Thrown into the mix were the findings of the CIO Report 2024, which uncovered five common CIO pain points, which will extend into 2025: AI strategy; data and analytics strategy; new security threats; demonstrating IT’s value; and skills retention strategy.

Other CIO concerns mentioned were cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud computing, and risks of business disruptions. There was also discussion about the CIO priorities for this year and the evolution of the CIO’s role over the next five years. “Organisations want to transform and expand their technological base, but have limited budgets. CIOs should collaborate in order to use budgets to best effect,” said Boitumelo Sathekge, general manager: Enterprise technology and PMO, Transnet. “A big pain point is around cloud,” said Nedbank’s executive: GenAI, Asokan Moodley. “Cloud is not as cheap as we make it seem and the challenge is what to lift and shift and what to keep on-prem. Technology is changing so rapidly that skills development and retention of skills are further concerns.”

“The biggest challenge for the public sector is the high rigidity of legislation and policies,” said Jabu Hlatshwayo, DDG-CIO, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. “It’s important that the private sector assists the public sector with its challenges; help us be more nimble and agile when it comes to ICT. The effectiveness of private ICT agencies impacts the ability of the public sector and organs of state to operate properly.”

According to Lungile Mginqi, Sasol’s Group CIO, as organisations continue to introduce innovation, this requires the CIO to be involved in business enablement, business models and a level of expertise that surrounds both business and ICT.

“ICT requires different approaches now. One thing I’ve implemented is that instead of just teaching IT at lower levels, I teach the CEO and group executives to ensure that they’re seeing what I’m seeing. GenAI and AI are going to get even bigger and everyone will become more efficient, which also plays into the risk we’re seeing.” It was raised that there is still a pain point around what CIOs should be doing, especially in the public sector and this needs clarification in 2025 as we work towards a digital country and digital economy.

“CIOs wear so many different hats while constantly thinking transformation,” said Pragasen Pather, CIO, Sun International. “Every day presents new challenges around such technologies as AI, GenAI and cybersecurity and then there are the influences of geopolitics and internal politics.”

“I feel that there’s an organisational push to transform and digitalise,” said Faith Burn, Eskom’s CIO, “but not an appetite for the transition, or awareness of how transformation impacts on people and organisational culture. Without an understanding of, and appetite for, transformation, we face an invisible wall. Perhaps as CIOs, we’re not eloquent enough in articulating our role and not showing tangible evidence of change. We need to make more of an effort to be heard. What we do affects the bottom line.”

IBG’s founder and digital leader, Mandla Mkhwanazi, said digital transformation is not the role of the CIO, but must come from all the highest levels. “If it’s seen as the domain of the CIO, the concept of digital transformation gets polluted and not seen as a necessity affecting all departments. The CIO needs to bring opinion to the table and be the anchor to champion it, otherwise it gets lost in technology.” The topic of cybersecurity is top of mind for CIOs because of the technologies involved and the 4IR technologies coming in, coupled with adding technologies that expose more entry points as the net gets wider.

BCX’s managing executive: Cloud and cybersecurity, Garith Peck, said that cybersecurity has evolved to the point where its sophistication has made it beyond a cost centre and into a strategic imperative. He added that they are seeing attack vectors across the board with many different entry points. As it pertains to the role of the CIO or CISO, it has evolved from a traditional operations role into a strategic business partner, helping close the cybersecurity gap.

There was also caution around the security and privacy of data and keeping it within the country’s borders. Said Pandelani Munyai, Transnet’s Group CIO: “We need to ensure that data management stays within our shores and our organisations. Data is considered the new currency and should be used for the good of our organisations; we must come up with our own solutions for its application.”

It was agreed by the participants that the time for talk is over and serious actions are required, starting with identifying the right decision- makers and getting them around a table to remove obstacles to progress and resolve problems.

“We need to collaborate,” said Mothibi Ramusi, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (ICASA) chairperson. “”We have to establish how much it will cost if we don’t do what we have to do; we must transform.”

In closing, BCX’s chief commercial officer, Siyabulela Mpahla, said: “There’s no point in being part of a forum if we can’t make a difference. This means bringing policy-makers into the room and more communication between forum events. Let’s not accept problems as the norm, but fix them at the roots.”

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