Premier Nommvula Mokonyane said little of note about the technology and telecommunications sectors in her inaugural State of the Province address on Tuesday, as a recent ITWeb article by Martin Czernowalow and Candice Jones notes.
We should wonder at the failed logic behind this.
Although the historic record of national government's overweening attentions to technology is littered with disaster, and president Jacob Zuma's inattention to technology may prove to be a blessing in disguise, the same cannot be said for provincial (or local) government.
They are the engines of delivery. They are the counter at which citizens and private citizens must obtain all manner of permissions and licences and bureaucratic services.
It isn't just about spending. Government purchases of technology typically do represent a large, and very profitable, share of the industry's revenue, and IT companies would understandably be loath to lose some of this. However, it is proper for a government to seek to curtail its profligate spending even in good times, and all the more in bad times. So lack of government spending alone should not give so much cause for concern.
The greater problem is that curtailing profligacy is, in a well-running organisation, a function of technology application. Failing to pay attention to technology will likely increase, not decrease, the government's wastefulness.
Granted, the premier's experience of technology as a labour-, time- and money-saving investment may have been tainted by the laughable failure of the Gauteng Shared Services Centre to provide services to share. Her speech was supposed to have been streamed live by the GSSC, but this didn't happen. Technology was blamed, as any bureaucrat worth his salt does if he can't blame a co-worker for his own incompetence.
It is cheaper and more efficient to give someone a computer, than to have them traipse around town for meetings, hamstrung by limited knowledge, and burdened with letters that have to make it to the post office before 2pm.
Ivo Vegter, ITWeb contributor
In general, however, technology has always been a means to achieve more with less. The steam engine enabled 19th century industries to increase output at relatively lower unit cost, and permitted trading vessels to run to a schedule instead of praying for fair winds. The internal combustion engine has made regular, reliable and even long-distance travel possible for even the smallest of companies and poorest of citizens. The typewriter and printing press made large volumes of information accessible to more than just the few princes and bishops who could employ copyists wielding sharp goose feathers dipped in ink.
So it is with information technology. Everywhere one turns, one reads of the "return of investment" that a competently designed and delivered IT system can achieve for its owner. This is why companies invest in technology. It is cheaper and more efficient to give someone a computer, than to have them traipse around town for meetings, hamstrung by limited knowledge, and burdened with letters that have to make it to the post office before 2pm. It is cheaper and more efficient to let people purchase from you online, than to maintain a high-rent shop that reaches fewer customers.
Not only would government's own operations be greatly assisted by better use of more technology, but the economic development of the region could also benefit. Would it not save companies time and money to interact with government via electronic forms, rather than having to write them out and hand them in at a counter with a mile-long queue? Would fewer errors and faster processing in government services not save the citizens and companies who use them both time and money?
If Gauteng wants to remain competitive, it is incumbent upon its government to reduce the bureaucratic overhead it imposes on its citizens and companies. Failing to do so is a dereliction of duty.
Recoiling against technology spending during tough times is not surprising when most provincial government technology projects are a complete disaster. The GSSC doesn't work. Gauteng Online doesn't work. Nothing works. But the solution to this problem is to make them work, not to abandon them.
If you have a car that always breaks down, you don't revert to a horse and carriage, or walking to work. You get a better car. The apparent expense will save you time (60km/h is faster than 5km/h), and money (stabling is expensive, as is the mechanic who loves you so).
While it is true that a government overreaches when it presumes to build technology infrastructure for its citizens, it fails its most basic responsibilities when it neglects to build technology infrastructure for itself.
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