The South African government is working towards creating a central system that will allow citizens to access all services through one portal.
This is according to Peter Mello, Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) director for broadband, who notes broadband roll-out is pivotal for government to achieve this goal.
Mello says with the "one-stop portal", the cost of accessing government services will be reduced and broadband will ensure government processes are optimised.
The portal will allow citizens to access government services on a smartphone or any gadget, and from the South African Post Office and Thusong Service Centres, he adds.
"We are looking at youth who are trying to apply for jobs in rural areas. Some have to travel about 30 to 40 kilometres to send their applications and also travel the following day for another job that has been advertised.
"If you have one portal, users will be able to access everything in one portal as their CVs would be online," Mello says.
Government has set targets in line with the National Development Plan to modernise the economy through the provision of ubiquitous broadband access to all South Africans by 2020 at speeds of 10Mbps, scalable to 100Mbps by the year 2030, especially those living in the most rural of areas.
SA Connect, the country's ambitious broadband project, was launched in 2013 with the objective to deliver widespread broadband access to 90% of the country's population by 2020, and 100% by 2030.
The DTPS, which is overseeing SA Connect, predicts 3 158 government institutions and 4 442 schools will have broadband connectivity over the medium-term.
Delivering the 2016 National Budget Speech, finance minister Pravin Gordhan stated, over the medium-term expenditure framework (2016/2019) period, R1.6 billion is allocated to the SA Connect broadband programme.
Despite various announcements about SA Connect and uncoordinated initiatives by provinces and metros, progress has been limited. Although there has been some indication Telkom will be the lead agency that will drive the deployment of broadband infrastructure for SA Connect, the DTPS has denied such claims.
As part of enabling citizens to participate in the digital society in an affordable manner, government is working with the metros of Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Nelson Mandela Bay, Mangaung, Cape Town and Johannesburg to roll out free WiFi, says Mello.
The DTPS says a total of 230 public WiFi sites will be rolled out in the metros.
"WiFi is complementary to broadband. While it might not give the speed that we are anticipating as per SA Connect targets, it complements the network and it will be upgraded to a fully-fledged network that will be able to receive the required speed as per SA Connect," Mello said.
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