Rebone Gcabo

A highly academically qualified and experienced  Behavioural Research Practitioner and Executive Head; Dr Rebone Gcabo leverages over 2-decades of diversified experience as a Research Expert & Information and Data Manager [Health], Leading Tertiary Institution Lecturer [Research and Economic Psychology], and the Co-Founder and Director of her own Research Consultancy Firm and an expert in  Organisational Behaviour Research; Teams Research, Customer experience, Individual Behaviour Change; Tax Education and Tax Compliance Behaviour Research [Tax and Customs] and Project Management. 

Dr Rebone is appointed as a Professor of Practice by University of Johannesburg Business School to advance behavioural science research, tax and customs policy research through AI, advance research partnerships and knowledge sharing between government and academic institutions. 

Currently, she is working within the South African Revenue Service. Dr Rebone Gcabo is an Exco member, Head of Taxpayer and Trader Education; Enterprise Research and Knowledge Management. Her role is to ensure SARS is a Learning and Knowledge Based Organisation through the management of diverse teams; produce evidence based Education Products and leveraging on Research and Knowledge Management insights. 

 In her recent past portfolio, Dr Gcabo was an Executive Manager for Policy Research Unit in Tax Customs and Excise Institute (TCEI). The Unit mandate was ‘to offer detailed, high quality evidence based policy research and analysis on the impact of tax and customs policy provisions; making quality anonymised tax administrative data accessible to key stakeholder’s; unlocking innovative insights for improved thought leadership and decision-making; provide an understanding and dissemination of policy outcomes; producing quality and easy to understand statistics, as a result, promote and cutting edge publications. 

Policy Research Unit is a think tank and have an advisory role. Its mandate is and it is continually evolving towards, interdisciplinary, agile, data driven, and collaborative research unit to meet the demands of the fourth industrial revolution. The current role is to provide organisational research leadership to SARS by among others: enhancing effective research governance and quality management through the research committee; facilitating the use of tax administrative data for research to internal, national and international stakeholders based on their thematic strengths. This is a critical thought leadership function for SARS as it navigates the tools, technologies and the future of tax administration in the digitalised economy. 

In her previous role, Dr. Rebone served as a Voice of the Customer (VOC) champion for Digital Channels in SARS. She was responsible for the development of VOC research strategy and implementation plan that was used to determine taxpayer experience in doing business with SARS and to monitor the brand perception. The Digital Channel mission was to continually enhance existing and develop new taxpayer engagement channels thus enriching capabilities through better collaboration and access to SARS’ service offerings.  It is clear that taxpayers have entered a new digital age, where they are given more control with stronger voices and better information. The new voices came with more expectations from our clients. Customer experience therefore, holds the secret of customer compliance behaviour and was used in a systematic way by collecting the right customer feedback to accelerate insights to action and business performance improvement. 

Her specialising in the study of Economic Psychology/ Behavioural Economics, has led her to an area of tax compliance behaviour research. The research entails conducting research using experimental designs and Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT). An approach using experiments to test behavioural response to interventions at least cost. 

Dr Rebone has led valuable research into areas including but not limited to: Teams Innovation | Behavioural Economic insights | Policy Research| Economic Well-Being | The Psychology of Money | Debt Perception | Tax Perception | The Psychology of Investment, Policy Research| Advocate for the use of tax administration data  and Artificial  Intelligence for research. 

Having completed varying high-level qualifications including; PhD in Organisational Behaviour, Masters in Research Psychology, a Business Leadership Programme and courses in Developmental Economics and Behavioural Economics; The District Health Information System and Leadership in Gender Management; Rebone is an accomplished and educated addition to any Senior Leadership Team. 

Professional Affiliations: South African Journal of Psychology – Reviewer [2007 to Date] | International Association for Research in Economic Psychology – Member [2007 to Date] | South African Market Research Association [current member]

Industry Experience: Financial | Governmental | Consultancy [Research] | Higher Education | Health| 

Career Objectives: Leadership Development | Strategy | Research and Analysis |Taxpayer Education | Tax Policy | Tax Compliance | Behavioural Science and Technology | Teams Innovation | Thinker, Reader, Writer and Speaker |Coach| Mentor