SA moves a step closer to e-Govt
13 February 2004
South Africa is working towards the launch of the e-Government Gateway portal, an integrated one-stop service centre that will allow citizens, organisations and foreigners efficient, 24-hour access to government services across the spectrum.
South African Government Services, currently under development, pulls together information on over 4 000 services offered by the government, arranging them for quick, intuitive access.
This means that, instead of having to trawl through a bureaucratic maze in order to find which section of which department offers the service one is looking for, an Internet user can start from a menu list of categories defined in terms of what citizens (or organisations, or foreigners) typically need from the government.
The portal will back up the service points being rolled out across the country to give South Africans in poorer and more remote communities access to
the Internet - including the government's multi-purpose community centres, and the Post Office's Citizen Post Offices, public information terminals and Internet cafes.
But the portal will be not limited by the reach of the Internet - people will also be able to access information from the portal through a national call centre, using the 1020 number.
Addressing journalists in Cape Town this week, Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said the first phase of the portal would be officially launched once the development team had reached a set target for data verification.
The minister said the launch of the first phase would focus on improved information on services, while the second phase would provide a base for online transactional services.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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