South Africa cannot afford further underdevelopment in an area so crucial to the coming century. Our strength here lies in advanced IT infrastructure and limited, but real, strengths of IT expertise. The debilitating effects of a lack of effective Information Technology Policies will lead ineffectual and retarded development. Such effects are already being seen in the lack of effective applicable IT research. IT research and development is vital to support the competitive development of South Africa and to provide many of the services our community needs quickly and effectively.
Information technology is the key enabling technology of our age.
When we apply information technology in a directed way to our problems then limited resources are amplified, valuable information and expertise can be widely distributed and our industry is made more competitive. Everyone here knows how fast the field changes. Computing is probably the only area which is changing faster than South African politics. The world wide web was released after Mandela, although now it is already so common that the president and his party and our new constitution are being discussed on the web. Consider where computing will be when our next election is held and the RDP finally delivers.