ICT Adoption in South Africa:

Transcription

1 ICT Adoption in South Africa: Opportunities, Challenges and Implications for national development Akinlolu Olumide Akande Department of Information Systems University of Cape Town Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa Jean-Paul Van Belle Department of Information Systems University of Cape Town Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa Abstract The end of apartheid in 1994 marked a new beginning for South Africa. It is now nineteen years since the end of apartheid and the beginning of a democratic South Africa. Although the emergence of democracy in South Africa has created many opportunities, it also brought along many challenges and uncertainties for organizations and the country. In order to overcome the challenges and overcome every uncertainty, many organizations and the government has turned to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to provide solutions. Although much effort has been put into creating feasible solutions to the challenges through the use of ICT and a lot of money and resources has been invested on ICT s by government and organizations, the adoption and utilisation of ICT s is still not effective. In order to create an understanding of the challenges faced by management in the adoption of ICT, this paper will discuss the adoption and utilisation of ICT in South Africa, the opportunities created, the challenges involved, and their effects on national development. This paper will also suggest possible solutions to the identified challenges in order to improve ICT adoption rate and render the utilisation of ICT in South Africa more effective. Keywords ict; south africa; adoption; government; digital divide; organizations; growth I. INTRODUCTION Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are technologies with the capability of storing, transferring, processing and disseminating data [1]. These technologies enable communication between people that are geographically separated making the distance irrelevant. Examples of these technologies are computers, the internet, radios, televisions, landline and mobile telephones etc. [1]. It was reported in the Community Survey conducted in South Africa in 2007 that 73% had mobile phones, 76% of households had a working radio, 65% had a working TV, 18.6% had a landline telephone, 15% a computer and only 7% had Internet facilities at home [2]. ICT application can be classified as those that support decision making process and enable public administrators to improve, plan and monitor development programs, those that help to improve services to citizen and encourage transparency, those that empower citizens by providing them with easy access to information and knowledge [3]. Although the South African government emphasized the importance of ICT in promoting equitable growth through the reconstruction and development program (RDP) and growth, employment and redistribution (GEAR) documents, these policies have largely failed to deliver on promises of a more equitable society. Governments have also failed to utilise the potential of ICT to improve job creation and unemployment rate is above 40 per cent [1]. Regardless of the limitations in its regulatory environment and policy, South Africa has made considerable progress in moving into the electronic age [2]. Mobile telecommunications networks have penetrated and grown all over the country. Different businesses and government have also adopted sophisticated ICT applications and the internet has been a major tool for communication and transactions in universities, hospitals, banking and financial services, government departments, shopping and entertainment services [2]. Although there is an increase in the adoption of ICTs, access to ICT is still restricted to the high income group of the population while the low income group especially the blacks in rural areas still don t have access to ICTs [2]. This has made ICT diffusion in South Africa to be generally low. Mobile communication is seen to be the cheapest and affordable means of communication is South Africa with 68% of the population or 33.4 million people reported to have phones in Only 5.3 million of the 33.4 million were reported to have internet access in 2009 which is an increase in the number of internet users which was 4.6 million in 2008 [2]. II. BACKGROUND Many government and business organizations have identified the unequal access to ICT s and are funding different projects to address these issues. Research has shown that many of these programs have not been able to deliver on their desired aims and have resulted in further widening the gaps they are meant to close [4]. The disadvantages faced by societies and communities as a result of the uneven societal adoption of ICTs are increasing and the impact if these on the economy can be devastating and could lead to a drastic decline in economic growth [4]. The aim of this paper is to identify different ICT initiatives in South Africa and identify the opportunities created by ICT, the challenges involved, and their implications for national development. This paper will also suggest possible solutions to eradicate the challenges and improve the success of ICT implementation.

2 III. ICT ADOPTION IN SOUTH AFRICA In 1995, emphasis was placed on the importance of ICT and the then president and deputy, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki respectively were at the forefront of promoting the concept of ICT in South Africa. Their emphasis was on the ways in which the information society was linked to the macro socio-economic policy in South Africa with special focus on importance of democracy, integration, culture and reconstruction, economic competitiveness, elimination of the digital divide and development [1]. In order to regulate telecommunications and realize the benefits of ICT, the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA) and the Universal Service Agency (USA, later renamed as USAASA) were created in 1996 [1]. The aim of USAASA was to promote affordable and universal telecommunication services all through South Africa using subsidies they get from the Universal Service Fund (USF). In 1996, Telecommunications Act was also set up with the aim of improving access to telecommunications across South Africa [1]. USAASA was able to offer education, conduct electronic training, and increasing public awareness of the importance of ICT literacy through the introduction of telecentre implementation plan which helped to promote greater access to telecommunication facilities in schools and hospitals especially the ones in less privileged communities in South Africa [1]. IV. ICT PROVIDERS IN SOUTH AFRICA In South Africa, the ICT market structure is made up of the telecoms as well as broadcasting markets and the wider ICT sector. Players in the telecoms market include fixed-line network operators Telkom and Neotel, and mobile network operators which are MTN, Vodacom, Cell C and Virgin Mobile [2]. Fourteen (14) small operators were issued with under-serviced area licenses (USALs) to provide telecommunications facilities in communities with tele-density below 5% and inadequate commercial viability. Above 400 other firms, including about 250 Internet service providers (ISPs) were issued with license to provide telecoms as well as other value-added network services. They were also required to build their own network infrastructure [2]. This has led to the inability of the small operators and the other firms to be able to pursue wireless provisioning plans which are more efficient and cost effective than building fixed network infrastructure. This has therefore made the small operators and the other firms to be less competitive, making their services and contribution less effective [2]. In terms of the fixed line voice infrastructure, Telkom has enjoyed 18-year monopoly since it was incorporated in 1991 as a public company and more recently, Telkom is also enjoying monopoly in fixed-line data as well as broadband infrastructure. This has affected the growth of ICT because it eliminates competition and lead to high cost of bandwidth and low internet penetration [2] [7]. Neotel which is the second network operator only commenced operation in mid-2008 and has not been able to make significant impact on prices in the sector [2]. The content industry is also an important part of ICT in South Africa. Because the content industry is fairly small and still in its initial development stages, both Internet and broadcast content are generally sourced from foreign websites and providers [2]. Within South Africa, the players in the broadcast market are Sentech, which provides broadcast network and also operates and provides multimedia network; the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and DStv, which commercially broadcast digital satellite television [2]. SABC also run 15 public broadcast radio stations and three commercial radio stations that operate in all the 11 South African languages. Apart from these, there are 13 commercial radio stations which are owned privately and 126 community radio stations which are licensed to operate across the nine provinces in South Africa. The major players in the TV market are the three SABC channels, the free-to-air e.tv and DStv with the addition of TopTV in 2007 [2]. V. OPPORTUNITIES In order to boost economic development and improve service delivery, e-government which is a form of ICT is seen as a way to promote development and reduce poverty [5]. ICT is also seen as a tool to strengthen the performance of government and public administration and if administered effectively and efficiently could lead to economic and social development [5]. E-Government helps in improving the delivery of public services, public participation, statistical and information processes, formalization, finance management and tax systems [5]. ICT s help to increase productivity, generate economic growth, create job and employability and improve the quality of life of all. They can also promote negotiation among people, nations and civilizations by improving communications [1]. Other opportunities created by ICT include increase in economic growth, job creation and knowledge management. These opportunities will be discussed in details in the following sections. A. Economic Growth ICT have been spreading amazingly fast and most governments have adopted ICT with the hope that its ability to create a revolution by making the world seemingly smaller will improve the potential for economic growth [6]. Different studies have shown that in the present information age, ICT is important for economic growth and development in almost all countries [6]. Studies have also shown that ICT has significantly contributed to economic growth in United States and the European Union by improving labor productivity [7]. ICT can help in poverty alleviation and it is seen to be an important enabler of development that can improve economic growth [7].

3 Many studies have found that the use of ICT leads to more effective economic transformations as it expands and accelerates access to information and knowledge that can result in greater involvement of people in the events and processes that shape their lives [8]. Job creation which is another opportunity created by ICT will now be discussed. B. Job Creation In South Africa, ICT has contributed to job creation in so many ways and the internet which is a form of ICT has been a good link between job seekers and employers [9]. The internet is used by many employers to advertise vacancies in their organizations and job seekers have also turned to the internet as a tool for searching and applying for jobs. This has enabled the employers to reach out to many job seekers than they would have been able to reach out to assuming there was no internet. The creation of jobs through ICT is also an important contributing factor to economic growth in South Africa [9]. C. Knowledge Management The era in which people don t have access to information is over. With ICT s, the problem is no more about access but with being able to select the most relevant information and applying it to the current situation for effective decision making. ICT can help filter the large amount of information and extract only the information useful for making effective decision at that level [10]. ICT can also help to facilitate knowledge transfer as valuable information can be shared among people through the use of ICT [10]. This helps in the efficient management of knowledge and ensures that effective decision is made by making only relevant information available at that point in time. Although ICT has many benefits and opportunities, there are challenges which arise as a result of its adoption and implementation. These challenges will now be discussed in details. Figure 1 is a conceptual model of some of the opportunities of ICT adoption discussed in previous sections. Poverty reduction Increase in economic growth VI. Opportunities with ICT adoption in South Africa Increase in productivity CHALLENGES Knowledge management Figure 1: Conceptual model of opportunities with ICT adoption in South Africa A. Cost In 2000, cost was an issue because majority of the consumers could not afford to pay their telecommunication bills and Telkom which was the service provider had to disconnect about 223,386 lines [1]. Although the government invested in telecenters to provide ICT access to people in the less privilege communities who could not afford to pay their telecommunication bills, there was a lack of proper analysis before implementation to determine the basic infrastructural requirements necessary for a telecenter. This was an issue the led to failure of the implementation of many telecenters in South Africa. For example, adequate funding to purchase computers, printers, facsimiles etc. and to pay for electricity that will power them as well as pay the consultants etc. was not adequately planned and this contributed to the challenges faced in implementing telecenters [1]. B. Politics and cultural diversity Politics and cultural Diversity created some form of challenges for ICT growth and development because the political history of South Africa and the uneven distribution of wealth and infrastructure caused by the apartheid regime contributed in shaping the ICT policy [1]. The negative impact on intercultural communication can be mitigated by ICT and cultural diversity is an important factor in the selection of a communication media [11]. C. Lack of necessary ICT skills capacity The growth of ICT sector in South Africa is constrained by the lack of necessary IT skills to develop ICT tools. This lack of adequate skills is a serious challenge faced in using ICT to solve problems such as digital divide [12]. There is a close relationship between ICT skills and adoption. ICT skills, ICT knowledge, and ICT practices are important to determine whether and individual or organization would adopt or reject ICT [13]. Another challenge with management of ICT is security because people are concerned about the security of data or information shared using ICT. This issue will be discussed in details in the following section. D. Security Security involves confidentiality, integrity and availability which aid the development of secure systems. There is so much concern about security of data and information that is shared using ICT s [17]. Literature has revealed that security is an important management issue with ICT s because data and information shared using ICT s is prone to vulnerabilities from unauthorized parties [17] [18]. Security measures should be taken to prevent unauthorized access to data and information shared using ICT to ensure that the information or data is delivered to the intended recipient. Confidentiality means that only an authorized person will have access to data. The use of security measures such as passwords and data encryption can help ensure confidentiality of data shared using ICT. Privacy means that control or disclosure of personal information lies with the information owner [17]. Privacy is a serious management issue when sharing data or information using ICT and it could be a serious challenge if appropriate measures are not in place to ensure privacy. Integrity means only an authorized person can make changes to data or information [17]. If data is mistakenly shared with an unintended recipient or an unintended party gets access to data, he or she might make unnecessary changes to

4 the data which may be harmful to the organization. This can occur when ICT s such as internet, , or chat is used to communicate and share information. Availability means that data or information will be accessible and usable on demand [17]. Availability also means that the system should continue working without any interruptions even when there is a breach of security [17]. E. Poor service delivery The poor service delivery from government departments to citizen has made it necessary for these departments to adopt ICT to help in improving service delivery and reaching out to citizens. ICT can also improve government service delivery to citizens if majority of the citizens whom the services are intended for are unable to access such services. Policies that will regulate quality of service, infra-structure competition, encourage universal connectivity and service, access pricing, technology and services innovation, promote local content industry, and stimulate investment in next generation networks needs to be put in place by regulators and policy makers in South Africa to speed up the pace of e- development policies [2]. Developing the right policy and adequate legislations to regulate ICT sector is also an important management issue that needs the attention of government in order to improve ICT access across the country. Figure 2 is a conceptual model of the challenges with ICT adoption in South Africa. F. Poor approaches to IT adoption Most countries in the Sub Sahara Africa have not made considerable investments on ICT. Most ICT equipment s i.e. computers in Sub Sahara Africa were donated with little or no instructions on how to operate and use them effectively [6]. In most cases, these computers and other ICT equipment s donated end up as burden to the receiving countries as the cost of maintaining them is high and their use is limited since the people are not adequately trained to use them. This is the reason why a lot of ICT initiatives fail in the Sub Sahara African countries [6]. Management need to develop adequate strategies and approaches that will guide ICT adoption and ensure that the benefits of ICT are fully realized. G. Ever-changing ICT environment The constant changes in ICT environments are a challenge with ICT adoption [11]. The culturally heterogeneous composition of many teams and the constant changes in their environment which adds to their complexity as cultural biases may also alter communication [11]. The ever changing ICT environment makes people afraid of ICT s and hence affects the rate of ICT adoption and diffusion. In South Africa, ICT is becoming a popular service delivery channel and most different government departments and business are using or planning to use one or more forms of ICT [14]. H. Lack of necessary Infrastructure The low penetration of internet and even lower access to broadband contributes to the digital divide is South Africa [2]. The lack of necessary ICT infrastructure also affects the speed of development that could be achieved from ICT. For example, only few citizens with access to internet and necessary ICT infrastructure will be able to access ICT applications such as the Cape Gateway e-government portal by the Western Cape provincial government [7]. I. Policy and Legislation Policies of e-development have been established with slow pace and this affects the value and effectiveness of telecoms policy choices. Figure 2: Challenges with ICT adoption in South Africa VII. IMPLICATIONS FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT A. Digital Divide Digital divide is the difference in the availability, access, and utilization of electronic forms of knowledge by members of different groups and societies. Digital divide also represent the division between those who are unable to benefits from adequate access to ICT s, and those who have access to ICT in a society [12]. Digital divide is widely seen as the difference between the rich and the poor, the developed and the under developed in the information society [6]. Although a lot of research has focused on digital divide among different social groups in a particular country, it has been found that digital divide also exist across countries especially between countries in the western world (e.g. United States of America, United Kingdom) and countries in Sub Sahara Africa (e.g. South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria etc.) [6]. In South Africa, digital divide is prevalent between different social groups especially between the people in the urban areas and the people in the rural areas [1].

5 B. Electronic business and commerce In South Africa, the highest usage of electronic media occurs in the services sector. The services sector also constitutes the largest contributor to GDP. The banking and financial services, tourism and entertainment are among the top users of online media [2]. Internet, telephone and mobile phone banking which are among the most popular ICT tools today are used by the four largest banks (FNB, ABSA, Nedbank and Standard Bank) in South Africa for communication and transactions with the use of simple but sensitive security measures such as short messaging services (SMS) passwords for Internet banking and instantaneous SMS notifications for credit card usage [2]. The use of ICT by government to provides services and access to information to citizens also has an implication on national development. This will be discussed in details in the next section. C. Electronic government (E-Government) E-Government is the use of an ICT based initiative to improve government service delivery and internal processes and provide easy access to information for citizens [7]. The South African government has made use of ICT in different areas. One of the important areas that the South African government is using ICT is e-government which is implemented at the national, provincial and local levels. The electronic filing of tax returns to the South African Revenue Services (SARS) and the national Batho Pele Gateway citizens information portal are two of the most successful e- Government applications by the South African government. Gender participation is another issue that has implications for national development. This will be discussed in details in the following section. D. Gender and ICT Gender participation in the ICT workforce is not even with men dominating the workforce in the core workers component and women dominating the end-users component with tasks such as administrative support and secondary ICT work activities [2]. The lower level of women s participation in ICT can be attributed the lack of technical capability by women. Workfamily conflicts, lack of role models and salary inequities were found to be among the barriers to women s participation in the ICT workforce [2]. This also has implications on national development because there is a need to balance gender in the workforce to promote gender equality. E. Culture In many previous studies, culture has been found to have a strong influence on why and how individuals, organizations or societies use ICT [15]. Most of the studies found that technology diffusion is different across cultures; technology preference varies across cultures and the beliefs, norms as well as values of a particular cultures influence the patterns of technology diffusion in that culture [15]. This is explained by the theory of reasoned action which states that the decision of an individual to adopt innovation is influenced by the individual s attitude towards the use of the innovation [19]. VIII. THEORITICAL CONCEPTS THAT EXPLAINS THE CHALLENGES There are different theoretical concepts which explain the reason behind people s decision to adopt or not to adopt ICT. This paper will use the dominant cultural framework. A. Dominant cultural framework The reasons why individuals or organizations may adopt ICT or decide not to adopt ICT can be explained by the dominant cultural framework which is based on five dimensions. The dimensions are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, and long-term orientation [16]. 1) Power Distance The unequal distribution of power in a country is the focus of power distance dimension. The common way to identify countries with high power distance is through the existence of centralized decision structures, the use of formal rules, and authority [16]. The rate of innovation and adoption is low in such countries because people are unable to think and act on their own because they need permission to do anything they need to do. 2) Uncertainty Avoidance (UA) The members of a society may feel uncertain about the use and benefits of ICT and may try to avoid the adoption because of the uncertainties. The perceived risks involved with ICT adoption is a likely source of uncertainty avoidance [16]. 3) Individualism (ID) In a country, there are different groups or societies which an individual may belong to. Individualism refers to the relationship between the individual and the group or society to which they belong. With individualism, people are more likely to make their own individual decisions while joint decisions are more likely to be made by people in collective countries where there are norms and standards [16]. 4) Masculinity (MA) There are masculine cultures where competition is encouraged and material values and performance is of high importance [16]. The feminine culture on the other hand seeks agreement on issues and is focused on equality, social relationships and solidarity. Rewards, performance recognition and training as well as improvement are encouraged in masculine cultures [16]. This makes the masculine cultures more innovative that the feminine cultures therefore making the rate of ICT adoption in masculine cultures higher than that in feminine cultures [16]. 5) Long-term orientation (LTO) The last dimension of the dominant cultural framework is long-term orientation. This focuses on time orientation of cultures. Some cultures can endure and wait for a long time to achieve the benefits of ICT [16]. Such cultures are more likely

6 to have a high rate of ICT adoption because they will be patient enough to implement ICT and wait for the benefits to be realized. IX. CONCLUSION ICT has the capability to improve the economy of a country [2]. This capability of ICT to impact the economy of a country positively has been realized by the South African government and different initiatives have been put in place by the South African government to maximize the benefits realized from the use of ICT [2]. Government efforts to improve the rate of ICT adoption in South Africa has not been totally effective mainly because of lack of competition in the telecommunication industry as a result of monopoly of Telkom in the fixed line services and the duopoly of MTN and Vodacom in the wireless line services [2] [7]. In order for the government to eradicate this problem and improve the rate of ICT adoption, government policies should be put in place and adequate funding should be provided to smaller organizations to develop ICT infrastructures as this will increase competition in the sector and lead to reduction in band width cost which will consequently lead to increase in the rate of ICT adoption [1]. The government should develop more ICT infrastructure is rural areas where majority of the populations cannot afford their own ICT in order to ensure that citizens access to services are improved and participation of citizens is increased. Furthermore, government should make proper plans for the maintenance of ICT infrastructure as this has been found to be one of the top reasons for failure of ICT implementation and adoption in South Africa with the implementation of telecenters where most of the telecenters are no longer functioning as a result of lack of adequate maintenance plans. Training programs should also be developed in order to empower people to be able to know how to make efficient use of ICT to realize the benefits promised [2] [14]. Security measures should also be put in place to ensure that access to data or information shared using ICT is restricted to only the intended recipients [17]. If all the above suggestions are considered and put into practice, this will help improve service delivery, improve economic growth, improve knowledge management thereby leading to efficient decision making, creation more jobs, improvement of citizen participation and help in the realisation of all the benefits of ICT. ACKNOWLEDGMENT We would like to thank God for the successful completion of this work. We would also like to thank Chief Samuel Oladapo Akande, Mrs Florence Ajoke Akande and Nozuko Aurelia April for their guidance and advice. This research is sponsored by National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF). REFERENCES [1] S. 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