The Usability of e-Government as a Mechanism to Enhance Public Service Delivery in the South African Government Lessons from Practices

Main Article Content

Simon Matome Nkgapele https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1171-5696

Keywords

electronic government, service delivery, governance, information and communication technology

Abstract

In the digital age, the electronic government has emerged as a transformative mechanism for ameliorating service delivery, promoting transparency, and promoting citizen participation. South Africa is rich in diversity and evolving in its socio-economic landscape, and it encounters unique difficulties in providing services to the society. The difficulties in service delivery are an important difficulty for the Government of South Africa because this problem spreads from local to national governments. Consequently, these often lead to countless issues, including protests concerning service delivery that usually result in property losses. Therefore, the introduction of e-government serves as a tool to foster efficient and effective service delivery. The purpose of this paper was to identify current barriers, successes, and areas for amelioration in the execution of digital government in South Africa. Therefore, the main focus was on the use of electronic government as a tool to ameliorate service delivery in South Africa. This paper identified the several current difficulties and successes of digital government practices across South Africa to seek preventive and corrective measures to ensure that the usage of e-government can be efficient and effective in delivering public services. The researcher employed a qualitative methodology and relied heavily on secondary data to generate a rich grasp and knowledge of the lessons learned from e-government practices in South Africa. The outcomes of this paper indicated that South Africa has made significant progress in implementing digital government initiatives. Although successful digital government initiatives are being implemented in South Africa, problems such as digital divisions, ICT personnel shortages, limited digital literacy, resistance to technological innovation and infrastructure limitations continue to exist. If these barriers and difficulties are not addressed adequately, the future of the South African digital government is at risk, and the implementation of electronic government initiatives to foster effective service delivery will be a mere dream.

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