Technology imperative for SA
Former auditor-general of the province and activist Sithembele Peters said he struggled to understand why people were still standing in long queues in front of the post office to get their pay when the world had entered the era of the “fourth industrial revolution”.
Peters was speaking at the Black Management Forum (BMF) debate on “Good Governance and Accountability as Pillars of Service Delivery” at the Chris Hani Co-operative House last Wednesday.
He said government should take into account that the human race was living in the information age and should embrace technology to provide effective and efficient service delivery.
African countries such as Kenya, Peters said, were advancing economically through the use of technology and if SA wanted to grow economically it needed to follow suit.
“Our government should work at making sure that access to the internet becomes a basic need. If people have access to the internet they can communicate better and the start-up businesses will thrive because data is one of their significant needs.”
He said social media should be used as a medium to communicate the government’s programmes and the projects it offered to the community.
The lack of skills capacity and competency of employees in delivering services to the people was linked to how the workers were appointed within government.
“One of the biggest problems faced by local government is the design of the legislation around the appointment of section 56 and 57 where the employees’ five year contract comes to an end after elections. This results in instability. If you want to run effectively and be efficiently responsive you need administrative stability.”
He said the deployed cadres needed to be educated on how to govern and lead in order to have the necessary skills and competence.
Local governance was complex and needed to be well regulated to deliver infrastructure, said Peters.
“If you are deploying cadres you need people with skills in engineering and project management.If you want to grow your economy you need people who have an understanding of finance, investment and economics.”
The best model to run government was needed and this would be possible by assessing the three spheres of governance stumbling blocks over 24 years of democracy. Government needs to re-look legislation to see if it is meant to support a developing state or one that has been developed because the challenges are not the same.”