e-Services, including e-Government

Introduction

e-Service commonly referred to the provision of services via the internet. e-Service therefore
includes both e-commerce and e-government, amongst others. The OECD defines e-
commerce as a sale or purchase of goods or services, conducted over computer networks
by methods specifically designed for the purpose of receiving or placing of orders. e-
Government refers to the provision of public services over the internet by the government.

The rendering of government services and information to the public using electronic means,
allows government to deliver services to citizens when they need them. It can also improve
the quality of such services. In South Africa, e-government has gained significant ground
and great strides have been made to use e-government to simplify government procedures,
improve access to information by citizens, and improve service delivery, as well as
strengthening accountability and transparency.

e-Commerce on the other hand, refers to conducting business online. The phrase is used to
describe business that is conducted over the internet using any of the applications that rely
on the internet. These applications include email, instant messaging, web services etc.

e-Commerce has grown rapidly since users began to search for services and goods sold
over the internet. The introduction of e-commerce has changed the scope of the commercial
landscape, affecting all aspects of the value chain from supplier to consumer.

e-Government

Regulatory Environment for e-Government in South Africa

The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA)) is responsible for the
development and coordination of government’s overall e-government strategy. Key
legislation for e-government is the Public Service Act of 1994 and its subsequent
amendments. This Act provides for, amongst others, the establishment of norms and
standards relating to e-government and information management in the public service.

The White Papers on Transforming Public Service Delivery (WPTPSD), Promotion of Access
to Information Act, Electronic Communication and Transaction Act, Electronic Government
Policy Framework, Minimum Information Security Standards (MISS), Minimum
Interoperability Standards (MIOS) and Policy on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
discussed the concept of e-government. Collectively, these frameworks promote
transparency, accountability, good governance, information security, and freedom in the
acquisition and use of IT.

The South African government has established statutory bodies to co-ordinate

implementation of e-Government projects. Amongst these are the State Information
Technology Agency (SITA) and Government Information Technology Officers Council (GITO
Council). SITA is responsible for the acquisition, installation, implementation, and
maintenance of IT in the public sector. The GITO Council, which consists of national and
provincial IT officers, is responsible for consolidating and coordinating IT initiatives in
government, including e-Government, to facilitate service delivery.

1
Overview of Services

The DPSA is currently working on a revised strategy to tackle e-government issues across
all departments and sectors. The strategy intends to overcome the prevalence of
uncoordinated and isolated project approaches and is meant to establish itself as a one-stop
solution for e-government solutions. It is also intended to improve service delivery in all
areas of e-government.

There are various levels of maturity for the provision of e-government services, as indicated
in Chapter 3 of this report.

For the South African government, the focus is on G2G (government-to-government), G2BC
(Government to Business & Citizen) and G2C (government-to-citizen) activities. Improved
service delivery is facilitated by building e-Government awareness, being a model user in e-
Government centres of excellence, working towards one government information and
communication channel (one portal, one call centre, etc.) and above all providing expertise
on e-services The diagram below shows some of the e-Government initiatives:

SITA e-Government Initiatives

Fig. 6.1

Prior to the attempt by DPSA to co-ordinate e-Government in South Africa, there have been
numerous national, provincial, and local government e-Government initiatives that have
been implemented. The Western Cape provincial initiative is regarded as one of the flagship
e-Government initiatives. The province is home to numerous government-sanctioned
projects at varying degrees of completion26.

26
Matavire, R, Chigona, W, Roode, D, Sewchurran, E, Davids, Z, Mukudu, A and Boamah-Abu, C. “Challenges of e-
Government Project Implementation in a South African Context” The Electronic Journal Information Systems Evaluation
Volume 13 Issue 2 2010, (pp153 - 164)
http://www.ejise.com/volume13/issue2

2
Amongst the ICT initiatives are: Cape Gateway Project, Cape Information Technology
Initiative (CITI), Telecentres in rural areas in South Africa, SchoolNet South Africa Project,
Mindset Network Organisation and the Khanya Project. Other examples include the e-Natis
online vehicle and transport management system, the e-Justice programme to improve
judicial processes, the e-Hanis programme to streamline and integrate personal identification
data across government departments through the use of unique identifiers, and the National
Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS) to facilitate access to public
archived records.

e-Filing Initiatives

Major initiatives are currently underway in the area of e-Filing. e-Filing is of particular
interest, because it corresponds with the transactional level of e-government stage thus
indicating a new maturity level e-government.

A successful example of this sort of transactional e-Government service is the electronic

filing of tax returns, which the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has implemented
with a clear success record. SARS introduced its electronic filing initiative in 2001, in
accordance with the government’s broader e-Government strategy in the public service.
e-Filing of tax is a coordinated effort between SARS and private business. The main aim
of an e-Filing system is to facilitate the electronic submission of tax returns and payments
by taxpayers and tax practitioners. Income taxpayers may however still submit their
returns in the traditional way. Some of the tax services available electronically include
Pay-As-You-Earn (EMP201 return) and Value Added Tax (VAT201).

A recent e-Filing initiative is the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC)
IP Online project by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti). CIPC provides online
facilities to access information and documents concerning South African Intellectual
Property files. The patent files contain patent applications open for public inspection. The
trademark files contain pending & granted trade mark applications. In addition, the CIPC
IP Online Services website will be offering the service for filing new applications for
patents and trademarks.

e-Health

The National Department of Health, the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the
National Health Information Systems Committee on South Africa (NHIS/SA) has
developed the e-Health Strategy for South Africa. This strategy is aligned with the World
Health Organisation’s (WHO) definitions and targets for e-health, which seek to use ICTs
to treat patients, pursue research, educate students, track diseases and monitor public
health. The e-Health Strategy covers the following:

electronic health records;

electronic health management information;
computerised registrations of death or births; electronic access to health
knowledge by patients and professionals,
telemedicine;
virtual health care; and
health research.

The National e-Health Strategy Toolkit published in 2012 by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) provides a
practical guide for governments for the development of an e-Health action plan. The
toolkit provides guidelines for an enabling environment within which e-Health can be
effectively put into place in countries, with recognition of the varying priorities and
circumstances that prevail in each country. Within the South African context, the general

3
 consensus is that the various inter-ministerial forums, international consultations and
national ICT bodies have not been effective in guiding the implementation of the National
e-Health Strategy Policy document. To date, there has been minimal progress in
providing an enabling environment similar to what is being proposed by the e-Health
Strategy Toolkit, particularly in the establishment of an e-Health governance structure.

Stronger coordination and leadership is required to leverage this local knowledge base to
provide clear recommendations that can be implemented with specific roles and
responsibilities. There is no guidance on which organisation/ body or secretariat should
take the initial role of formalising this coordination work.

e-Education

As early as 1996, the Telecommunications Act, Number 103 of 1996 contemplated an

education network (EduNet) to link all schools. The 2001 Telecommunications
Amendment Act, Number 64 of 2001 introduced a discounted e-rate to facilitate Internet
connections for education institutions.

The eSchool Cyberlab programme launched by the Department of Communications in

2000 provided computer and Internet services to under-serviced areas through the
creation of computer centres in public schools. The Universal Service Access Agency
(USAASA) was given the responsibility of rolling out this programme27.

The 2004 White Paper on e-Education confirmed the availability of USF subsidies to
achieve the discounted e-rate. In January 2005, the Minister of Communications
confirmed a 50% discount on Internet connectivity costs for schools. This 2004 document
stresses the need for the integration of ICT into learning and teaching, and called for the
creation of a Ministerial e-Education Advisory Council28.

The ECA repealed the Telecommunications Act and its amendments but largely mirrored
the provisions of that Act in relation to the e-rate.

In 2010, USAASA transferred responsibility for the Cyberlab program to the Department
of Education.

The e-Education policy goal is that every South African manager, teacher and learner in
education will be ICT capable by 201329.

In October 2011, the Department of Basic Education published an Action Plan for 2014,
named Schooling 202530. The plan details 27 national output goals, of which four relate
to e-education.

27
UNIVERSAL SERVICE AGENCY Annual report 2003/2004
http://www.doc.gov.za/key-programmes/ict-policy-review.html
28
Notice 1869 of 2004 GG 26734 Draft White Paper on e-Education: transforming learning and teaching through information
and communication technologies (ICTs) 26 August 2004
http://www.education.gov.za/DocumentsLibrary/Legislation/WhitePapers/tabid/191/Default.aspx
29
Defined as ”use ICTs confidently and creatively to help develop the skills and knowledge they need as lifelong learners to
achieve personal goals and to be full participants in the global community.” Ibid.
30
DEPARTMENT OF BASIC EDUCATION Action Plan for 2014 – Towards the Realisation of Schooling 2025. October 2011
http://www.education.gov.za/Curriculum/ActionPlanto2014/tabid/418/Default.aspx

4
e-Commerce in South Africa

In e-commerce there are invariably three key players, namely, the buyer, who wishes to
purchase goods or services, the seller, who offers the goods and service, and the
manufacturer who produces the product or service.

These three players interact with each other in various e-commerce models. These include
the following: business-to-business (B2B) which involves the provisioning of products and
services between two businesses; business-to-consumer (B2C) which involves the
provisioning of products and services between a business and an end customer; business-
to-government (B2G), which involves the provisioning of services and products between
companies and government departments or its entities; and finally consumer-to-consumer
(C2C) which involves the provisioning of products and services between two individuals or
consumers, with the transaction usually completed by a third-party platform and payment
system.

All these models refer to e-commerce, which is the transfer of goods and services via the
internet. However, more recently there is a separate term, called m-commerce which is
being used to denote commercial transactions that are completed using a mobile device.

Regulatory environment for e-Commerce

In South Africa, e-commerce policy started in 2000, when government published the Green
Paper on e-commerce. The Green Paper was aimed at building trust and confidence in the
security and privacy of transactions performed electronically. In addition, the Green Paper
sought to enhance the information infrastructure for electronic commerce; establish rules
that would govern electronic commerce and finally, bring the opportunities of e-commerce to
ordinary South Africans. At that time, government focused on heightening awareness about
the need for faster adoption of e-commerce by individuals, enterprises and governments. It
outlined the legal foundation for e-commerce; identified key issues regarding the validity,
recognition and enforcement of electronic contracts and highlighted issues of intellectual
property protection requirements, for instance, raising awareness regarding the
implementation of copyright, trademark and patent protection in an electronic environment.

The promulgation of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA) two years
after the publication of the Green Paper on e-commerce, laid the legal framework for
consumers, businesses and government to conduct and use electronic transactions in a
safe, secure and effective environment. The ECTA further provided for the development of a
national e-strategy, and promoted universal access to electronic communications and
transactions and the use of electronic transactions by SMMEs.

Overview of e-Commerce Services

Notwithstanding the absence of a clear policy framework, the e-commerce sector has not
only grown, but it has undergone some fundamental changes since the promulgation of the
Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA) in 2002. The changes highlighted
below underline the degree of development. Although some changes were a result of the
Act, some were market (demand) driven.

5
Sector Category Services in 2013 Comments

Public Sector Government-to- Examples of services

Citizen (G2C) include:
e-Filing of tax returns
introduced by SARS
The Department of Home
Affairs has embarked on
the migration of offline
National ID documents to
online using a smart card
identification system.
Online payment systems
to facilitate payment of
traffic fines adopted by all
metropolitan
municipalities.
The e-Natis online
vehicle and transport
management system
introduced by the
Department of Transport
Private sector Business to Mobile commerce Often referred to as “mobile money”; is
Citizens (B2C) (including Mobile widely seen as an effective way to
banking provide access to finance to millions of
people. Mobile payments and mobile
banking help with transfer of
remittances and transfers of money,
which can improve lower income
worker‘s ability to contract micro-loans,
enabling them to withstand financial
shocks. The current status of mobile
banking is still in its initial stage of
development, as cash transactions still
prevail amongst most South Africans.
Users are not yet comfortable with it, as
illustrated by the relatively low 12%
(unchanged from 2012) of respondents
in the MasterCard Survey who used
their mobile devices to make purchase.
e-Payment Use of intermediary service provider
between the bank and the actual
customer
South African Postal The mail business, which includes the
Service collection, processing and delivering of
all mail items and parcels, continues to
be the key revenue generator for the SA
Post Office, contributing 70% of
revenue. This part of the business is
also especially vital for research online,
purchase offline (ROPO) e-commerce
as the completion of the e-commerce
value chain and delivery of final product
falls on the shoulders of SAPO.
SAPO has a dedicated e-business unit
that focuses on the electronic fulfillment
of communications and transactions
through multiple channels such as
hybrid mail, mobile platforms, the
internet, Trust Centre, and self-service
kiosks.

6
Policy Reform & Trends

South Africa’s e-commerce sector faces some challenges, which require a concerted effort
by all role-players to ensure that it does not stagnate. Some of the issues that require policy
attention include the following:

Consumer protection and confidence. Consumers are often vulnerable to liabilities

since information pertaining to their rights is not provided in a transparent manner.
Fraudulent and misleading commercial practices, which are commonly associated
with online or mobile payments, may hinder the consumer’s confidence to transact
online. Privacy issues are of concern to consumers as personal data is easy to
collect and pass on to third parties without knowledge or consent. Within the e-
commerce environment, dispute resolution and redress mechanisms are currently
inadequate. For instance, when buying an application, it is unclear on whom the
consumer can rely for service support - the application platform or the application
company itself. Given the multitude of parties involved in the e-commerce value
chain it can be difficult to identify which party should be held responsible.
Legal framework. There is no single locus of responsibility when it comes to e-
commerce and there is no single framework that addresses issues that may arise in
e-commerce. Additionally, current laws, although they touch some aspects of e-
commerce, such as anti-spam initiatives, privacy and copyright, may be overlapping
or unclear. Other laws concerning taxation or trade may need to be reviewed as they
may negatively impact on the development of e-commerce. Cross-country legal
differences can hinder e-commerce due to the additional costs of compliance with
other country’s laws.
Infrastructure and universal access. Faster and cheaper broadband connection is
essential for the development of the e-commerce sector. With low penetration levels
of broadband in the country, e-commerce business may not reach the required
volume of sales they need to be profitable, thus deterring businesses from going
online. Although mobile penetration rates are significantly higher than fixed line
broadband access, slow internet can frustrate a customer as the mobile speed is not
sufficient to run the mobile application.
Delivery. This is a critical component of the e-commerce value chain but often it is
here that the supplier of goods faces the challenge of the “last mile”. Several factors
may affect the delivery of the products to the customer, including unclear addresses
or remote locations.
Geography. Due to the geographical remoteness of South Africa from some of its
biggest trading partners outside of Africa, the domestic market may be constrained.
The rise of extraterritoriality. The internet as a platform for e-commerce transaction
is a borderless business activity. This posits a major challenge on domestic laws
relating to taxation.
Appreciation. It is imperative that both the suppliers and customers understand and
embrace the benefits of e-commerce. Lack of appreciation of e-commerce, coupled
with inadequate knowledge to develop online business, prevents e-commerce from
fully flourishing. It is also necessary to address security concerns. The fact that big
retailers are beginning to embrace e-commerce will help to increase awareness of
the online channel.