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Gauteng ready to invest in ICT innovation

Simnikiwe Mzekandaba
By Simnikiwe Mzekandaba, IT in government editor
Johannesburg, 23 Mar 2017
Gauteng finance MEC Barbara Creecy says the province is ramping up access to smart solutions to address poor service delivery.
Gauteng finance MEC Barbara Creecy says the province is ramping up access to smart solutions to address poor service delivery.

The Gauteng province is interested in finding innovative solutions to government service delivery problems, according to finance MEC Barbara Creecy.

Creecy's sentiments echo those of other government ministers who have previously called for more technology solutions to positively impact and improve the lives of citizens.

Last year, the City of Ekurhuleni hosted its second annual EMMHack, a hackathon that allows innovators to turn their ideas into practical solutions that can be used by the municipality.

The Ekurhuleni ICT department has been an advocate of young people developing smart solutions to help solve government challenges.

Speaking to ITWeb, Creecy said ICT-enabled public service delivery offers an opportunity to improve efficiency and access to public services.

According to the MEC, the provincial government is trying to encourage young people and emerging entrepreneurs to consider ICT as an area for entrepreneurship, which has resulted in the partnership with The Innovation Hub.

The Innovation Hub is rolling out eKasi Labs to serve as a development hub for entrepreneurs so that they can come up with ICT solutions to problems and possibly be able to commercialise those solutions, she noted.

"We will be hosting boot camps where we will invite entrepreneurs that are being incubated, as well as any other entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs will either pose problems which they would try to solve with ICT solutions, or we would pose problems to them.

"As government, we would like to be afforded an opportunity to purchase that technology if we find it suitable and appropriate for ourselves. This is really the direction in which we are moving."

Township economy

To step up establishing local digital entrepreneurs, Creecy's department hosted the Gauteng eKasi ICT Summit last year. The summit focused on discussions on innovation, IT infrastructure development, Internet connection trends and human resource development.

The event was also an opportunity to urge government, agencies, businesses and the whole society to increase their awareness of the digital revolution.

Hosting the summit was also in support of the provincial government's Township Economy Revitalisation strategy.

This initiative builds on existing government support programmes and responds to common and specific challenges. It also aims to remove barriers and achieve key outcomes, namely: creating an enabling and supporting environment, establishing the social and economic value of township economy, and ensuring township enterprises become key players in the Gauteng economy.

In her budget speech last month, Creecy revealed the provincial government has done business with 2 813 township enterprises to the value of over R5 billion.

"To intensify the programme going forward, an additional R110.9 million is provided for 2017/18 to support youth employability."

Connected province

In 2015, the Gauteng provincial government established a department of e-government, which aims to invest in the construction of a broadband network that will link up all 3 000 government institutions to a high-speed broadband network.

In the 2017/2018 financial budget, the province has budgeted R459 million to continue with the construction of the broadband network.

By the end of this financial year, 1 000 sites will be connected to the high-speed broadband network, including all the main government offices, schools, Thusong centres and economic hubs, said Creecy.

It is important in this day and age that citizens who might not be able to pay for data have some, even if it's limited, access to free connectivity, and that is why we are connecting our Thusong centres, the MEC pointed out.

"The idea going forward is that we would want to have kiosks in those centres where any citizen, regardless of whether they have a smart device or not and whether they can pay for data, can at least access government services online."

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