South African Business 2016 edition

OVERVIEW ICT development

OVERVIEW ICT development in South Africa South Africa has the opportunity to realise great benefits by increasing its investments in the information and communications technologies (ICTs) infrastructure, which will ultimately drive the country’s social and economic transformation. According to the latest World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2015 (GITR), sponsored by Cisco, which measures the relative capacity of 143 economies to leverage ICTs for growth and economic and social transformation, South Africa dropped five places to 75th in terms of the report’s Networked Readiness assessment. Networked readiness is a crucial indicator of a country’s ability to implement and take full advantage of ICTs. Cathy Smith, General Manager for Cisco South Africa, says South Africa can make massive strides in connecting more citizens and bringing about positive social and economic change by improving its Networked Readiness. “With political will and commitment from the private sector, progress can be made in bringing the benefit of ICTs to all South Africans. As we face the next wave of the Internet – the Internet of Everything (IoE) –South Africa needs to prioritise ICT development if it is to benefit from the new experiences and efficiencies that the IoE will bring. “At Cisco, we have learned that technology helps people find innovative solutions to address societal problems. We believe there has never been a better time to combine human ingenuity and technological innovation to improve the lives of all South Africans. Technology is at an inflection point and the South African economy needs to prioritise ICT adoption to take full advantage of the benefits that embracing digital transformation strategies will offer,” says Smith. Drawing from the various discussions that were held at the recent SAP Urban Matters event in Cape Town, we find a surprisingly enthusiastic new assortment of government officials willing to engage critically and in an innovative way with the issues that have arisen over the past few decades. On the topic of ICT integration in an African context, Nirvesh Sooful from African Ideas elaborated on the importance of including these strategies in local government practices to enhance their efficiency. “With the challenges that we have, we need efficient and cost-effective government, as all available resources need to be spent on dealing with our massive infrastructure backlogs. One of the challenges facing South Africa, is the burgeoning cost of government administration, without the necessary investment in infrastructure. This is a very dangerous position. Technology can help. In fact, it is the only real answer. We need to increase our investment in effective technology so that we can reduce the running costs,” Sooful said. Innovative governance and leadership practices were also important topics covered at the event and looked at best practices from cities within our country, as well as case studies presented on best practices from cities abroad. Sean O’Brien, vice president (global) of SAP Urban Matters & Public Security, discussed the broader theme of improving the lives of citizens by integrating innovative governance and leadership practices through transforming government and driving prosperity. He proposed that five government pillars be put in place: good governance, user empowerment, urban resilience, service innovation, and SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2016 122

OVERVIEW community engagement. The five SAP strategy pillars that seek to integrate technology with the aforementioned are analytics, applications, mobile and cloud technology and databases. Looking at case studies, local examples of best practices and proposed strategies were discussed in an attempt to highlight solutions that can be implemented to address the issues governments face with regard to urbanisation. City of Cape Town CIO, Andre Stelzner elaborated on the topic of promoting social and economic value in modern urban environments. When speaking on the issues the city has experienced, he focussed on transformation as a central point that needs to be addressed. He highlighted some of the technical difficulties the city has faced in this regard: “The lack of standardised policies and procedures, old order IT systems, out-dated back office systems that are functionally inadequate and not properly integrated—these systems hinder the ability of municipalities to improve governance, be responsive to changing citizen needs and render services.” Looking at urbanisation in another South African city, the City of Johannesburg’s Department of Social Development’s Jak Koseff spoke on a variety of issues that are being looked at in their municipality, including youth unemployment and the way it links to education. He says according to a 2011 City of Johannesburg report: “Only a small number of those without post high-school qualifications make it into formal employment, and those with qualifications are far more likely to be part of the labour force than those who do not. For example, across all age groups, 56% of those with matric or equivalent qualifications are employed, compared to 31% of those who left school in Standard 8. At the other end of the scale, 88% of those with honours degrees are employed, as compared to 78% of those who hold bachelor degrees.” Koseff suggested approaches to this problem by synthesizing the National Development Plan and World Bank data. On the supply side of the labour market, the city can connect the dots between the private sector, the key educational institutions and the basic education system such that schooling and skills training are expressly linked to market need. He concluded by saying that the city can act as a social change agent with technology as an enabler. 123 SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2016