Gauteng turns to ICT to end chaos

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 20 Feb 2007

Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa emphasised ICT as a solution to the province's challenges in his annual State of the Province address yesterday.

He said technology would be deployed in the coming year to improve policing, end chaos in the drivers' licence booking system, automate healthcare records and grow the province's economy.

Shilowa said R600 million has been set aside to build and equip a world-class police emergency response centre to replace six existing centres. "We are expecting the new centre to become operational during July 2007 and are confident it will make a substantial contribution to police service delivery in Gauteng."

He noted the latest technology would be introduced to ensure each emergency call is attended to as quickly as possible. This includes the introduction of satellite tracking devices in all police emergency response vehicles and radios.

Booking system

Turning to the drivers' licence issue, Shilowa said: "Over the past year, the driving licence booking system has not been able to respond adequately to the needs of consumers."

He announced "immediate improvements" would be in place by "the end of the financial year" (31 March 2008).

"A new system integrating SMS, telephone, Internet and walk-in bookings will be introduced," Shilowa added. "Booking terminals will be installed at every testing centre and a direct online link created between each centre and the GSSC call centre."

Healthcare

Shilowa outlined an ICT system to more efficiently manage patients and deal with the challenge of long queues.

He explained the system would use smart cards containing patient history and information to speed up the process of looking up patient files. This is expected to release health workers to focus on the core work of looking after patients' health.

Economic growth

Shilowa praised the role of ICT in enhancing economic growth, calling it "crucial" and saying it provided a platform for the expansion of the call centre industry and the services sector. He said one in six individuals are involved in small business activities.

"To support SMEs and help them embrace new technology, we last year initiated the advanced manufacturing technology programme in Soshanguve," Shilowa said.

"We are also negotiating a partnership agreement between the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller and the National Small Industries Corporation of India for the establishment of an SME science and technology centre to provide a supportive environment for emerging technological and knowledge-based SMEs."

2010 plans

Shilowa said the provincial economic development department was working with municipalities and national government to improve Gauteng's ICT infrastructure to cater for the 2010 World Cup.

"We are also working with the Department of Public Enterprises and Infraco to explore the possibility of establishing a media centre at Nasrec in time for the 2010 World Cup," he said.

"In line with our growth and development strategy, this will help expand the knowledge-based sector of our economy and ensure smaller enterprises contribute to and benefit from this growth."