"We have skills that are on par with any nation you can name."

SA and the digital divide

When it comes to the digital divide, the South African IT industry is gripped by a dangerous myth, largely of its own making, but also perpetuated by government practices. The myth is simple, familiar: South African IT, software in particular, is inferior to the rest of the world and we are in thrall of our first world cousins, particularly America.

The myth also states that SA`s legal system cannot be trusted, that Africa cannot produce good technology and that black empowerment is achieved by handing out parcels of shares to already-wealthy members of the elite.

The myth is dangerous, damaging and holding us back as a nation. Let me start at the top of the list. Travel to any IT industry trade show, anywhere in the world. Look around you. Then think about what is meant by the phrase "digital divide". If you accept that it involves the ability to implement network solutions, to develop and support hardware and software, then it`s clear that SA is just as capable as any of our competitors. We have skills that are on par with any nation you can name.

In fact, there are many areas in which we are better. If you work in IT in the US, the market is so large that you will have to specialise in a niche. South Africans, because of the size of our market, tend not to do that, which gives us a breadth of expertise and experience that foreign customers value.

More important is that we produce lean software. Our competitors operate in environments that are highly advanced and abundantly endowed. While we are by no means backward, our infrastructure is, to a degree, more limited. Therefore, we have become very skilled at developing software that is not only highly effective, but also more elegant and less consuming of valuable space.

Developers around the world are also starting to realise that because an application is stamped "Made in the USA", it is not necessarily the very best or most cost-effective solution. India is a case in point and so, too, is the Philippines. A great deal of good work is being done in both countries, very cost-effectively, and the rest of the world is taking notice.

Here again, SA has a major advantage: we have a relatively weak rand, which enables us to be just as cost-effective, we also have a similar skills set, but we speak English. My own company has had experience of trying to do business with a partner in the Philippines, but we needed a translator at almost every step.

So here we sit with this extraordinary set of advantages: the ability to undertake work in SA that is of very high value, but at a very low cost. Yet we fail to capitalise. Why?

A major part of the answer lies at the feet of government. First of all, government also buys into the received wisdom that if it is American, or even some other form of "foreign", it has to be better. A case in point was the recent decision by the Cape Town Unicity to award a tender for billing to the German company, SAP. SAP is a fine company, but there are several South African equivalents. One billing system looks much like another at the end of the day. In the decision to award the contract to an offshore company, where was either the incentive to develop local products or to retain the cash flows in this country?

In this respect, the current structure of the government tender system is deeply flawed. It also perpetuates the myth that somehow, local is not lekker.

One of the biggest problems facing SA`s IT sector is the lack of programming skills among young black people. There are a few, but through scarcity, they have become notoriously expensive. Many have been promoted to a level where they now grace the board. They are not programming.

But when we tender, we are awarded very, very few points for the fact that we are a South African company and training black programmers. Instead, maximum points are scored for the structure of our board and for black shareholding, so-called black economic empowerment. This has nothing to do with developing our industry, nor with training and shaping a career path for black youngsters. It has everything to do with shifting wealth from one set of rich hands to another.

Surely, if government is serious about empowerment it needs to change these parameters?

A further serious concern is the lack of attention being paid by government to carrying the "high value, high quality, low cost" message abroad. Our tourism sector has seen this gap and gone for it, full tilt. Government has taken a very high profile player, Cheryl Carolus, and given her the task of spreading the word about the country`s benefits. Even with a limited budget, it is working.

So where is the same high-profile player spreading the same word about the opportunities presented by our industries, particularly IT?

SA has a very-well recognised set of tourism benefits, yet when you offer foreign companies South African software, at first they refuse to believe it could have been "developed in Africa". Their next response is to demand that all contracts be written with their own jurisdictions in mind, because "SA is a banana republic" and nothing could possibly be legally enforceable there. Our government needs to go on a major charm offensive to persuade potential customers otherwise - and, by the way, that`s why our response to situations like Zimbabwe is so damaging: it undermines perceptions of our own rule of law.

All of us need to recognise that the digital divide exists nowhere but in our own minds. That includes the white businessmen who salt their money away offshore and talk the country down. I hear them so often asking why the rand is taking strain, but have they ever stopped to look at their own behaviour?

All of us, IT companies, business men and women, government at all levels and even the media, need to change our behaviour with regard to the digital divide. There is no need for it to exist; in fact, with the "low cost, high quality" aspect, it even presents a remarkable opportunity. I stress the word "behaviour". After all, psychologists have known for over a hundred years that if you change behaviour, a change of mind will follow, and in my view, that is the only way to close SA`s digital divide.