IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Government’s recent announcement that owners of fibre optic networks – including itself – would be compelled to share capacity with other Internet service providers shows the high expectations it has of the digital world.

Broadband access is linked to economic activity and thus job creation according to the World Bank. It’s also increasingly important within the context of service delivery, with the potential to reduce costs while enhancing access.

Speaking at the inaugural summit on mobile health last week, deputy minister Obed Bapela said SA has been chosen to host the next three summits by Global Society Mobile Health and the Mobile Health Alliance.

He added that the summit's aim is to come up with practical solutions, relevant to developing countries, on how mobile health can help improve healthcare delivery.

"To attain the goals of universal access and service to ICT, the country needs to ensure that prices should be affordable," Universal Services and Access Agency of SA spokesman Khulekani Ntshangase said.

Most people in the country could not afford to make voice calls due to the high cost, he said.

Primary healthcare in South Africa is notoriously overstretched and under-resourced, making the daily demands of record-keeping, home visits and patient monitoring a challenge for workers.

Telemedicine — the remote provision of healthcare using information and communications technology (ICT) — holds great promise for a country with a shortage of healthcare workers. It is also an opportunity for innovative private-service providers.

Inkhosi Mlambo II indicated how the trust has already begun with the plans to build a smart city on the N4 corridor towards Komatipoort.

The Bambanani Mlambo Trust convened at Shonga Events on November 27 to finalise the alterations they wish to make to their title deed.

The trust unanimously voted to have their title deed amended from agricultural to commercial purposes, in line with their upcoming development plans. This was done in the presence of the chief director for land restitution support of the Mpumalanga Office of Land Reform and Rural Development, Sam Nkosi.

• MTN, ZTE, Weskus, and Aizatron showcase the transformative impact of 5G technology on smart cities and maritime communications
• An MOU was signed to advance 5G-enabled smart city development and AI-based solutions, marking a significant milestone for South Africa's urban innovation

ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a global leading provider of integrated information and communication technology solutions, in collaboration with MTN, Weskus, and Aizatron, has hosted the 5G innovation event – "Unfolding the Intelligent Potential: Tech for a Better Tomorrow" in Langebaan, West Coast. This landmark gathering emphasized the transformative role of 5G technology in advancing smart cities and innovative applications, attracting key industry leaders from South Africa's technology sector.

This week Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan highlighted, during the Budget Speech, that partnership between government and businesses is a central priority of the National Development Plan (NDP) and key to rapid development for economic growth.

MTN Business welcomes the budget speech and the recent call by the president for the public and private sectors to work together by mobilising the resources and capacity for quality delivery of services.

What makes a good mayor? What makes a good municipality? For me, it is our ability to meet our constitutional obligations to serve the people of Thembisile Hani local municipality by providing services that are enduring and of a high quality — and able to impact our landscape positively.

I would also define success on our part as when the poorest and most vulnerable among us are not only able to survive but live happily within this municipal region. But to attain this, I realised that we needed to do things differently than before.

Acumen Software, the South African software solutions company that builds service delivery systems, launched the first phase of its My Smart City citizen’s platform last year. The platform enables citizens to log their service delivery issues on the mobile app or website and is the first digital offering of its kind in the country.

My Smart City has seen its support grow in the cities where it has launched. The platform is available in the cities of Johannesburg, Cape Town, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and now eThekwini. Both the City of Cape Town and City Power have integrated My Smart City into their systems. The team intends connecting to all municipal systems to enable the automation of information flow from citizens.

South Africa was one of only two African countries that made the top half of the WEF's rankings, released on Wednesday, the other being Mauritius (55th). They were followed by Seychelles (79th), Egypt (80th), Cape Verde (81st), Rwanda (88th), Morocco (89th), Kenya (92nd) and Ghana (95th).

The Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) on Monday kicked off the first sessions of a planned national public consultation roadshow to unpack details of the three recently gazetted strategies to implement the National Integrated Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Policy White Paper.

The proposed National e-Strategy and the draft National e-Government Strategy and Roadmap were gazetted in early April, while the draft ICT Small, Medium-sized and Microenterprises (SMME) Support Strategy was tabled at the end of March.

The project has had a troubled path since inception. In 2001, Cabinet approved a programme to launch identity cards. The project has been in the Department of Home Affairs' budget since, but languished for years until 2008, when the “Who Am I Online” initiative, intended to upgrade the DHA's IT infrastructure and pave the way for a centralised identity programme, was brought short and eventually cancelled, after irregularities in the tender process were brought to light. A bitter spat between the department and Gijima, over spiralling costs, went to the courts, before Gijima settled, and was reinstated as the supplier.

Newly appointed communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams delivered her first official public address on Friday, just 24 hours after being sworn-in.

Speaking at the launch of government's private cloud by the State IT Agency (SITA), Ndabeni-Abrahams said history was being made with this initiative.

Alan Winde, Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, said the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism was investigating sites for a Bandwidth Barn in the townships and had already inspected potential sites in Nyanga and Khayelitsha.

Between June and December 31, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) will hand out the new branded biometric magstripe cards to grant holders, replacing the current Sekulula cards.

The biometric cards will also replace temporary smartcards that social grant beneficiaries in Gauteng, Western Cape, the southern part of the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Free State - provinces which don't use the current service provider - have been using since March.

According to Paragon Group director Henning Rasmuss, with South African cities and towns fast deteriorating at an infrastructure and service delivery level, the new Lanseria Smart City revealed by President Cyril Ramaphosa during this year's State of the Nation Address is just 'papering over the cracks'.

More important work needs to be done, across the country, says Rasmuss. In this regard, a positive outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic has been business and government having “to learn to work together, to build trust, and to get things done in a hurry. The common enemy in the form of the pandemic has brought an urgency to co-operation and co-existence”, he notes.

The wait maybe finally be over for the envisaged Nkosi City, Mpumalanga’s first post-apartheid city, which will be located in the heart of this village.

The first phase of the R8bn project is expected to commence in June and is likely to be a game-changer, which will see over 15 000 employment opportunities created.

The objective of the two day summit that will provide a platform for government and the ICT industry to engage on the broad roadmap for the development, implementation and maintenance of baseline ICT infrastructure and e-governance service in order to:

• Assist the North West Provincial Government to create a road map that will enable it to align current systems and align it to future trends and plans, especially related to the vision 2030 and beyond;

• Engage with stakeholder and share related experiences where governments or companies have planned for similar goals.

• Analyse and predict current and future ICT trends and

• Identify possible partners in the ICT sector and determine the role they would play to assist the province to realise its socio-economic objectives

Gauteng’s department of finance has launched an online invoice service for government suppliers, which it says cuts the submission time from 60 days to under two days.

The Gauteng Department of Finance has launched an online invoice service targeting government suppliers that cuts invoice submission time to provincial government departments from 60 days to less than two days.

“With the new system, suppliers can submit anytime, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” department spokesperson John Sukazi said.

We are pleased with the success of the online application system and humbled by the overwhelming response of the people of Gauteng, says Panyaza Lesufi.

"The new information technology - internet and e-mail - have practically eliminated the physical costs of communications,” said Peter Drucker, an American management guru.