Yacoob Abba Omar
Speech: Launch of the
Eastern Cape Government web site
3 September
1999
If the Twentieth
Century is to be the African Century and if Information/Communication
Technologies is to be the driving force of the coming century,
then this little step we bear witness to today surely has the
potential of becoming a flagship of the African Renaissance.
GCIS came into being
after the investigation into government communications by Comtask.
The Comtask Report pointed out that government communications
should be based on the principle of a dialogue between the public
and government.
In a recent survey
into the information needs of the South African population,
our researchers reached an important conclusion which emphasised
how palpable this notion of dialogue is. "Out of the more
than 500 people who formed part of the focus groups, hardly
anyone said that communication from government was not important
or was not needed. Most groups were totally unanimous about
this, although this must be modified by the fact that for many
it was their own communication to government which was more
important than communication to them from government."
This desire by the
public to have their views heard is not lost on government.
In fact, President Mbeki speaking at the official launch of
Government Online earlier this year pointed out:"We believe
that it is indeed the responsibility of the government to communicate
to the South African population. It is important that the people
should know what the Government is doing….So that the people
themselves can make an impact on those processes in Government.
The launching of this Website is very much part of that process
of ensuring the accessibility of government to the people."
This is why the Internet
becomes such an important tool for democracy – by its very
nature it is ideal for contributing to democracy.
We hope that Government
Online makes a key contribution to the information revolution
unfolding in this part of the continent. Government information
is increasingly being made on the Internet. Government structures
are in the process of creating their own home pages. Government
Online links to the websites of 29 such bodies. Government Online,
without an aggressive marketing campaign, has about 5 000 hits
per day and 400 user sessions per day.
Further developments
we envisages include:
- Additional information on
government projects, services and forms:
- Discussion forums on policy
and other issues;
- Legislation dating back to
1994. Some of you may be aware this is an area we hope to
improve with the parliament Website;
- The Tender Bulletin is already
published weekly-we hope to include the Government Gazette
soon.
To date there has
been a bewildering range of initiatives to set up Multi Purpose
Community Centers. There has been the Universal Service Agency
and its roll out of telecentres, the Post Office with its plans
to set up citizen post offices, the Departments of Trade and
Industry; Arts, Culture, Sports and Technology; the CSIR; and
the Youth Commission are at different stages in the establishment
of these centers. GCIS has taken the initiative to co-ordinate
all these efforts. We hope this will yield a more rational allocation
of scarce government and external funding. We hope these will
become building blocks in our vision of one-stop government
information centers.
These coupled with
developments such as that of the Public Information Terminal
and the launch of the Eastern Cape Government Web site can only
lead to the information revolution becoming a truly people’s
revolution. A project which we hope to launch soon (you quickly
learn in government not to give specific deadlines) is a FAQ
initiative aimed at identifying the main information gaps in
the South African public. The idea is to have all government
departments logging the key questions people ask of them. This
is all ready being done at GCIS. The answer will then be solicited
from source and made available through Government Online, through
the MPCCs and funds allowing even through Post Offices in hard
copy. We believe that an intensive campaign lasting a couple
of years aimed at meeting the basic information needs of the
South African population will result in an information platform
being created.
What has all this
got to do with the African Renaissance? To avoid the accusation
of the African Renaissance being some quixotic notion, government
has tended to describe the notion as aimed at building an Africa
in which the conditions of life of the people are constantly
and rapidly improving with the aims of attaining standards that
broadly accord with the best in the world. This means that the
mission of the African Renaissance should be to mobilise Africans
in this endeavour, such that their efforts bring visible improvements
to their conditions.
People centred development
is identified as a centripetal force across race, religion,
gender and class. The required industrialization and economic
development requires the strengthening of the productive forces-in
particular Africa’s human resources and information technology.
Education and training which can be facilitated through the
Website can harness Africa’s arts and culture, its intellectual
discourse and its spiritual sustenance.
The South African
government is encouraging the continent to avoid all that it
does right being painted with the African Renaissance brush.
Instead the idea is that key flagship projects are identified.
With the potential the Website has to link up with various parts
of Africa this could easily become one such project. Such a
project could encapsulate two of the key themes identified by
government viz. "Africa’s brain and brawn for the
Renaissance" and " African life matters."
The day when projects
like this Website help Africans reach out beyond their boundaries
in a common effort to revive Africa can we say that the Africa
Renaissance has truly taken root.
Yacoob Abba Omar
Deputy CEO, Government Communications (GCIS)
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