Premiers brush over IT

The recent state of the province addresses reveal the importance of IT has taken a dip in premiers' vision for the provinces.

During several addresses over the past week, premiers concentrated on speeding up economic growth, transforming economies through improved service delivery mechanisms and public investment infrastructure programmes.

Echoing president Jacob Zuma's state of the nation address, which took a tough stance on government corruption, premiers also noted they would focus on improved service delivery. Mining and tourism were mentioned as some of the key economies to help provinces achieve this goal. IT was not highlighted as a key sector and no key technology projects were announced.

The premier of the North-West, Maureen Modiselle, noted education was key in the province and, despite some progress, a lot still had to be done. She added that ICT was key to improving learners' results.

“On our part, we will be expanding on the already built 38 resource centres, which are resourced to give support to schools and progressively ensure each school has access to information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and other services. In this regard, we will also be ensuring all schools in the province are provided with a computer to enhance information management and administration.”

Cassel Mathale, premier of the Limpopo province, said ICT was key in the education sector and would improve the province's future skills base. He said four schools with computer centres had been opened so far and an additional eight are being constructed. He added that 3 200 public schools will be equipped with computers to train learners in computer literacy. IT connectivity to 30 circuit offices would be accelerated, ensuring 1 500 schools are provided with e-mail facility.

The implementation of technology in schools was also given a mention by Western Cape premier Helen Zille. While not going into any detail, she noted in her address that technology was a key part of ensuring curriculum delivery.

While all provinces mentioned the importance of monitoring performance, only one highlighted the role technology could play in this task. Zille noted that cases of corruption were rife and IT played an important role in combating this.

“We will overhaul management systems. We are already in the process of introducing a provincial version of the same IT-based dashboard management system that has proven to be such a valuable tool in the City of Cape Town. This will monitor the performance of each minister, department head and manager.”

Zille said the management system would provide high-level data to measure outputs against set targets and allow for accurate performance monitoring.

She also emphasised the acceleration of the Micro Economic Development Strategy, which identified ICT, business process outsourcing and call centres as key strategic growth areas in the province.

Rural development was also key for the Limpopo government and Mathale noted access to technology was critical in this area.

“An ideal rural community must have economic opportunities, it must have access to roads, access to water, electricity, ICT, community halls and sports facilities. It is a fact that many of our rural villages today do not have many of these amenities.”

Modiselle also noted that IT would be used to improve healthcare plans in the North-West and this would allow the government to reduce case loads and improve efficiency and accuracy.

Zille said some key priorities for the Western Cape provincial government included the improvement of library IT systems, especially increased Internet access to facilitate IT skills among young people.

The Eastern Cape and Northern Cape failed to mention any IT programmes or the role technology would play in creating jobs and improving service delivery. The Northern Cape, however, did mention one of its key science projects.

Northern Cape premier Hazel Jenkins emphasised the province's dedication to the completion of the Square Kilometre Array project. The premier said the project was still on track and formed part of the provincial government's medium term plans.

“The construction of the dish assembly shed and accommodation quarters has been completed, implying that the economic and infrastructure development activities in that identified part of our province is about to gain momentum and a media event is being planned in August 2009, regarding the erection of the first dish on site,” she said.

Related stories:
ICT gets minimum mention by Zuma
ICT drops off Gauteng radar