IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Of this amount, a significant chunk will be spent on IT services, a driver of the unit's services, according to the unit's political head.

Delivering his annual budget vote speech this week, MEC Paul Mashatile allocated the unit the increased budget of about R400 million.

That’s all about to change, if Girls Invent Tomorrow has its way. A local organisation that aims to actively encourage young girls to consider technology as a career option, Girls Invent Tomorrow hosted a Girls in ICT event at the ICC in Durban to coincide with the International Day of the Girl Child.

The briefing, hosted by biometric identity control specialists Ideco and Stanley Security, in partnership with ITWeb, outlined the risks of identity fraud in financial services, and the inadequacy of existing identification methods.

Ideco MD Marius Coetzee said SA was adopting biometric technology in many industry verticals, with Ideco technology being used to verify the identities of over 2.5 million employees around the country.

However, by the 1990s, South Korea had turned this situation around and succeeded in becoming an “information society” as well as a major innovator and exporter of communications technology, said Cheung. Today Korea has one of the best-developed e-government infrastructures in the world.

The increase in spending will only be matched by the financial services sector, according to Frost & Sullivan.

Increased investment in software licences, specialised computer services, systems advisers and system development will lead to a robust improvement in IT spending by the South African government in the next four years, says Frost & Sullivan.

According to a new report from the research and consulting firm, called “ICT Spend in South Africa: Public Sector”, the public sector spent US$615,9m on information and communications technology in 2014. Managed services, combined with fixed and non-cellular connectivity, accounted for 73,1% of these investments. The size of total spend will grow to $707,6m by 2019, it predicts.

The Department of Labour (DoL) is to enter a new phase of modernisation to increase its operational efficiencies and strengthen its institutional capacity following the unveiling of a new five-year information communications and technology (ICT) strategy.

This new ICT Strategy seeks to enable the implementation of the departmental policies and legislation to achieve the mandate of the department. This mandate covers the regulation of labour market, creation of decent employment, promoting labour standards and fundamental rights, sound labour relations, providing adequate social safety nets to protect vulnerable workers and labour market competitiveness.

So says Kevin Phillips, MD of idu Software, who notes that the country needs real-time, online and easily understandable and accessible information. “With this greater transparency would come greater accountability and greater faith in the system.”

According to the International Budget Partnership's Open Budget Survey 2010, for the 94 countries surveyed, the average 2010 score for strength of the legislature on budget transparency was 44 out of 100.

Promoted | South Africa's biggest cities have a lot of the essential infrastructure that forms a solid base for a smart city conversion, writes BCX's Jan Bouwer.

Smart cities offer a multitude of advantages for both government and residents. They use technology and data to improve the efficiency of a city and the lives of its residents, including making the city more environmentally sustainable.

Infineon provides its SOLID FLASH SLE 77 security controller to Net1’s subsidiary Cash Paymaster Services for implementing this service.

South Africa is slipping down the global ICT development index at a time when other African countries are making big gains.

This is according to the World Bank’s economic update for South Africa, which saw the country’s growth rate cut to 0.6%.

South Africa has launched a new smart city in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, which it says will create over 23,000 new jobs and tap the latest technology to offer residents a quality modern life.

Dubbed Westown, the new city is expected to cost R15 billion ($805 million) and to be completed over the next 15 years. Construction of the first phase started recently, with officials stating that it will be a “live, work and play” ecosystem housing residential properties, retail outlets, healthcare facilities, recreational amenities and more.

The first phase of a smart city development in Shongweni, outside of Durban, is set to launch today, Thursday, 27 March 2025.

According to a Newzroom Afrika report, the smart city development, dubbed Westown, is expected to attract around R15 billion in private-sector investment over the next 10 to 15 years and create more than 23,000 jobs.

The first phase is part of a larger project that includes retail, housing, and healthcare facilities. It is located just off of the N3 highway near Hillcrest.

SA now ranks only 47th, lagging behind Tunisia, which is Africa’s most highly placed nation in 35th position. Mauritius and Botswana have also slipped down by making less progress than other emerging nations.

President Mbeki was briefing reporters after the eighth Presidential International Advisory Council on Information Society and Development (PIAC on ISAD), which advises him and his Cabinet in the areas of ICT.

South Africa, he said, had to become an advanced information-based society in which ICT tools are the drivers of economic and societal development.

This is according to Obed Bapela, Deputy Minister of Communications in South Africa.

Bapela was addressing delegates today during the 14th Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (SATNAC) Conference held at the East London International Convention Centre, in East London, South Africa.

The education department must have a deeper understanding of the skills which are required by the employment sector, economic development deputy minister Hlengiwe Mkhize said on Saturday.

"These will assist them to produce relevant and required skills," she told delegates at the Innovation Africa Summit in Cape Town.

The survey examined globally the quick and continuous adoption of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

"South Africa is the only African country in the survey and was competing against First World countries. In this light it's not bad at all," said Webster who as part of Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, surveyed 22 country's "e-government" ability.

Despite South Africa's appearance at the top of the index, authors Nick Jotischky and Sheridan Nye note that mobile government implementations have been far slower to take off there than in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. The East African countries have been quicker to realise the benefits to citizens and small businesses (agricultural advice, payment of utility bills, commodity pricing information) of delivering public services using cellular technologies.