The Gauteng provincial government’s (GPG’s) plans to transform South Africa’s most populous province into an integrated city region were gaining traction, with the GPG on Thursday outlining its plans to implement the approved e-government strategy over the next five years.

GPG information and communication technology (ICT) deputy director-general Emmanuel Phasha said on Thursday that the staggered implementation of the Gauteng City Region (GCR) e-Government Strategy 2015-2020 would be based on 18 initiatives across five pillars aimed at bolstering the modernisation portion of the province’s Transformation, Modernisation and Reindustrialisation strategy.

Highlighting the key strategies to be rolled out, starting this year, during a briefing on the GPG’s e-governance ambitions, he explained that the approach supported modernising public services through the deployment of the broadband network; the transformation of the back office functions within the GCR; increasing access channels for public services; eliminating duplication; and ensuring interoperability between systems.

The five pillars, namely building an enabling ICT infrastructure; developing an enabling platform and support services for designing and developing e-government services; establishing an e-governance structure; promoting the use of e-government services by citizens; and the stimulation of the ICT economy, would lead to connectedness among government entities, citizens and businesses, increase collaboration and make it easier and more efficient to interact with government.

While notable progress had been made in implementing similar e-government services over the past few years, the uncoordinated approach had led to fractured levels of ICT maturity within the province – a challenge that the e-governance strategy aimed to correct over the next five years.

Gauteng was aiming to reach the United Nations’ Maturity Level four, the ‘Connected Presence’, which represented a fundamental shift in the operations of a government, with better coherence, integration and coordination of processes and systems within and across government agencies.

Currently, Gauteng’s various service channels could be characterized as level two ‘Enhanced Presence’, which offered greater sources of information and e-tools and e-services than level one, which provided just basic information online.

The level three ‘Transactional Presence’ would result in two-way interactive applications providing citizens with opportunities for online, financial and nonfinancial transactions.

Further, municipalities and government departments operated in silos, with a lack of simplicity, no citizen participation, a lack of transparency, cost inefficiencies and inconsistent access to information, which the GPG had hoped to eliminate through the establishment of e-governance.

Outlining the five pillars key to achieving this, Phasha noted that the province would make the currently-being-deployed ICT infrastructure available for government entities, businesses and citizens within the GCR to access e-governance services, while enhancing and increasing citizen access channels through Thusong centres and kiosks, besides others.

The programme would also see the development of a common technology platform and related support capability to enable GCR entities to design, develop and deliver e-governance services and the identification and implementation of common e-governance projects.

The soon-to-be-established GCR e-governance structure would drive priorities, policies, standards, guidelines and regulations supporting the implementation of the governance model and the subsequent compliance by GCR entities, private partners and suppliers, while defining the key performance indicators to monitor and evaluate the success of the e-governance programme.

To promote the use of e-governance services, trusted relationships would be built by creating awareness, providing education and effectively delivering services through the programme, as well as offering incentive programmes to encourage adoption of e-governance services.

To stimulate the ICT economy, the GPG would facilitate incubation and innovation of entrepreneurial projects and encourage public–private partnerships for the development and roll-out of e-governance services.