Government is thinking big in its bid to bring computer literacy, skills, and universal access to those it has described as the knowledge have-nots - that significant portion of the population currently marginalised by the digital divide.
Are our politicians and statesmen ready to cope with the consequences if the e-government initiative proves successful beyond expectations?
Basheera Khan, Journalist at ITWeb
I know a man in his 30s, who, though not by any means "previously disadvantaged", certainly finds himself at a current impasse when it comes to technology.
This man is your average middle class South African. He has three children, the oldest of which are in lower primary school. Though he is computer literate, he is not completely Internet literate. Put another way, he knows how to handle a PC, but when faced with the vast knowledge and research capability offered by the Internet, he barely knows where to begin.
Like most South Africans, this man can`t really afford a PC. School bills, doctors` bills and all the other bills that are commonplace with raising children and running a household in this country put paid to the purchase of what is still considered a luxury item. The children take computer literacy classes at school, but have no place to practise these skills when school`s out.
Their father is looking for a better paying job, so prepares his CV in an electronic format. He understands the value of e-mail in making personal contact with prospective employers at considerably reduced cost, in terms of both time and money. Yet he doesn`t have access to a PC or a dial-up connection, and the local Internet caf'e rates are affordable, but not cost-effective to his budget.
So he phones a friend or two, and relies on his own network of friends who are corporate Internet users to send e-mails on his behalf. This loyalty to their friend, though they may not realise or acknowledge it, has an impact on their own productivity. It may seem insignificant in this isolated case, but if at least 100 people rely on five others each for communication and connectivity, it translates to quite a dramatic loss of focus among those corporate users.
Government`s initiative to roll-out its public information terminals (PiT) is expected to address this issue in part at least, offering Internet access at reduced costs. Well, this is what we`ve been hearing for a while... but still no sign of the terminals yet. To all intents and purposes, the plan is to roll-out 100 of these terminals in a pilot project, starting in May.
This is the same project that, if I recall correctly, has been promised for about two years. The PiT Web site is hardly forthcoming with relevant, timely information - in fact, it appears to be a mere soft copy version of the PiT brochures, which guarantee "e-government and e-commerce within easy reach of everyone", but remains murky on how exactly this is to be done, and what is being done at the moment to prepare the nation for this level of capability.
State of the nation
Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri makes strong demands on industry to remember the extensive socio-economic development that needs to be done before the South African masses can benefit from e-commerce and e-government. Maybe I`m not looking in the right places, but I can`t seem to find any information on initiatives addressing the socio-economic state of the nation.
There are fine degrees in determining where a South African citizen might fit into that broad classification of the digital divide. There is a distinct difference between the man who relies on the kindness of friends to communicate, and the children who are spending their formative years on busy traffic intersections, begging alongside their parents. How does government intend to extract the inborn talent of these kids in 20 years time, when their present circumstances are so bleak?
But poverty and corruption are related, as are most other aspects of socio-economic concern. Perhaps we need to take a leaf from the Kenyan book, and use e-government as more than just a tool to facilitate more efficient communication between State and citizen. In the Kenyan instance, the Information Technology Standards Association instituted an anti-corruption project, called the Electronic Graft Management project.
It reportedly enjoyed unexpected success, and led to the exposure and obliteration in part of graft within government departments. The question is, are our politicians and statesmen truly committed to the e-governance goal? And if so, are they ready to cope with the consequences if the initiative proves successful beyond their expectations?
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