Limping into 2007

A year ago, I analysed the state of representation in the South African ICT sector. What has (not) happened since then?

Sadly, not much has changed, although there is a glimmer or two on the horizon. We never made the bid to host the 2010 World Congress, in spite of the potential synergy with the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which will be staged in South Africa. In fact, our membership of the World Information Technology & Services Alliance has been suspended, since we could not raise the dues for 2006. The baton to lead the African presence at WITSA has been passed to Kenya.

Towards the latter part of 2006, another small group of concerned individuals revived the process to consolidate the industry associations and met a few times to chart a new way forward. I sincerely hope they achieve the goal in 2007 and will do all I can to facilitate same. In parallel (so far), there is another initiative led by the SACF to achieve the same objective, built on a MoU with the Finnish development body, TIEKE. Obviously these two initiatives must get together and work together as soon as possible.

On the government side, the approach to the ICT sector remains fragmented, although I am happy to observe that there are some new research activities which will help to focus attention on the use of ICTs in government and in developing a knowledge-based society. Let us hope that the reports become tools for the creation of an holistic approach within a coordinated national ICT strategy, encompassing e-Government as well as sectoral development.

Another of 2005's potential drivers of change in the ICT sector has also gathered dust on the shelf for a year - the BEE Charter for the ICT sector. At long last, the Codes of Good Practice have been approved by Cabinet and will be published in final form in January 2007. A last-minute alignment of the Charter should not take long, and then the sector will be able to get on with transformation within guidelines. There will continue to be debate about the more lenient approach to BEE in the latest version but at least there will be clarity on targets and scorecards. I am personally delighted that there now seems to be room for self-evaluation, as I always thought the creation of a new breed of (expensive) specialist assessors was a retrograde move.

We may have dragged our feet in 2006 - let's pick up the pace again in the New Year!