Accenture's fifth annual global e-government study

South Africa
2004 Rank: 22
2003 Rank: 22
2002 Rank: 22
Vision introduced: 2001
Vision title:
Electronic Government—
The Digital Future:
A Public Service IT
Policy Framework
Vision summary:
To leverage eGovernment to structure and render
services around life episodes of the South African
people, following a series of events, from cradle to
grave. Such services must be accessible to all citizens
anytime, anywhere, and through different
access devices and media.
Regular Internet users (percent of population):
8.60 percent
South Africa
South Africa remained in 22nd place this year, having
made little improvement in any of the categories of
eGovernment maturity. Overall, its maturity improved
by a modest 5 percent, with its greatest improvement
coming in the area of customer relationship
management (9 percent improvement). Its service
depth score, in contrast, improved by only 2 percent.
Under the current vision and action plan, the
eGovernment strategy is set to be implemented in
six phases over a 10-year horizon. The government
considers the first two phases to be complete. A
new version of South Africa’s eGovernment vision is
due shortly, which is expected to involve the establishment
of a single point of access to government
services any time, any place and by any means.
However, there have been no indications that there
will be any changes in the action plan as already
outlined in the horizon plan.
While the South African government currently does
have a central government website, www.gov.za, it is
not a portal in the true sense. The top priorities for
2004 will be to launch a new, true eGovernment
portal and to reorganize service delivery in government
into “one-stop shops” that will build off this
new portal. The new portal, called the eGovernment
Gateway, is expected to be launched in March 2004
with government-wide information and some transactional
capability.
As the new government portal gains traction, there
should be coinciding new methods of evaluating
progress. The current basis for determining the value
of any eGovernment project focuses on whether the
project will increase productivity, lower costs and/or
improve citizen convenience. These principles will
still apply, but the South African government will
look to put in place more tangible measures after
the new portal is launched. Individual government
agencies are already using more complex methods
of performance measurement. The South African
Revenue Service (under the Department of Finance),
for example, is actively tracking hits on its online
tax site (www.efiling.gov.za) and the monetary value
of taxes paid, as well as the number of returns
processed electronically.
To develop its eGovernment program, the government
has expressed an interest in partnering with
the private sector.
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