Sponsored: Better together
The country’s challenges cannot be solved by the government alone; it’s going to take a partnership with the private sector.
01 February 2024
Jan Bouwer, chief solutions officer, BCX, says there’s so much that the private sector can bring to the government, and public-private partnerships (PPP) have proved to be an effective way of partnering with the public sector, pointing to the well-maintained N1 and N4 toll roads managed by Bakwena. But, he adds, these PPPs have been on the “backburner” for the last couple of years.
Still, “Look at how we’re working together to fix the energy crisis; all of us are investing in alternative energy sources, and that’s helping Eskom.” Another example is Acsa working with Home Affairs at the country’s airports.
“If you go back to 2010 and the Rugby World Cup, SARS was involved with Home Affairs in sorting out the visa control system, and the passport and the ID application process. We could fast track the process so that we could make it happen for 2010. Let’s work together. We’ve seen how the Boks worked together and we need to do the same as industry players and leaders in enterprise and the public sector.”
At the time this roundtable was held, Bongani Mabaso was still Sita CEO, and Bouwer made mention that Mabaso had sought to partner with the private sector on its cloud journey. Mabaso resigned in early December 2023, eight months after taking the job. Mthoko Mncwabe, CIO, ACSA, says large, state-owned enterprises are spending 60% to 70% of their budgets offshore.
“The government is trying to create jobs here, but I’m creating them somewhere else; it’s the opposite of what the government is trying to do. We need to find things that can be done here,“ he says, adding that ACSA is partnering with our local supply chain management companies. “We want to see a bigger BCX and EOH, another Gijima. There’s so much growth in technology on the continent.” Mothibi Ramusi, CIO, National Lotteries Commission, says he also wants to implement practical collaboration projects, and not just engage in “talkshops”.
“We need to engage the private sector and see how we can identify areas of improvement in the public sector. We need to find better ways of delivering more sustainable solutions, but cost is an issue.”
Stanley Mpofu, CIO, Wits, says he’s established an intern programme that has produced about 150 developers in the last five years. In the last two years, the programme has specifically looked for people with disabilities.
“We’ve created opportunities, which I think subscribes to the government’s agenda of developing young people and addressing issues of inequality and poverty.” He adds that most of the interns come from outside the university.
Mpofu confesses that he’s found it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to work with government. “I’ve tried to work with e-gov and CoJ, and all you have are meetings and meetings that produce nothing.”
Cloud academy
Bouwer, from BCX, says it had recently done some restructuring, and established “delivery centres” in the company, much like Deloitte has done locally.
“They went out and got about 60 graduates from unknown universities, and gave them a two-year contract, and taught them basic business environment skills. I’ve engaged with them, and it’s amazing how well they’re doing. They put them through various cloud certification courses, and as young people, they absorb everything.”
BCX is in partnership with Alibaba, which includes establishing a local cloud academy. “We’re going to train up students at Wits in the school of computer science, and we’ll take the best 10 every year into BCX. We’ll get that ‘pyramid’ and refresh from the bottom.”
Faith Burn, Group CIO, Eskom, says SOEs run a bit differently to government departments, but when an SOE gets funding from Treasury, it comes with a set of requirements, and then it’s bound to ensure that it satisfies those conditions.
“It’s still up to the organisation to have robust, collaborative and productive conversations with Treasury. When you have a conversation with Treasury and you have the right people in the room, they actually do listen,” she says.