IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

A joint study by researchers at Rutgers-Newark and Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, of the official websites of the world's major cities has ranked Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York City and Shanghai as the top five municipalities in "digital governance".

Digital governance is the degree to which a website -- in this instance those of 100 large cities worldwide -- enhances citizens' ability to learn about and participate in governmental affairs. New York's website was ranked first worldwide in terms of content.

Read more: South Africa scores low on city website survey

The City of Cape Town won the prestigious e-Government award at the annual Africa Information and Communication Technology (ICT) awards in Gauteng over the weekend.

Cape Town beat other hopefuls as the government department with the best ICT practices in the country.

Read more: South Africa: City wins award for its integrative IT systems

Last year's BMI-TechKnowledge report on IT in government shows that the South African government is spending between R8 billion and R10 billion a year on IT, despite negative trends in the global IT industry. The report also notes that an apparent lack of understanding is impeding the transition to e-government. But a local expert with ICT integrator Comparex Africa finds that SA is making progress, considering the huge challenges involved.

"While SA faces the same challenges as most developing nations in implementing e-government, it has the added challenge of having to extend and improve services to previously neglected communities," says Thabiso Tenyane, general manager for the public sector in Comparex Africa.

Read more: South Africa: SA is Making Progress On the Road to E-Government

Services in IT and human resources

THE Gauteng provincial government has set up the Gauteng shared service centre to provide a foundation for integrated service delivery and e-government.

Read more: South Africa: Gauteng Centre Will Support 95 Provincial Departments