Time for GovTech in South Africa
By: Caroline Van Der Merwe
Tags: South Africa, Govchat, Discovery Health, Govtech, Mysmartcity

My experience at the CTICC Vaccination Centre of Hope gave me renewed confidence in our government’s ability to adopt technological innovation to deliver services. The experience was world class. In fact, well beyond anything I’ve experienced of government services in South Africa or any other country. It was tech-enabled, it was well staffed and the process could not have been more efficient. What’s more, I was one of several hundred people who didn’t have an appointment. Within 70 minutes, I was jabbed, and sitting in the monitoring area, waiting to go home.

The key success factor: it was delivered through a public-private partnership.

The South African government, and indeed most governments, are not very good at technology. They rarely respond to crises rapidly and they can’t build new systems quickly. But the South African government took a decision to take ownership of vaccine supply to ensure equitable access for all South Africans, not only those who are lucky enough to have private medical aid. So they joined forces with Discovery to respond to the crisis, and the initiative has been incredibly successful. Simply put, Discovery is good at technology. The are well known for their exceptional customer experience. They’re a global innovation leader in both health and banking. What’s more, Discovery is one of South Africa’s most trusted businesses.

It got me thinking about the possibility of all government services being delivered in this way. Imagine not having to queue at a dingy Home Affairs office ever again!

I’ve recently developed a keen interest in what is now called ‘GovTech’, essentially the use of modern technology to improve delivery of government services. The sector is nascent but on the rise globally. In an attempt to attract skilled technologists to the government, the Biden administration hid the words: “​​if you’re reading this, we need your help” in the code of the Whitehouse website. The US government launched the United States Digital Service some years ago to address this need, but change has not been quick enough. While governments are trying to build expertise internally, a better solution is emerging: an ecosystem of GovTech startups and public-private partnerships to accelerate digital transformation, without having to move at the glacial pace of government.

So how is South Africa progressing with GovTech? Unsurprisingly, not very well. There are a few notable exceptions like GovChat, the WhatsApp-enabled tool that allows citizens to provide service-delivery feedback and access critical services such as SASSA grants, that now has eight million active users. Another is MySmartCity, an app that allows citizens to report incidents to their local municipality and access emergency services.

GovTech may sound like the least exciting segment of the startup world, but my experience is that tech founders are almost all driven by impact, especially in South Africa. What greater impact could anyone hope to make than defining your target customer as every citizen?

GovTech isn’t limited to automating home affairs processes either. I recently spoke to a founder who has built software that uses artificial intelligence to identify payroll inconsistencies for a South African SOE, drastically reducing the incidence of corruption and human error in payroll, saving literally billions of rands. The opportunities are massive. South Africa has a healthy and growing start-up scene, with Cape Town emerging as the Silicon Valley of Africa. Both founders and government should be waking up to the possibilities of collaboration.

I’ll be putting together a series of articles delving further into GovTech, including how all South Africans can benefit equally from government digitisation, how using GIS mapping can improve the efficiency of emergency services in cities, how our governments are ill prepared for technology regulations and how Covid has shaken us from stagnation and may usher in an age of innovation.