Barbara Creecy, the Finance and E-Government MEC in South Africa's Gauteng provincial government, has hit back at IBM SA Country Manager Hamilton Ratshefola over his criticism of efforts to roll out ICT based services saying he was uninformed.

"He has never consulted with us before he made those statements...I think that he is uninformed," Creecy told ITWeb Africa following Ratshefola's charge that South Africa's government is clueless, lethargic and lagging behind its peers on the continent.

Creecy expanded on several aspects of the government's e-Governance vision for 2020 in an interview days before she delivered her department's Medium Term Budget Policy Statement where she announced the allocation of R177 million for ICT projects in the health department alone in order "to modernise the province and improve service delivery to citizens."

In defence of government

The MEC cited progress the government has made after a decision four years ago to move from satellite to broadband connectivity in schools and hospitals.

"I think the decision to move from satellite to broadband was informed by the recognition that in the modern world broadband is a utility similar to water and electricity and if you just leave the development of infrastructure to the private sector you are only going to service those areas that can afford to buy it, so there was a conscious decision by taken the provincial government that we need to invest in broadband connectivity that would cover the last mile – in other words move into the townships. The other realisation was that if you want to run more sophisticated e-government services you require better connectivity. A feasibility study concluded that the provincial government would leverage off the existing fibre that was laid by municipalities or the private sector. We then contracted our main technology partner which is Altech and we began the roll out of the broadband. To date we have connected 270 sites which include 100 schools and several clinics and hospitals. Our target is to connect 400 sites by March next year."

Creecy added that all government service delivery sites across the education and healthcare sectors would have access to broadband connectivity by the end 2019. The MEC says the network is already being used to run government-to-government services and manage human resource functions.

"Government employees in Gauteng don't apply for leave with forms – they apply online for leave, they can apply online for pensions. Then you have government to business services and we have already pioneered the e-invoicing system and we've got nearly 600 suppliers that are on the e-invoicing system and if you look at the improvement over the past year in the payment of suppliers on time you will note that only three departments don't make the ninety percent cut off line and that is because of the introduction of e-invoicing."

MEC Creecy also pointed out that other services are currently under pilot phase including e-tendering by national treasury, as well as the e-service provider registration pilot project which aims to increase the level of engagement between government and township entrepreneurs.

Electronic filing in some health facilities, the smart classrooms initiative and the transition to cloud storage of all government information are other examples of progress, according to the MEC.

Mandate of new e-government department

The MEC also shed light on the role of the newly formed e-government department which she leads.

"One of the complexities that arise when you are doing these things is the issue of interoperability. You need to make sure that the investments or platforms in one government department are compatible with the rest of the departments and that there is no unnecessary duplication. This department becomes the custodian of the operating platforms in the province. Another challenge that we face is that in any enterprise in ten years' time you will be paying for two things: salaries and software licences, so it means that you have to rationalise your software across the system. You can't have everybody going on a shopping spree."

Creecy adds that the new department will also ensure synergy between all levels of government in order to achieve economies of scale as well as setting up innovation hubs in the region. Many of the Free Wi-Fi initiatives in municipalities countrywide she said assume complete penetration on smart devices and that is not always the case and that hinders universal access.

"Citizen Education is also very important because you've got to get citizens to understand that you can do things differently. It is much easier in school with kids because they take to the stuff like ducks to water but we need to help people understand the benefits of doing things online. The other area that is very important is the commercialisation of this network because we think that there are possibilities that the private sector may be interested in using unused capacity on this network. They might also be interested in the new customer base that is opening up for them in the townships as well. We are interested in finding the most cost effective way of connecting up all of our centres so if we can have cost recovery that would be very important for us."

The MEC also made an assurance that the best people have been employed to work in the new department following concern from several quarters, including by ICT expert Adrian Schofield, that the new department might not be staffed with the best people. She says the e-government department has employed a project manager who worked for the reputed revenue service.

Lessons from around the world

MEC Creecy would not be drawn into debate on whether South Africa is falling behind its counterparts on the African continent although she mentioned that her department was learning from Kenya and others about how to best implement some of the programmes.

"I took some time to talk to Emmanuel Lubembe about Kenya's Huduma Centers during our recent ICT Summit about their Huduma Centres and I am told that they have exactly the same thing in Portugal. The Prime Minister of Georgia also shared with me over lunch that they have opened the schools in the afternoon for communities."

Creecy says her government's electronic systems should be assessed according to more objective measures like those conducted by the United Nations.

"I think that we will have more transactional services and better integration as a province in 2020, but I think we will be able to assert our space in Southern Africa. It is not about technology, but technology is the enabler. What you are trying to achieve is that people can interact with their government more easily. One of our speakers from Singapore said that when your people no longer know that their government is there, then you have succeeded."