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- Only 0.4% of public servants work in information technology, a representative of the Department of Public Service and Administration has told News24.
- Zaid Aboobaker said around 16 government departments had fewer than three IT personnel on their staff.
- Digital skills are a training priority for Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande
- For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.
About 5 000 public servants work in information technology (IT) in the 161 government departments in South Africa. This means a mere 0.4% of the 1.2 million public servants work in IT.
This is according to Zaid Aboobaker, the chief director of e-government at the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), who was speaking at the GovTech conference at the Durban International Convention Center from 12 to 14 September.
The DPSA is responsible for the organisation and administration of the civil service.
Aboobaker told News24 that the figures were the most recent, reached independently by the department. He, however, said the figures were unpublished, though the department is trying to make the public sector aware of them.
He also said that half of the total number of public service IT workers were employed at nine of the largest government departments.
Concerningly, he said, about 16 government departments have fewer than three people in their IT departments.
"If you are running a government department, whether national or provincial, and you have three IT people or fewer, including the management and the director of IT, how do you maintain, how do you transform, how do you do anything other than just kind of keep on swimming?" Aboobaker asked.
He emphasised the importance of developing IT skills among the youth in the public sector.
Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande said he had told the National Skills Fund that one of his top five priorities for training was digital skills.
Nzimande told the GovTech conference:
He said his departments as well as the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies should continue to create pathways for South Africans to develop IT skills.
Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges are also introducing programmes to develop IT skills, said Nzimande.
A procurement predicament
Aboobaker said the DPSA also conducts expenditure analysis on information and communication technology procurement by government bodies.
He said it could take a government department up to six months to procure 10 laptops.
"If you need 10 laptops, it shouldn't take you more than a week to get those laptops. You should be able to go on to a portal, there is a government list price, and you can choose based on the standard that has been set by SITA [the State Information Technology Agency] and by yourselves, and you get your laptops."
In highlighting that the current procurement system may need to be reconsidered, Aboobaker said he was aware of an incident where it took two years for a government organisation to procure anti-virus software.
