SITA also says it will extend its working relationship with Belgian inter-municipal ICT group CIPAL – the Centre of Informatics in the Province of Anwerpen and Limburg. Following a “successful working relationship” with the publicly owned ICT company, SITA hopes that its ICT solutions for municipalities will help improve service delivery.

The initial contract with the inter-municipal ICT centre, which was due to expire in November 2013, will be extended to 2015 and will be automatically renewed for successive one year terms, with the multi-million rand partnership ultimately aiming to improve the implementation of financial management systems for municipalities in an effort to enhance service delivery through effective management of costs. The project also aims to help municipalities comply with the regulations contained in the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA).

The relationship between the two agencies began in 2002 when SITA entered into a partnership with CIPAL for the Thabo Mofutsanyane district municipality Financial System project – which saw it implement the Hercules Financial Management System. This agreement is still in place and the system is maintained by the agency through a Service Level Agreement with the municipality.

According to the agency, the SITA Library Information Management System (SLIMS) will replace an existing legacy library system that has been in operation for almost 18 years. During November 2011 to November 2013, SLIMSwill be also implemented in additional provinces and metro’s as well as other government departments and public entities.


M-GOVERNMENT

The current m-government landscape is one of isolated pilot projects and a handful of implementations. However, there is increasing interest and acknowledgement that m-government has potential value at a local level. Due to the existence of a number of enabling factors, South Africa is well positioned to be a pioneer in m-government, particularly with respect to applications and solutions that address the specific challenges faced by developing countries.

At the technology level, South Africa enjoys a number of advantages that facilitate commercial and government applications that use mobile technology. This includes the adoption of the GSM standard by all four mobile network operators and extensive cellphone coverage. Furthermore, South Africa enjoys a fair degree of competition and innovation at the network level, with the three existing mobile network operators having recently been joined by a fourth licencee, Telkom’s 8ta.

From basic voice communications using mobile phones through to mass communication of text messages to individuals’ phones or e-mail to their computers, communications has already been revolutionised by mobile and wireless technology. The challenge now is to identify the applications that will harness this revolution, using forms of personal communications to enhance the functioning of government departments and agencies. In the field of health, for example, experimental and practical uses have already proved the benefits of using SMS for health alerts, advising of pathology results, and providing reminders for taking lifesaving medicine.

Generic applications, such as informing people of the availability of documents via SMS, and then supplying requested documents via e-mail, are already in extensive use, but not on an institutional or strategic level. In most cases, the business case does not have to be proven – it becomes merely a case of using technology that is already rolled out, and simply taking advantage of underlying functionality.

The key to the usefulness of mobile and wireless technology lies in the quality of information that will be generated and accessed through the connectivity options made available. This quality will in turn depend on how well the applications that rely on connectivity have been integrated into back-end systems, and how user-friendly they have been made for the end-user, whether in government or members of the public. The better the applications can be used to access, input and manipulate data, the greater will be their efficiency, and hence the benefits they are likely to provide. This includes accessing information from back-end databases, inputting information into systems, either as part of a workflow process or simply data capture, and extracting data for wider distribution.

However, there remain issues that will have a major impact on the rollout of any m-government solutions in the country. Key among these are the fact that mobile phones have limitations in respect of the number of characters that can be delivered in a single SMS message (160), not to mention screen size, as well as their potential to integrate with, and complement computer-based initiatives – such as XML, text to request e-mail or post. Also, there is the issue of user validation, since a high percentage of the market is pre-paid.


KEY MUNICIPALITIES

STRATEGIC THINKING IN ETHEKWINI The eThekwini municipality understands that the direct impact of broadband access will be the improvement of governance between the municipality, its ratepayers, residents and utility consumers. Ultimately, the objectives are to progress to a level of e-government that allows for: • Government to business e-services and e-procurement; • Government to government e-information and e-collaboration; • Government to community e-information and e-services; • Government to citizen’s e-information, e-communication and e-services.

ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY

The eThekwini Municipality is aiming to build on the development momentum from the FIFA 2010 World Cup by continuing with major infrastructure layouts. With this in mind, it recently issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) in order to assist in the selection of a suitable service provider who will provide services for the design, project management, supply and installation of  fibre-optic cabling to meet the various needs of the municipality and its citizens.

Already, eThekwini has over 600km of single mode  bre deployed. The fibre runs extend as far as Winklespruit in the south, Tongaat in the north and Hillcrest in the west. There is an extensive web of  fibre within the city centre and adjacent business suburbs on the north, south and western parts of the municipality. Fibre also extends into the townships of Umlazi, KwaMashu, Chatsworth, Phoenix, Clermont and Wentworth. In addition, there are over 130 eThekwini Municipal sites that are connected to this fibre-optic cabling network include radio towers, CCTV cameras and monitoring systems. Also connected are shopping centres in various areas and there are numerous last-mile fibre cables between the above sites and the subscribers of Internet service providers.

The Municipality views the investment in the communications infrastructure as key to enhancing service delivery, access and dissemination of information, and provisioning of e-Government services within its municipal boundary. This network services the needs of the Municipality and all excess capacity is wholesaled to the service provider community. As demand for the network grows, it is necessary for the Municipality to install more fibre-optic cabling to support this growth and to expand its reach to the furthest ends of the Municipal boundary.

This strategy and continuous expansion is part of the eThekwini Municipality’s objective of becoming a Smart City. It recognises the value of the knowledge economy and therefore says it intends to harness the power of connectivity to simplify, amplify and extend services from government to improve the lives of all citizens in eThekwini Municipality. As part of its drive towards Smart City status, it plans to utilise access to broadband Internet for the provisioning of public e-government services such as e-health, e-administration, e-procurement and e-learning.

TSHWANE E-HEALTH LIVING LAB The Tshwane e-Health Living Lab (TeLL) is an initiative within the City of Tshwane to create a Living Lab environment where health service and solution providers can engage directly with primary health care clinics, health providers and related stakeholders. The primary purpose is pursuing user-driven innovation within the health sector. The TeLL objective is to establish an environment within the Tshwane Health and Social Care ecosystem within which third party service and solution providers can work hand-in-hand with the respective stakeholders to align and validate proposed o erings to make Tshwane a Smart City. The ultimate goal is an effective integrated e-health system, which can help reduce operational ine ciencies, deliver cost savings and enable health and social care providers to enhance the ways in which they deliver care.

TSHWANE MUNICIPALITY

The ambition of progressively transforming the City of Tshwane into a pioneer municipality and smart city remains  rmly on the radar. Executive mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa says that there has been progress in this regard, which includes the provision of Wi-Fi facilities at public places such as the Es’kia Mphahlele, Saulsville and Atteridgeville libraries. Although progress is notable, it is slow.

Therefore, the city hopes to partner with a leading information technology partner in the coming  financial year to realise its goal of increasing the pace of progress. The provision of e-billing via cellphone with an initial uptake of 50% of account holders in the next three years and the roll-out of automated meter reading for 50% of households in the next five years will also be accelerated.

In its drive towards Smart City status, Tshwane has also received an IBM Smarter Cities challenge grant which gives the city access to IBM’s top experts. The city was selected because of its commitment to the use of data to make better decisions, and for its desire to explore and act on smarter solutions to their most pressing concerns. The cities picked by IBM were done so based on their eagerness to implement programmes that tangibly improve the quality of life in their areas, and to create roadmaps for other cities to follow.

During the engagements between the city and the IBM technical experts, the researchers and consultants immerse themselves in local issues and offer a range of options and recommended next-steps. Among the issues they examine are healthcare, education, safety, social services, transportation, communications, sustainability, budget management, energy, and utilities. Consultants and technology specialists from the company will also assist the municipality to analyse and prioritise its needs, review strengths and weaknesses and learn from the successful strategies used by other cities worldwide.

After studying the role that intelligent technology might play in uniting and advancing different aspects of city life, IBM then outlines a range of concrete strategies designed to help make cities healthier, safer, smarter, more prosperous, and attractive to current and prospective residents and businesses.

A key focus in Tshwane will be on collecting, sharing, analysing and acting on data generated by urban interactions and transactions – such as school test scores, smartphone adoption, crime statistics, foot and vehicle traffic, to tax revenue and library usage – to develop innovative and cost effective strategies to address persistent challenges.


EKURHULENI MUNICIPALITY

In his State of the City address this year, Ekurhuleni mayor Mondli Gungubele said that in its efforts to ensure citizens’ access to ICT services, the city has successfully connected 51 Internet kiosks at libraries, digital villages and Multi Purpose Community Centres (MPCCs) with a total number of 204 access terminals. The city also provided free Internet access to students and citizens, including through free e-mail access and electronic collaboration to 4 600 students.

USING MOBILE MEANS Ekurhuleni municipality residents will be able to buy pre-paid electricity using their cellphones, ATMs or the Internet, thanks to an initiative by the municipality. The additional portal, for buying electricity, follows the appointment of four new service providers, namely Easy Pay, Dajo Technologies, Expertron and Cigicell via private vendors across Ekurhuleni. Easy Pay will provide Internet based vending, while cellular vending will also be made available. Municipal spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said that with such convenient alternative methods that the municipality is giving to residents, it is confident the challenges around the issue of accessibility are now history and it can focus on the reliability of electricity infrastructure itself.

Gungubele says that future plans include extending the same free e-mail service to Grade 12 learners in Ekurhuleni schools.

In the medium to long term, the city intends to create jobs for young people through the rolling-out of its digital city strategy. This strategy is intended to attract and grow the ICT industries, call centres and other telecommunications industries. It is estimated that through this intervention more than 10000 jobs will be created in this regard.

On skills development, Ekurhuleni will, in the short to medium term, partner with the FET colleges and other relevant institutions to provide young people with training opportunities so as to enhance their skills and prepare them for the workplace. These skills development initiatives will – amongst others – seek to support the rolling out of the digital city strategy, so as to make sure that the city’s young people will benefit from these initiatives. The skills areas that will be targeted will be in ICT, engineering, telecommunications, transportation and logistics as well as tourism.

For the next five years, continues Gungubele, Ekurhuleni plans to optimise the existence of the airport in its space together with other key development nodes. This will be coupled by the optimisation of the broadband ICT infrastructure to realise the vision of the Digital City and to reposition the metro as a visionary smart city that is globally competitive.


CITY OF CAPE TOWN

At the end of 2010, the city of Cape Town awarded a R54 million tender to Dimension Data to design, build, implement and operate a metro area network (MAN) over the new fibre optic cables that have been laid. Leon van Wyk, department head of telecommunications for the City of Cape Town pointed out that cities are used to investing in roads and other kinds of infrastructure, especially when they want to encourage development in poorer communities. These days, telecommunications is no different.

The tender is to build a MAN on the active layer of the  fibre optic network that the city has been building for the past four years. The project was first proposed in 2006, it received council approval in October 2008 and the first contracts were issued in April 2009.

Phase one of the project, which could total around R400 million, involves the connecting up of 54 of the City of Cape Town’s main buildings and properties by  fibre optic cables. So far, this has entailed the laying of 2900km of cable, the installation of fi ve switching centres and manholes and other infrastructure.

Further phases will include the expansion of the network to connect all 600 buildings and properties of the municipality with the ultimate goal of making Cape Town Africa’s  first broadband-connected city.

The primary objective for Cape Town’s roll-out of broadband infrastructure is to cut its telecommunications costs, as the city has an annual phone bill of more than R110 million. The second objective is to run a more efficient and effective municipal service, while the third objective is to resell spare capacity to commercial or appropriately-licensed private operators to generate income for the city and to minimise the disruption caused by trenching by other operators to lay cable.

“We are willing to resell  fibre optic cable to private operators, but we have also installed a broadband infrastructure and maintenance system that allows us to predict possible cable problems and then re-route data before the users are even aware there is a problem,” Van Wyk says.

Alderman Belinda Walker, mayoral committee member for Corporate Services and Human Resources, said the infrastructure is of carrier-class standard and will make Cape Town one of the most wired cities in Africa.

ON THE FRINGE The design and informatics hub planned for the area in Cape Town City Centre will now be known as The Fringe, Cape Town’s Innovation District. The vision behind this project has been to create the premier African environment for design, media and ICT innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. The project is heavily supported by the Provincial Government of the Western Cape’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism through its Cape Catalyst Initiative. The department has recognised the importance of various creative industries in growing the provincial economy through relevant infrastructure. The project is also supported by a number of departments in the City of Cape Town, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s Faculty of Informatics and Design (CPUT’s FID) and other civil society bodies. The Fringe is based on an urban ‘science park’ model. A science park is defined by the International Association of Science Parks as an organisation managed by specialised professionals, whose main aim is to increase the wealth of its community by promoting the culture of innovation and the competitiveness of its associated businesses and knowledge-based institutions.

“This will have a major impact on the growth and employment potential of the local economy. Internationally, municipal investment in  fibre cables is recognised as the best way to spread high speed telecommunications as it provides a common infrastructure that any licensed company can use,” she said. A further advantage is that the project will reduce the amount of trenching that would otherwise have happened in the Cape Town area. The next step in the larger broadband infrastructure project will be to complete the Southern route, which will include Plumstead and Claremont. This was part of the original Phase One that was approved by Council  in October 2008, However this was excluded from Phase One due to budget constraints. The next step is to obtain funding for the Southern route and then subsequently to seek Council approval for Phase Two.

In the long term the City says it plans to extend the  bre network as far as Atlantis, Somerset West and Simon’s Town. The intention it says is also to benefit previously disadvantaged areas such as, Khayelitsha, Athlone and Mitchells Plain with the Metro Area Network. However the areas to be included in the network in the long term have not been decided upon yet. Switching centres will be built as and where required to provide an effective and sustainable Metro Area Network.


THE LONG ROAD AHEAD

While there can be little doubt that technology provides an opportunity to fundamentally change the way government interacts with citizens and the business community, local government in particular needs to focus on four core issues if e-government initiatives are to succeed.

Government needs to:
• Place the citizen at the centre of everything;
• Place the needs and priorities of citizens at the forefront;
• Offer choice of services to meet individual needs and circumstances;
• Offer multiple channels to allow the choice for the effective use of the right channel.

Although efforts have been made towards implementing e-government in SA, progress has been very slow due to the numerous challenges faced. As a result SA largely remains in the first stage of e-government maturity, although certain initiatives are at stage two.

According to Gartner’s Four Phase e-Government Maturity Model, the evolution of the successful implementation of e-government attempts can be measured through various stages:
Stage 1 – Static Information
Stage 2 – Interactive content
Stage 3 – Transactional content
Stage 4 - Integration Transformation

SA therefore needs to move more quickly out of stage one and into stage two and onwards if it is to achieve its service delivery goals. To do so, it is imperative that government does not confuse social mandate with profit motive. It needs to prioritise projects according to citizen and business needs and pains.

Furthermore, it must make use of technology that citizens are comfortable with to improve uptake (such as m-government), a legal framework development needs to be prioritised and most importantly, it must be understood that e-government frameworks and methodologies need to be customised to the local context – there is no one-size  fits all solution.