A study of some e-Government activities in South Africa

Abstract

This paper examines the nature and extent of e-government activities in South Africa. E-Government refers to the practice of leveraging ICT to deliver services to employees (G2E), to citizens (G2C), to business (G2B) and to other government departments (G2G). The research method used was through direct personal engagement through semi-structured interviews with 10 stakeholders at local, provincial and national government level. The sample comprised two senior provincial management, two senior municipal managers, two academic government researchers, one national government official and three businessmen connected with government. A literature review was also conducted with data sourced from journals, books, websites and popular media for evidence of e-Government not known to the respondent or a provincial (state) or national initiative. It finds although e-Government activities is being provided by, inter alia, government, citizens and business, the service is few, far between and expensive. Although government has committed to e-services, there are, with few exceptions, such services available. On the other hand citizens are rising in anger as they demand improved service levels. It determines some typically government-centric services have already perhaps out of necessity been usurped by citizen led initiatives. Business is also providing innovative e-services. This comes however with skewed costs that may agitate the digital divide. There is an increasingly pervasive broadband infrastructure from both public and private enterprise that represents an opportunity to roll e-services. The ubiquity of mobile devices and ICT may make-services possible. This is an enticing opportunity, particularly given the increasing and sometimes violent calls for service delivery. To achieve traction the authors argue a stronger advocacy role is needed to promote e-Government activities by all stakeholders namely government, business or civil society. This paper uses the Prossler-Krimmer Model to analyze egovernment activities in South Africa including KwaZulu-Natal. It examines the technological, political, legislative and societal(sectors) respectively in South Africa and concludes eGovernment is a major opportunities for all stakeholders through a combination or research, cross training, advocacy and a re-contextualization of e-government.