The state of our public services is still less than ideal. Just imagine losing your licence or ID document, notes Johnny Moloto, executive: Government and Regulatory Affairs at IBM South Africa: “You don’t relish the prospect of going to the Department of Home Affairs or any government department, for that matter…”

Well, most government departments. There are a few exceptions -- the so-called pockets of excellence such as SARS eFiling -- that are always raised as examples. But they stand almost isolated and some introspection may be in order: “Twenty-one years into our democracy, what have we learnt?” asks Moloto. “What are the sorts of things that we have done? I come from the perspective that we’ve managed to leapfrog so much: if you look at the number of mobile phones that are in the hands of South Africans, let alone Africans today, you have a real opportunity to use that as an actual tool to deliver services.”