A war of words ensued yesterday when the ANC in the Gauteng legislature proposed to change the department of finance's function and name to "e-governance".
Finance MEC Barbara Creecy defended the change and said it was proposed by Gauteng Premier David Makhura.
She said: "At the end of the day it is the premier who decides.
Lower than expected economic growth and resultant fiscal constraints in South Africa have emphasised the need for government to markedly improve efficiency with which it conducts business and delivers services.
Smart use of technology can yield productivity and efficiency gains. Unfortunately government is not well poised to harness the potential that eGovernment technology can offer. At the heart of this problem is the existence of a policy framework that fails to recognise the multidimensional nature of the country’s three-sphere system of government.
Read more: ZA: Leveraging tech to improve service delivery to the poor
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) will on Tuesday, 21 July, officially launch the roll-out of its technology enabled teaching and learning programme to Grade 12 learners in the Gauteng province.
The programme, commonly known as "The paperless classroom" entails the usage of interactive boards, mobile devices such as tablets, laptops with complete internet connectivity to conduct teaching and learning. To this end the GDE has selected 375 high schools with Grade 12 classes, mainly in township and rural areas to participate in the programme.
Read more: ZA: Gauteng Education On Roll-Out of ICT in Schools
The R1.2 billion Gauteng Broadband Network roll-out by Altech Alcom Matomo has reached a key milestone with fibre broadband connectivity to all eight vital core nodes, Altron TMT said.
Altron TMT is a subsidiary of JSE-listed Altron and was previously known as Altech before Altron paid R1.8 billion to buys out Altech minorities in a 2013 deal. This acquisition was followed by Altron streamlining its operation and bundling parts of Altech and Bytes Technology together.
There is no doubt that, in a data-driven world, the data centre is a critical and central component of the technology infrastructure of any organisation. However, when it comes to provisioning and obtaining access to the data centre itself and a variety of attached services, there is a growing trend away from owning and maintaining this infrastructure in-house.
Hosted data centres, particularly shared data centres that also offer a carrier-neutral colocation hub, are becoming an increasingly popular option. Shared data centres often bring together various different providers from across the country. This enables organisations that also make use of this data centre to access to their services and provide a range of essential technology solutions and services on a monthly, as needed basis, among other benefits. The decision to outsource and the selection of an appropriate partner is often challenging, and requires organisations to ask themselves a number of questions. Before a service, solution or technology is outsourced, the pros and cons must be carefully weighed and the benefits quantified, so that ultimately the organisation can make the best decision for their business.