Cabinet has given government's national ICT strategies the seal of approval, and they are now waiting to be gazetted.
Delivering resolutions of a 1 November meeting, yesterday communications minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said the national executive approved the national e-strategy, national e-government strategy and roadmap, as well as the ICT small, medium and micro-sized enterprise (SMME) development strategy.
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%.
Read more: South Africa lagging behind African countries, thanks to poor government
For Southern African Development Community (SADC) economic integration to be realised, the region will need to be transformed into an information and knowledge-based economy, Minister of Communications Ayanda Dlodlo said on Thursday.
The Minister was addressing delegates from 15 SADC countries who have been meeting in Durban since Monday to discuss the region's ICT infrastructure.
Read more: ZA: Knowledge-Based Economy Key to SADC Integration
To guarantee rollout of three high priority projects, which include phase two of the Gauteng Broadband Network (GBN), the Department of e-Government has requested telecoms minister Siyabonga Cwele to intervene to request the State IT Agency (SITA) to finalise the procurement process.
The department was established by the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) in 2015 as part of a restructuring process to ensure departments in the province are able to seamlessly talk to each other.
The Department of e-Government achieved a clean audit opinion in 2016/17, as it strives to modernise the public service and contribute to re-industrialisation efforts in order to take advantage of opportunities offered by the fourth industrial revolution.
The Department of e-Government was established by the Gauteng provincial government (GPG) in 2015 as part of a restructuring process to ensure departments in the province are able to seamlessly talk to each other.