MZUMBE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
PROGRAM: BSc. ICT-M 3
COURSE NAME: E- GOVERMENT
COURSE CODE: ICT 316
STUDENT’S NAME: REG. NUMBER
JOYCE LUCAS 13304006/T.15
DEOGRATIUS MAUFI 13304045/T.15
GEORGE KAPI 13304034/T.15
INNOCENT ANNASTAZI 13304037/T.15
CAROLINE MAPUNJO 13304041/T.15
ALICE MASELLE 13304008/T.15
ZUBERI, MAJIJA 13304020/T.15
TASK: GROUP ASSIGNMENT
Questions:
1. Identify any e-government evolution model; use it to discuss e-government stage of the South Africa.
2.Identify and discuss all e-government initiatives as discussed in the lecture.
3. Identify and discuss e-government policies and strategies as discussed in lecture.
4. Identify and discuss all e-government applications as discussed in the lecture. You can categorise them
5. Discuss all available e-government opportunities
6. Discuss all available supporting technologies, infrastructure
7. Discuss the current e-government challenges
8. Address all e-government security issues
-What are the security risks encountered in the given country
-Identify the common measures used by the country
9. Discuss lessons that can be learnt by our country (This means you must go through e-government
in Tanzania
BACKGROUND OF E-GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA AND IT’S MEANING

The e-government in South Africa has started as a result of internet to be introduced since the
1990s. Internet has a directly impacted on socio-economic and political environment in many
African countries. It enables the improvement of access within countries in which more people
can able to access to internet from individual machines, internet cafes or community center. The
internet having a serious impact on the adoption of e-government by many countries in Africa
includes South Africa.

There are various scholars whose defining e-government in different perspectives such as to
World Bank defined

E-Government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as

Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have ability to transform relations
with citizens, business, and other arms of government.

 According to Idea Group Inc. Global (IGI Global) defined

Is the use of or application of information technologies (such as Internet systems) to government

activities and processes in order to facilitate the flow of information from government to its
citizens, from citizens to government and within government.

E-GOVERNMENT MODEL WHICH USED TO IDENTIFY E-GOVERNMENT STAGE OF

THE SOUTH AFRICA

Although there is a number of maturity models have been proposed by various researchers to be
used as methodology approaches for e-government in any country. These researchers are United
Nation’s (2003) explained five stages of e-government maturity models, World Bank (2003)
explained three stages of e-government maturity models, Layne & Lee (2001) explained four
stages of e-government maturity models, and Gartner group (2000) explained four stages of e-
government maturity models. Almost all these maturity models suggested the integration of e-
government service at advanced stages of e-government development.

According to Gartner model the state of e-government in South Africa considered to be at

transaction stage. There are various factors which collectively contributing to such assessment
among of these factors are clear strategies to facilitate uptake and adoption of e-government
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services as well as evaluation frameworks to assess expectations of citizens who are one of the
primary user groups of these services. At this stage all complete transaction can be done without
going to an office.

 2.0 SERVICES OF E-GVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA.

The South Africa E-government vision sets out the priorities and key objectives ofgovernment in
terms of G2G, G2C, and G2B transactions. Co-ordination ofgovernment departments is
happening and enjoying ministerial support andparticipation. A number of projects in these fields
have been implemented and theneed for a monitoring and evaluation system has been identified.
Although there aresome shortfalls in certain areas, South Africa mostly has the required legal
frameworkand governance model, infrastructure, and human capital needed for e-government.

2 KEY SERVICES OF E-GORVERNMENT IN SOUTTH AFRICA.

1. GOVERNMENT TO CITIZEN SERVICES (G2C):

-All government to citizen information’sare available on line.

-All public department interaction forms.

-News.

-On line form for submission.

-All necessary transaction (payments).

-Revenue collection information, payment of utility bills.

-Citizen registration eg birth & marriage, ID card, Driving license.

2. GOVERNMENT TO GOVERNMENT SERVICES (G2G).

These are services which provided within the government itself for example central government
can provide an instruction to the local government which will be posted online. This means the
government organizations are coordinated in such a way that all government information can be
transferred online.

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-National treasure-IFMS(Integrated financial management system), A transversal integrated
financial management system

3. GOVERNMENT TO BUSINESS SERVICES (G2B)

There are various kind of services that provided either by government to business sectors or from
business sectors to government it depend with it are in which aspects. These services are;

-Procurement; Tendering,

-taxing,

-loaning,

-Guidelines for difference businesses,

For the South African government, the focus is on G2G (government-to-government), G2BC
(Government to Business & Citizen) and G2C (government-to-citizen) activities.
Improvedservice delivery is facilitated by building e-Government awareness, being a model user
in e-Government centers of excellence, working towards one government information
andcommunication channel (one portal, one call center, etc.) and above all providing expertiseon
e-services

Although the E-government vision is articulated in various policy documents there is no

common theme or consensus. Reference to corruption in thevision is notably absent. The general
principles of Bathos Pele are evident ingovernment’s strategies which is important in creating a
citizen centered service. Government has noted the absence of G2E (government to employee) in
itsstrategies and is addressing this issue realizing the crucial role employees play in theprocess.
On the technical front there are many challenges particularly with legacysystems, and the need to
implement transversal systems in order to achieve horizontalintegration required for cross-
departmental integration. Technological solutions can easily be found but government needs to
manage carefully its role with the privatesector in forming Public Private Partnership’s.However,
it is the human resource development issue within government that needs prioritization. The
education system needs to be aligned with the ICT demandsof the country and scarce ICT skills

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need to be attracted and retained particularlywithin government. All National and provincial
departments, HR, Supply chain and BI)

-Vulindlele- a financially informed management in government.

-Government wide collaboration (In process), etc.

3.0 E-Government opportunities in South Africa

1. Education and marketing: E-Government services are only useful if people know about
them. Education and outreach programs will be needed. For South Africa developing a
good website is not enough. Successful projects also will require good marketing to
encourage citizens to make use of them. People especially if they are unfamiliar with
technology may be reluctant to try e-government services out of distrust or belief that
online services will not meet their needs or due to lack of understanding of the
technology. South Africa come up with recommendations in education and marketing
which are Develop publicity and training campaigns that will engage the public about e-
government initiatives and conduct research to ensure that online services respond to
actual needs and that the implementation suits the target audience.

2. Infrastructure development: In South Africa while implementing e-government has

struggled to develop a basic infrastructure to take advantage of new technologies and
communication tools. Example Cell phone infrastructure has not yet been applied enough
in South Africa to provide e-government services, but hold great potential because of its
impact and high adoption rate among the country’s citizens about e-governance. South
Africa has over the last decade experienced growth in cellular phone industry following
the liberalization of various segments of the teleco4mmunications sector. Today, the
country has four mobile phone operators namely Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Virgin
Mobile and Heita which is part of Telkom. Some of the recommendations of
Infrastructure Development are Develop projects that are compatible with the nation’s
telecom infrastructure and consider the government’s current use of technology and learn
from past successes and failures.

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 3. Policy and Regulatory: The Commonwealth telecommunications Organizations notes that
a policy and regulatory framework is a necessary precondition for enhanced digital
inclusion in an information society. South Africa policy and regulatory efforts include the
freedom of information (FOI) policy, ICT policy, Universal service and Access Policy.
The FOI gives individuals the constitutional right to have access to information and
enable the sharing of information with the public and across government department.
Recommendations of Law and Regulatory in South Africa are consulting with
stakeholders to access how existing laws may impede the desired results, Give legal
status to online publication of government information and Clarify laws and regulations
to allow electronic filings with government agencies.

4. Permanent Availability and Preservation: In South Africa ICT not only allows for quick
and cheap dissemination of data, but also for its compact and convenient storage. Instead
of warehouses filled with paper documents that can take days to search through and
require an army of bureaucrats to keep track of governments can preserve and make
readily. Permanent Availability and Preservation Recommendations in South Africa are
Design applications according to need, Consider relevance, Usability, language
compatibility and affordability and Encourage cooperation between departments and with
the private sector in collecting, storing and utilizing data, but proceed continuously with
personally identifiable information.

5. Multi-purpose community centers (MPCC) and internet access. The opportunities of

multi-purpose community is they engender may include facilitating sharing of
information, offering a chance to reduce social isolation and marginalization experienced
by rural communities, providing a means of dialogue between rural communities and
decision making bodies enhancing literacy through distance education.

4.0 E-GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Since 2001 the government of South Africa established the Department of Public Service and
Administration (DPSA) which was responsible with the development of e-Government policies,
to integrate government services delivery to the citizen also the DPSA had commissioned a
lifting study in the South African public services. The objective of lifting was to describe the
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optimal process by which government can deliver services to citizens, according to critical life
cycle events, rather than as defined by government structures and system. There was various
initiatives have been undertaken by the South Africa government to adopt the e-Government
such as:

4.1 Johannesburg Metro

The Johannesburg Metro is the online website of the city of Johannesburg. It is a stage 2 e-
Government system providing information, allowing communication between the municipality
and the citizen as well as allowing transactionality where user can pay for service online.
Example of services that are paid through Johannesburg metro are Land valuation, Traffic fines,
Newsletters, information on hospitals public and private.

Residents of Johannesburg have a view of their standing with the municipality in terms of rates
and taxes which is useful. The user can also pay online so he doesn’t have to stand in queues in
order to pay his rates. The usefulness of Johannesburg Metro should motivate citizens to actually
use the services and possibly improve the regularity of their payments.

4.2 South African Revenue Services e-Filing

The South Africa revenue service (SARS) has put a system in place for tax payer to submit their
tax returns. Taxpayers register with service and capture their returns online, instead of using the
traditional paper format. This system displays the many benefits inherent in e-Government
systems. The time taken to process the information is much quicker than the traditional methods
which normally take months. The risk of losing the tax return and support documents in the
postal system is removed.

It must be remembered that the business process of the tax return was changed in order to
accommodate the online system. This initiative was the first time introduced for ordinary citizen
to use and has also allowed businesses to lodge their returns online. VAT submissions, Pay as
you earn (PAYE) submissions and other taxes can be done in this manner. Returns are processed
quickly because there is no transit time between taxpayer and the department.

There’s no need for manual filling of the documents on the SARIS side which makes the
administration and processing of the returns quicker and easier. It could be that people were

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forced to make their returns and avoid heavy penalties, hence the actual use of the system
increased.

4.3 Electronic National Traffic Information System (eNaTIS)

The South Africa government decides to develop eNaTIS as a replacement for the previous
NATIS system. The system manages functionality such as all vehicle, licensing, vehicle
registration, driving licenses, accident and infrastructure transactions. The NATIS was declined
due to various problems such as database server’s not being powerful enough to handle the
transaction. eNaTIS has since been optimized and is performing better than its launch it is after
the government of south Africa to specialize its functions and to be dealing with the issues which
related to traffic. The project’s initial launch was deemed a failure as the system was down for a
long time because of the concurrent load on it.

4.4 Cape Online strategy

This is the project which was called Cape Online strategies in the Western Cape Province of
South Africa is another initiative driven and citizen-focused e-government initiative that
launched in 2003. The vision of Cape Online is to deliver access to public services online
anytime, anywhere. The goal of Cape online is to improve the internal efficiency and a more
effective service by the Provincial Administration to the community. Cape Online focuses on
digital development. Digital delivery allows government to provide information and deliver
services more efficiently and effectively. Other goal of digital delivery is to make it easier for
businesses and individuals to deal with government.

POLICIES AND STRATEGIES OF E-GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

4.5 POLICIES

4.5.1 Minimum interoperability Standards (MIOS) for Information Systems in

Government..

The South African government SITA agency has published a policy called the minimum
interoperability standards (MIOS) for IS in South Africa. It defines the minimum standards that
an IT system in government systems must meet. The aim of this policy is to ensure

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interoperability between government systems is maintained. One of the proposed technologies in
the MIOS is Open source software (OSS), and this is briefly touched on.

4.5.2 Open Standards

Open standards are specified and maintained by world standards bodies. These standards usually
have market support so is little risk of the standard dying or being rarely used. They are also
widely available to the public and are widely implemented. The use of open standard safeguards
governments from being at the mercy of vendors. There is risk that a data format will not be
available should the supplying company become defunct. Also vendors would command
licensing prices which could be costly. Open standards also have the advantage that anybody can
access the committee documents, draft and completed standards free of charge or with a minimal
free. By being freely available, it will make the standards become widely used.

INFRASTRACTURE OF E-GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

Multi-purpose community center’s (MPCC) and internet access

The purpose of introducing is to provide different user groups within a community with a wide
range of services for education, business, health, weather, market prices, farm practices, sale of
farm inputs, and many more. This multipurpose community center perceived to be public place
where people can access computers, internet, and other digital technologies that enable them to
learn and communicate with others while they develop essential digital skills.

Cell phone infrastructure

According to the high adoption of the cell phone, today, the country has four mobile phone
operators, namely Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Virgin Mobile and Heita which is part of
Telkom. Some of the cellular phone providers are involved in promoting access to rural
communities. For example, Vodacom has deployed more than 90,000 community-service
telephones to South Africa’s under serviced areas, where they have become in valuable sources
of entrepreneurial activity for hundreds of community phone-shop operators.

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STRATEGIES OF E-GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

Regulatory framework

It is implemented through the Batho Pele principles framework which aims to create a customer
oriented mindset in the South African public service and to change the mindset of the
competitive commercial market, in which private companies cannot afford to ignore the needs
and wishes of their customers. This initiative is buttressed by the government communication
and information system which is a government information service that ensures the public is
informed of government’s implementation of its mandate through direct dialogue with people in
disadvantaged area.

ICT infrastructure

The government of South Africa use Ict infrastructure as among of the strategy which can enable
the development of e-government in the country. This started to be implemented since in the
2004, Government established the African Advanced Institute for ICT (Meraka) to focus on
research and applications. The main aim was to speed up communication and ict deployment
across the nine provinces and among traditional leadership areas. Government has also begun to
deploy wireless broadband to 500 Dinaledi schools, considered centers of excellence, and target
clinics, hospitals, libraries, multipurpose community centers and post offices to help increase the
uptake and usage of ICTs and help deliver inclusivity in building information society.

5.0 E-GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA.

The space of change and technological evolution has accelerated greatly over the last decade. It’s
not only remarkable how dramatically the technologies in everyday use has changed, but also
how easily society as a whole has adopted these innovations. However, ICT within a South
African context has found itself behind the curve both globally and compared to the rest of the
African continent. South Africa has lost its status as the continental leader in internet and
broadband connectivity. Pricing of services and equipment remains a significant barrier to the
expanded use of ICT.

5.1 Fixed broadband providers technology. The survey undertaken by mybroadband group in
2017 was shown that MetroFibre Network’s fiber service was rated as the best fixed broadband
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service in South Africa. The results show that fiber-to-the-home and fiber-to-the-business
connections received far higher ratings than ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscribers Line),
VDSL (Very high speed Digital Subscribers Line), services in which about 2,463 South African
subscribers reported. These users were typically IT professionals. The government decided to
build submarine communication cables which have fastest speed compared to wireless technique.

Therefore, Submarine communications cables are used to connect countries and continents to
the Internet, terrestrial fiber optic cables are used to extend this connectivity to landlocked
countries or urban centers within a country with submarine cable access. While in most of the
world a large number of such cables exist, often amounting to robust Internet backbones, the lack
of such high-speed cables poses a great problem for most African countries including South
Africa. These includes the followings

 Telkom. Telkom is the dominant operator and has the largest fibre network in South
Africa, covering approximately 143,000 km as per the 2011 annual report. The
company’s fiber network provides high-speed connectivity to users, while the
transmission network is used to enable national and international narrowband and
broadband connectivity between major regional centers. It operates both fixed line and
mobile communications services. Mobile phones were introduced to South African
Telecommunication markets in 1994. The market has been growing rapidly since then,
and it keeps developing constantly. The GSM network is available in 90% of the nation
territory. There are five service providers: Cell C (www.cellc.co.za),
Vodacom(www.vodacom.co.za), MTN South Africa (www.mtn.co.za), Virgin
Mobile(www.virginmobile.co.za), and 8ta(produced Heita, www.8ta.mobi).
E-government is evaluated through public participation. Access to public services is a
necessary part of e-government, but not sufficient.

 Broadband Infraco. Broadband Infraco maintains a national long distance fiber optic
network, providing high capacity telecommunication services between all major national
metropolitan centres and being expanded to enable connectivity to reach smaller cities
and rural areas.
 Government backbone network. FiberCo builds a National Optical Backbone in South
Africa that can cover the whole of South Africa and provide the convenient, high speed
network access. According to ZTE, the backbone transmission resources in South Africa
were previously monopolized by a large operator, which meant that fiber and bandwidth
rental free were expensive.
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 They planned to build a national open access optical network extending about 12,500 km
across South Africa. The project is expected to significantly communication tariffs and
drives the development of the telecom industry in South Africa.

FIBER NETWORK IN SOUTH AFRICA.

5.2
The
use
of

satellite technology.

5.2.1 The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) is South Africa's government
agency responsible for the promotion and development of aeronautics and aerospace space. In
1999, South Africa launched its first satellite, SUNSAT (Stellenbosch University SAtellite) from
Vandenberg Air Force Base in the US. A second satellite, SumbandilaSat also known as
ZASATO2, was launched from the BaikonurCosmodrome in Kazakhstan in 2009. This
technology emphasizes the wireless communication network all over the country. The benefits of
this technology are that, it use the microwave technique to transmit data through network. But in
case of speed, the satellite is moderate compared to other method like fixed wired technology
especially fiber optic cables. Therefore, SANSA supports the creation of an environment
conducive to the industrial development of space technologies within the framework of national
government.

6. ADVANTAGES OF E-GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA.

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 1. reduction of customers’ and organizations’ time, effort and costs
2. improvement of service delivery and citizens’ satisfaction
3. increase in users’ ICT skills, internet knowledge and computer usage
4. Creation of new business and work opportunities.
5. identified many advantages of e-government implementation such as:
improves efficiency of government agencies in processing of data
6. improves services through better understanding of users’ requirements, thus aiming
for seamless online services
7. shares information and ideas between all government agencies and department
to build one mega database
8. assists a government’s economic policy objectives by promoting productivity gains
Inherent in ICT and e-commerce
9. improving transparency, accuracy and facilitating information transforming between
government and customers
10. helps in building trust between governments and citizens, an essential factor in good
Governance by using internet-based strategies to involve citizens in the policy
11. Process, illustrating government transparency and accountability.

8.0 CHALLENGES

Although the E-government vision is articulated in various policy documents there is no

common theme or consensus. Reference to corruption in the vision is notably absent. The
general principles of Batho Pele are evident in government’s strategies which is
important in creating a citizen centered service. Government has noted the absence of
G2E (government to employee) in its strategies and is addressing this issue realizing the
crucial role employees play in the process. On the technical front there are many
challenges particularly with legacy systems, and the need to implement transversal
systems in order to achieve horizontal integration required for cross-departmental
integration. Technological solutions can easily be found but government needs to manage
carefully its role with the private sector in forming Public Private Partnerships. However,
it is the human resource development issue within government that needs prioritization.
The education system needs to be aligned with the ICT demands of the country and
scarce ICT skills need to be attracted and retained particularly within government.
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8.1 E-government security challenges/issues.

8.1.1 Technology related issues:

The adoption of technology brings with it various issues relating to the infrastructure,
Communication, access rights and abuse of privacy, data protection, digital Signatures, firewalls
and viruses. For instance, when existing IT infrastructure is not designed in a way it can perform
efficiently and effectively, this may impact on the control, quality and speed of information
access, and the availability of information. Attacks can easily occur due to the quality of
infrastructure in place (e.g. type of Hardware and software used). Also Social-media can enable
learning and sharing of Knowledge but often leads to abuse of privacy and data. Example. In a
study that examined usage of internet at provincial and Local level in South Africa, Meyer
(2007) found that most users were unhappy with the use of the internet to seek services.
Frustration and lack of interest in the systems could result in lack of attention to security, data
capturing errors and potential abuse of systems.

8.1.2 Measures used by the country to ensure security:

The following are the security mechanisms that a country can use to ensure security in e-
government.

 Cryptography:this is the mechanism that can ensure security.it is a method of storing

and transmitting data in a particular form so that only those for whom it is intended can
read and process it.

One of the methods of cryptography is encryption. Encryption is the process of encoding a

message or information in such a way that only authorized parties can access it and those
who are not authorized cannot. 

 Firewall: is a network security system that monitors and controls incoming and

outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. A firewall typically
establishes a barrier between a trusted internal network and untrusted external network,
such as the Internet.
 System design and configuration principles (e.g., hardware, software, and data
backups),
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  Policy and procedural measures (e.g., planning, testing, certification,
monitoring/auditing).

9.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
South Africa has advanced in several ways which a country like Tanzania should adopt the
several advancements such as: The most important lessons that our country should learn is that in
South Africa there is
A presence of a coherent e-government policy
where by the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 enables the constitutional right of
access to information. This entitles any individual to request information from a public or private
body and the request of this information helps to enhance e government in South Africa
something that a country like Tanzania should also adopt so as people can also have access to
request information from a private or public body. And the issue of
Transparency, anti-corruption and accountability

The country like South Africa has initiated a government website to provide the different basic
services to her business organizations and citizens such as news, tax payer registration, residence
permit and so on (Republic of south Africa website) in order to increases the transparency
between the citizens and government. This is something that our country must adopt and learn
because we do not have a well-defined government website to provide different basic services to
our business organizations and citizens.

REFERENCES.

1. Farelo, M and Morris, C. (2006).The Status of E-government in South Africa.ISTAfrica

Conference, Pretoria, South Africa, 7-9 May 2006, pp 12. Retrieved April 14,2010,

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2. South African Government, Overview on Government’s Programme of Action. South
Africa Yearbook (2002), Available online at:
http://www.gov.za/yearbook/2002/overview.htm

3. DPSA, E-Government Policy. Second Draft, Version 4.13 (2001), Available online at:
http://www.gov.za/documents/index.html

4. DPSA, Bathos Pele Frequently Asked Questions, Available online at:

http://www.dpsa.gov.za/projects/batho-pele/faqs.htm
5. Wastell, D.G.: Organizational Discourse as a Social Defense: Taming the Tiger of
Electronic Government. In: Global and Organizational Discourse about IT Working
Conference Proceedings, Barcelona, Spain, pp. 181–194. Kluwer Academic Publishers,
Dordrecht (2002)Google Scholar
6. The Working Group on E-Government in the Developing World, Roadmap for
Egovernment in the Developing World (2002), Available online at:
http://www.gov.za/reports/2002/e-govfinal.pdf
7. Idea Group Inc Global available online at:https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/e-
government/8704
8. http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/ict/brief/e-government
9. http://www.justlanded.com/southafricanguard/Telephone&internet.bg
10. http://www.toughtleader.co.za , http://www.Mybroadband.co.za

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