Getting Government On-line back on track


The DA believes that there lies a massive opportunity for improving service delivery to the people and leveraging opportunities for job creation and economic growth by providing on-line access to government services.

Unfortunately, the government project which has to deliver a full Government On-line service to South Africa, the Batho Pele Gateway project, has become undone due to outdated planning and a lack of political leadership and administrative support.

The Batho Pele Gateway project commenced in 2001 already and was structured into five phases to be delivered over a ten year period. Since its conception, the Gateway project has not been brought up to date with more recent events and the changed goalposts brought about by our socio-economic situation and the awarding of the 2010 World Cup to South Africa.

It is simply not enough to say that there is a plan in place to deliver on-line access to government services if the plan is completely irrelevant to the prevailing circumstances, and the delivery deadlines are too far away in the future.

Interest in South Africa as a tourist and investment destination will be increasing dramatically from now up until 2010 and remain high for some time thereafter. Making it possible for people to apply on-line for travel documents, obtain business licences, residence permits and the like will assist our country tremendously in extracting the maximum benefit from all the associated opportunities.

The DA has put together 10 steps which government need to take in order to have a Government On-line service that offers access to a sufficient range of services by 2010.

Key steps that have to be taken include:

• Making Government On-line a government-wide priority
• Freeing up the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) from the repressive administrative regime it currently finds itself under
• Mobilising the necessary resources.

The remainder of the recommended steps includes the dimensions of technology, objectives and values and staffing and skills.

It is our hope, that our initiative to get services closer to the people will be met by the ANC government and our colleagues in Parliament in the same constructive manner with which it was intended.

GOL Base Document.doc