 full texts were assessed, 91 proceeded to source-appropriate quality appraisal, and 72 sources (52 academic and 20 grey/postgraduate) met the final quality threshold and informed an abductive thematic synthesis. Six interrelated compliance dimensions emerged: Strategic Alignment; Governance Structures and Accountability; Risk and Security Governance; ICT Investment and Procurement Governance; Regulatory and Policy Compliance; and Performance Monitoring and Continuous Improvement. These were integrated into a six-stage conceptual compliance-measurement workflow linking normative requirements, compliance dimensions, evidence triangulation, implementation rating, a six-dimensional compliance profile, and remediation/reassessment, bounded by organisational antecedents and public-value consequences. The framework offers a traceable basis for self-assessment and audit readiness, but requires empirical validation before formal scoring, benchmarking, or assurance use.