e-Government to spend R1.6 Billion to modernize the province
Member of the Executive Committee responsible for e-Government in the Gauteng, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, has announced that the department plans to use its R1.6 Billion budget over the 2022/23 Financial Year to modernize Information & Communications Technology (ICT) systems and training young people and staff.
About 150 beneficiaries of the skills programs will be placed for ICT experiential learning, with a further 55 young people getting bursaries in the previous year.
Speaking to Mapepeza during the post-Budget Vote briefing on Monday, May 23 at the Gauteng Legislature, MEC Ralehoko said that over ten thousand young people will be trained in ICT skills.
“In the previous financial year, the Gauteng Centre for Excellence trained 15 000 young people in the past year and we aim to train 10 000 more this financial year,” she said.
About R4 million has been set aside for this.
In getting up to speed with the demands of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the e-Government department will roll-out the Gauteng Digital Platform, an all-inclusive online site that combines all of the province’s services to make it easier for residents to access.
“We hope to unlock more economic opportunities through the platform,” said the MEC.
To increase high-speed access to the World Wide Web, the department will expand the Gauteng Broadband Network (GBN) to more communities in the province.
According to the department, 45 WiFi will be installed, about 888 sites will be connected, including 84 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and 118 Local Area Network (LAN) connectivity sites.
To modernize its internal systems, the department will ensure 98% uptime of the Fully-Managed Data Center (FMDC), with budgeted R24.9 million.
The cloud-based system is meant to ensure that the provincial government’s computing infrastructure can adjust efficiently to accommodate changing demands.
The MEC said that her department is also on track with its electronic waste (e-waste) management programme.
The department has partnered with the University of Johannesburg and other institutions in creating a plan for managing the ever-growing amounts of e-waste in the province. In this plan, new and existing value chains will be explored in this industry – bringing economic opportunities and creating new jobs.
Most of the electronics and electrical equipment thrown away end up in landfill sites and are hard to recycle at that point, sometimes causing harm to the environment.
She said the department has went as far as Kenya to get insight and best practices into the e-waste industry and solutions for Gauteng.
MEC Nkomo-Ralehoko delivered the 2022/23 Budget Vote on Friday, May 20 during a sitting at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.