South Africa Remains at Stage 1 of Service Maturity

Stage I: Basic Capability - The first stage of e-government maturity involves using the Internet and web-based technologies to become more efficient at providing information and some basic forms of interaction and transaction. It requires considerable investment in technology, skills, and institutional capability to lift service quality, access, and reliability and demonstrate results.

Stage II: Mature Delivery - The second stage of e-government maturity involves a move from a focus on information and basic transactions to transforming the processes and performance of government. It is about removing barriers within government to provide a more integrated, customer or citizen-centric experience dealing with, and contributing to government and the process of government decision-making. To present seamless, multi-channel, citizen-centric tools and solutions, governments will have to work as a single enterprise in some critical areas. The key is to create a common vision/strategy and a single, enterprise architecture to guide the evolution of e-government solutions.

Stage III: Transformation - The dominant theme of the third stage of e-government maturity is the “Networked Virtual Organization” (NVO) – it draws government departments and agencies as well as the business and community sectors into more complex patterns of collaboration that rely on complementary skills and resources and shared systems, processes and knowledge. Stage III also involves experimentation aimed at, among other things, improving participation and citizen engagement.