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For too long, government organisations have allowed service delivery to take a back seat, a challenge that was identified by SITA as the convenor of the recent GovTech 2025 conference, and brought to the forefront by them, as demonstrated by the event theme, ‘One Data, One Citizen, One Citizen Service Journey’.

Designed as a platform for private and public sector ICT entities to collaborate and promote innovation to address challenges in service delivery, this year’s event was unique in how it focused on shifting from policy discussions to delivering tangible digital outcomes. The goal is to prioritise delivering measurable impacts, rather than merely talking about the possibilities.

The need for job creation and economic development was highlighted by the promotion of the inclusion of youth and small businesses in future digital implementations. Another topic was the rising demand for AI and automation as a means to improve efficiency in service delivery.

In his opening address, KZN Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli noted the importance of recognising that the digital economy is a fundamental pillar of SA’s future prosperity.

“We must not treat the digital economy as a luxury or an afterthought, but, rather, as the answer to many of the challenges faced by our country. Knowledge and information are among the most powerful tools for transformation in their ability to reshape economies, deliver better governance and improve life for citizens,” he said.

“It’s imperative that we bridge the digital divide by democratising opportunities for innovation and expanding opportunities for learning, through ongoing investment in digital technologies and the knowledge economy that are broad-based and inclusive.” SITA Acting MD, Gopal Reddy, added that the key to economic growth lies in shifting to a “one service, one system, one citizen” delivery focus. Essentially, government needs to deliver transparent, ethical and citizen-centric services.

“To this end, SITA has two flagship projects underway. The first is focused on supply chain automation, which aims to limit delays created by outdated procurement policies, manual systems and a lack of skills and capacity. Furthermore, it will enable data-driven decisions and improve supplier engagements, building trust, improving efficiency and ensuring public resources are used responsibly,” he said. “The second is what we call a Citizen Super App, which will involve a single, secure platform that will enable citizens to access services, track requests, and engage with government departments via self-service tools and digital public infrastructure (DPI).” In her keynote, Microsoft Public Sector Director, Lerato Mathabatha, explained how critical it is for government to embrace AI and its transformative power.

“AI will enable government to move from being reactive to being predictive, allowing problems to be tackled before they become overwhelming. It will further enable the public sector to utilise innovation and transformation to drive inclusion and democratise access to technology, positioning citizens to become creators, rather than just consumers,” she suggested.

“AI has been projected to contribute massively to South Africa’s GDP – the industry should see the rise of around 300 startups and 5 000 AI professionals as the AI-driven economy grows. What’s critical here is ensuring that AI education reaches our youth and our rural communities.”

The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Blade Nzimande, agreed with the need to educate the youth around AI, pointing to how, in China, children as young as six are being taught AI fundamentals.

In the final keynote address, Communications Minister Solly Malatsi indicated that – as we plan a digital future – we need to remember that device affordability and the cost of connectivity places the digital realm out of reach for many in South Africa. “From a government perspective, we must make issues like compliance easier and less costly, so we reduce the red tape required for innovators to access markets, and we need to ensure that service delivery is made more efficient and cost-effective so that we can remove the barriers that impact citizens in terms of time and money, when it comes to dealing with public sector organisations.”

During the three-day event, much emphasis was placed on the importance of public-private partnerships (PPPs) as a means of overcoming SA’s many service delivery challenges.

Ziaad Suleman, CEO at Cassava Technologies, suggested that an effective PPP requires a partnership that is premised on trust. “We must build a bridge where the private sector comes up with models that support the public sector, and government, in turn, ensures we don’t waste resources on doubling up on infrastructure or technologies,” he said.

Peter Malebye, Managing Executive for Connected Products and Solutions Africa at Vodacom, agreed that success will be built on co-creation, as well as being willing to learn from what has already been done successfully in other markets.

Steven Chen, MD at Huawei Cloud South Africa, touted the value of AI within such partnerships, pointing to how China already provides AI access to rural villages, which enables them to get their homemade products out into the global market.

“We should seek to copy this model as a way to assist the growth and development of SA’s small local manufacturers and rural businesses,” he said.

Cybersecurity also took centre stage at GovTech 2025, with the recognition that as technology itself advances, so do the means for bad actors to find new ways to disrupt government operations. Department of Communications DG, Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyani, explained that while AI, cloud and data-driven approaches are unlocking innovation and efficiencies, they are also opening us up to cyber threats by expanding the overall attack surface.

“We need to embed cybersecurity in every layer of government’s digital transformation strategy. It cannot be an afterthought; it must be designed and baked into system from the outset. Our vision of a digital state must be grounded in cyber-resilience, because any security failures will significantly erode public trust in these government systems,” she said.

She added that because cybersecurity threats are borderless, it is vital for the private sector, government, academia and civil society to collaborate and share intelligence, in order to respond collectively to security challenges.

“Remember that trust is the currency of digital transformation, and citizens will only embrace this if they are confident that their rights are respected, their digital identities are secure and their privacy is protected.”

Kabelo Makwane, Google country MD, agrees that partnering with the private sector is key to creating robustness in government systems, explaining that a private partner can conduct penetration testing and undertake simulated brute force attacks, to help departments understand exactly where they need to tighten up security. “It’s crucial not to forget the citizen when it comes to security, so they must be educated around basic issues like password management, turning on privacy controls, and regularly updating their software.”

Similarly, Oripfa Sigidane, Head of Public Business at Mfundopedia, said any public sector digital transformation must be anchored on change management and skills development.

“We must also remember, when building a digital ecosystem for the citizen, that not every citizen is at a level where they can truly understand the intricacies of cybersecurity – so we need to ensure the ecosystem caters for these people too.”

It is also important to recognise that there exists a trust deficit between citizens and government, said Phila Ndarana, CTO at the Auditor General of SA, brought on by repeated service delivery failures, poor audit outcomes, and poor IT governance.

“This is exacerbated by inefficiencies in the system, high levels of corruption and cybersecurity challenges. The root causes of this are identified as weak governance, a lack of structured frameworks, too few critical skills, gaps in leadership, and poor accountability for delivery, risk and performance.”

Ultimately, the key to providing citizens with a voice, and creating a platform to genuinely enhance service delivery, lies in implementing effective Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), said Tarun Rao, Enterprise Account Leader for Google Cloud Sub-Saharan Africa. “There is no doubt that SA should be building a DPI, as this platform allows for lower cost delivery at a much faster pace – essentially acting as a force multiplier.

“The goal of a DPI is to enable access to a multitude of services through a single interface, in a simple, unified and accessible manner. This means that instead of building thousands of apps and e-services for each government department, we can create a wide range of use cases built on top of a common infrastructure.” This approach will offer fourfold benefits to the public sector.

Firstly, it will enrich government employee experiences, as the automation of daily tasks will allow them to focus on agency missions, while also enabling faster and more informed decision-making. “Secondly, it will reinvent citizen engagement by making access to government departments simpler, while also providing enhanced citizen services with 24/7 autonomous self-service portals. “It will also reshape government processes through AI-powered data management and collaboration, and it will help to bend the curve on innovation by unlocking agility, speed and scale,” he said. Christopher Geerdts MD at BMIT, said it’s crucial to move from the current fragmented systems, to a unified, resilient and trusted DPI, adding that there are many lessons SA can learn from other nations, in respect of how to achieve this.

“There are a number of nations doing good work in this arena already, including Estonia, which is well-known for its strength in e-government, and Denmark, which has adopted an integrated approach that even brings civil society into the mix.

“We can also learn from a wide range of varied implementations in countries as diverse as India, Brazil, Singapore, Kenya as well as Mauritius.”

To achieve a successful DPI implementation, said Geerdts, there are four critical lessons that need to be properly applied. The first is the need for political will, since – while technology is the tool – political leadership is the true engine of change.

“Lesson two is to start with the human aspects of an implementation, rather than the technology. In other words, look at what you want to deliver to citizens, and how you want to engage with them. “The last two lessons are that security (and privacy and interoperability) must be baked in, rather than bolted on. This means that security must be an inherent part of the design, while zero-trust should be the definitive security methodology. Lastly, it is imperative to embrace open standards and application programming interfaces (APIs), because interoperability will be impossible without a common language,” he concluded.

www.sita.co.za