Implementation of Grassroots E-Government Services in South Africa: A Literature Analysis

Abstract

This paper examines the implementation of grassroots e-government services in South Africa posing the questions: How are e-government services situated in South Africa’s governance framework. In what ways can grassroots egovernment services be benchmarked, and to what extent are grassroots e-government services implemented in South Africa? The literature reveals that South Africa’s institutional governance framework positions local government as key to achieving better public service delivery and transformation at local and community levels and through early adoption placed information and communications technology (ICT) in its governance operations. With regard to ways with which to benchmark egovernment, it was identified that the egovernment research area is broad and complex, making it difficult to study exhaustively across all its dimensions with a multiplicity of accepted metrics on the main quantitative negating other non-technical dimensions applicable at any level of implementation. It was evident that the implementation of grassroots e-government services is ad-hoc, only just emerging and becoming more visible particularly on the supply side level. However, service customisation for relevance lags significantly. Given the intricate synergy between e-government and service delivery, the provision of grassroots e-government services would empower citizens’ democratic participation in governance, broaden ownership and ultimately lead to e-democracy through increased e-participation. The implications for theory and practice of this study include that there is continued theoretical and practical interest generated by the e-government concept. Scholars of diverse disciplines interrogate various aspects of egovernment while practitioners seek for ways to improve its implementation. Even as e-government research at the grassroots has grown, critics point that empirical studies to inform policy are limited. There is also an acute need to build a theoretical base on the customisation of e-government for relevance to needs at the local grassroots levels to inform subject understanding and consequently practice.