Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (Research Outputs)
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/38060
For queries relating to content and technical issues, please contact IR specialists via this email address : openscholarship.library@wits.ac.za, Tel: 011 717 4652 or 011 717 1954
Browse
230 results
Search Results
Item Enhancing digital governance in African parliaments: The case of the African parliamentary oversight tool(LUP and African Minds, 2026) Pule, Khumo; Chirau, Takunda J.; Masvaure, StevenIn the 21st century we have seen a paradigm shift in governance, from traditional analogue governance systems to digital systems driven by Information Communication Technologies (ICT). Despite introducing terms such as e-governance and e-parliament to signify this digital evolution, parliamentary evidence generation predominantly clings to analogue methods. The COVID-19 pandemic expedited the shift of parliamentary activities from physical engagement to online platforms. However, a significant technological divide persists in internal processes and research procedures for evidence used in African parliaments. In response, the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results Anglophone Africa (CLEAR-AA) developed the African Parliamentary Oversight Tool (African POT), which is a mobile application research management tool to undertake digital transformation for evidence generation and use in African Parliaments. This paper examines how the African POT helps take analogue systems into the digital era. Furthermore, it examines the role of the POT in strengthening evidence use in African parliaments, using the Parliament of Zambia as a case study. The methodology adopted in this chapter is essentially centred on action research pursued during the designing, co-planning and piloting of the African POT with the Parliamentary representatives from Kenya and Zambia, as well as the authors’ experiences and insights gained from leading such interventions. The findings indicate that the African POT creates new opportunities for evidence generation and synthesis, a repository for research reports and monitoring and evaluation data, digitalisation of existing parliamentary research processes, and improvement of data curation and evidence synthesis systems. The results posit slow yet gradual progress in adapting research management information systems. Political ideologies often take precedence over the available quantum of evidence. Overall, the findings indicate that it remains uncertain whether the evidence produced through the African POT is considered during the process. At the practice level, this study is a situational analysis of the usability and experience of both designers and users of the POT, and provides parliamentary staff, development practitioners, knowledge brokers and other actors in the space of evidence generation and utilisation with helpful knowledge for consideration when navigating the complexities of introducing and implementing digital governance through mobile applications, particularly in volatile spaces such as parliaments.Item Uncovering tacit algorithmic collusion in South Africa’s markets(LUP and African Minds, 2026) Khalifa, Asma; Mahleza, Yeukai N. D.Algorithms are designed to teach machines to use data to predict outcomes, identify patterns and structures, or learn to perform complicated tasks. Businesses use algorithms to predict and measure the likelihood of future outcomes in a market. Such predictive analytics can be used to estimate consumer demand for a product and consumer behaviour and preferences, and to forecast internal and external risks that may cause shock to a market. Algorithms are also beneficial to consumers. They grant consumers access to information about the competitive dimensions of a market, and about product quality and prices. As a result, consumers can make informed decisions when engaging with the market. While the use of algorithms encourages efficiency in markets, it may also enable firms to engage in tacit collusion. In South Africa, collusion is prohibited by section 4 of the Competition Act No 89 of 1998 (the Competition Act). This chapter will analyse whether the Competition Act contains sufficient tools for the detection and regulation of tacit algorithmic collusion.Item Fintech in Selected BRICS Countries: Similar Policy Imperatives?(LUP and African Minds, 2026) Khambule, Isaac; Maciko, LoyisoFintech has undergone accelerated evolution in the global tech sector, affecting how economies conduct their modes of business. The paper on which this chapter is based aimed to conduct a cross-country analysis of fintech development in three BRICS countries (China, India and South Africa), to interrogate whether these countries share similar policy imperatives and overall direction. Methodologically the paper was guided by the concept of the regulatory state, and utilised secondary resources to provide insights into the diverse experiences and debates on fintech policy development in these BRICS nations. The findings were that the impact and direction of fintech policies in BRICS countries remain understudied and highly debatable. China and India, with the two largest populations in the world, have the highest levels of fintech consumption globally, and play a leading role in informing policy direction through effective but contested regulations. The practical policy implications suggest the need for BRICS countries to develop a balanced approach that prioritises regulations to minimise financial instability, as markets are unable to self-regulate. However, there is no policy consensus on how BRICS countries should manage fintech policy; and this may pose challenges, as intra-BRICS trade and investment deepen and expand to other economies in Africa and the Middle East.Item Reflections on Africa’s Digital Governance: forging resilient and inclusive futures(LUP and African Minds, 2026) Twinomurinzi, Hossana; Karuri-Sebina, Geci; Ochara, Muganda NixonThis concluding chapter offers a synthesis of Africa's Digital Transformation and its Governance, threading together the volume's critical insights into a cohesive narrative about the continent's digital journey. Moving beyond mere summary, we reflect on the complex tensions between technological potential and governance realities, between global pressures and local agency. The analysis reveals digital transformation as neither a panacea nor a predetermined path, but rather as a contested terrain where Africa's developmental aspirations intersect with historical inequalities and emerging power dynamics. Drawing from diverse disciplinary perspectives across the chapters, we articulate key lessons while acknowledging the persistent tensions: the promise of innovation against risks of exclusion, the allure of efficiency versus demands for justice, and the imperative of sovereignty amidst global dependencies. Ultimately, this reflection calls for governance frameworks that are as dynamic and pluralistic as the societies they aim to serve – frameworks capable of nurturing resilient digital futures that are truly African in conception and inclusive in realization.Item AI-ready? How African governments are assembling policy in anticipation of data-and AI-driven techno-futures(LUP and African Minds, 2026) Ndaka, AngellaWith the current growth of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven applications in Africa, and the increasing media attention devoted to data-driven decision-making in virtually all key spaces in government as well as in society, policymakers are becoming increasingly aware that AI-driven ecosystems are inevitable. In this chapter I draw from feminist science and technology studies (STS) approaches to discuss how different governments are anticipating AI technologies, paying particular attention to the ways this anticipation relates to the framing and reframing of public policies. Of interest is the way in which policy strategies capture or mute the role of the institutions and the people who will shape AI investment, design and use, as well as overall governance. By examining the three publicly available AI policy strategies, the chapter examines how different governments on the continent are anticipating and framing AI techno-futures. The chapter responds to the question: What do the publicly available AI policy strategies reveal about how African governments are framing and anticipating AI techno-futures? It tries to compare how different policies are framed, as well as to reveal how governments see AI and big data compared to how the market sees them. The policies analysed reveal that African governments foreground technological advancement, economic growth and research, and are less focused on people and institutions whose role is important in determining how the value in the technology may be shared equitably. The chapter argues that African governments and critical AI scholars must invest in policy methodologies that counteract the tendency of large and emerging tech actors to presume an inevitable journey of converting data to monetisable knowledge and other useful products. The chapter proposes that governments and AI-critical scholars should start seeing like a market by focusing on the apparent assemblage of power, knowledge and profits, and advancing policy frameworks that require a comprehensive account of how value is extracted from data collection processes, and how this ‘value’ translates to the flourishing or disenfranchising of the populations from which data is extracted. The chapter reveals some gaps in and challenges to deliberative policy assemblage and engagement in relation to AI techno-futures in Africa. It proposes some of the ways different actors could contribute meaningfully to AI policies through deliberative policy processes.Item Digitalisation and elections: Key lessons from South Africa(LUP and African Minds, 2026) Maseko, Maxwell M.Free and fair elections are a prerequisite for a healthy democracy, giving people the right to exercise their power to choose or change their leaders. This chapter does not suggest that a democratic system of governance is the only valid form of government. However, it is a system favoured by many countries, due to its ability to allow citizens to participate in persuading their leaders to act for the greater public good. Over the past decade, many African countries have experienced complex electoral challenges linked to failing traditional methods of voting, as well as general malpractice negatively affecting election outcomes. Furthermore, while the following list is not exhaustive, democracy in many developing countries is in crisis due to factors such as a growing lack of trust in government leaders and politicians, weak governance, and poor electoral systems marked by voter apathy, low registration numbers, and low voter turnout – especially among the youth. In a bid to improve election efficiency and bolster voter participation, African countries are slowly turning to digital technology. Building on a South African case study, this chapter argues for adopting digital technologies to boost election management on the continent, particularly technology geared towards solving country-specific challenges. During its 2021 local government elections, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa piloted the use of around 40 000 voter management devices (VMDs). This technology can be likened to that of the more popular Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) devices used across Africa, West Asia and Latin America to electronically verify voters while also tackling double voting and election fraud. The chapter concludes that although not perfect, and for various reasons, VMDs were a game-changer for elections in South AfricaItem Expanding geographies of accountability: rising contestations of Big Tech in Africa, and their meaning for policymaking(LUP and African Minds, 2026) Gagliardone, Iginio; Stremlau, NicoleThis chapter examines two diametrically different cases of contestation of the narratives and practices advanced by Big Tech in Africa. One is the challenge brought by content moderators in Kenya to the company Meta, accused of imposing dire working conditions on them under the questionable banner of impact sourcing – an alternative to development aid, seeking to offer dignified work to the poorest. The other is the shutdown of Facebook during the 2021 Ugandan elections, motivated by a selective takedown by the platform of pages and users tied to political parties. Despite the obvious disparities, both cases are indicative of an expansion of the areas in which Big Tech is being asked to account for its power, including the marginal spaces where tech companies have historically sought immunity for the consequences of their actions. They also reveal greater confidence emerging in Africa, and a willingness to reject or redefine the position of subalternity in which the continent has been placed since the diffusion of the global internet. As we argue at the end of the chapter, while this re-definition of roles has inspired new ways to act, it has not been able to shape new policies, which still tend to replicate old forms of dependency. And yet, greater opportunities exist to experiment with forms of cooperation, as Achille Mbembe stressed, that can find inspiration in Africa’s long tradition of flexible, networked sovereignty.Item Factors impacting digital government adoption in Africa(LUP and African Minds, 2026) Mayayise, ThembekileDigital government involves the use of technology, especially the internet, to provide online services such as tax filing and passport applications to citizens and other stakeholders. Similarly, digital governance entails the process of ensuring the provision of digital government services, and seeks to contribute towards enhanced efficiency, transparency, and responsiveness through these technologies. The goal is to regulate, manage and improve the delivery of government services to the citizens. Developed nations such as Denmark and Finland have taken the lead in embracing digital governance, promoting citizen engagement and transparency. Even in Africa, which was previously considered a technology desert, progress is evident in some countries, mostly those for which the state has a functional website. However, there is still work to be done to reach a level of adoption and realisation of benefits comparable to that of developed nations. This chapter aims to discuss the factors which impact digital government adoption in Africa. To achieve that, a systematic literature review was conducted, analysing peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings from SCOPUS, Web of Science and EBCO Host databases, published from January 2019 to January 2024. As part of the review, 31 articles were synthesised. Inductive thematic analysis was performed, and the following sub-themes of factors were identified: Technology, Socioeconomic, Process, People, Leadership, and Legislation. These were unpacked in detail. One finding was that there is a need for more studies in Africa, as there were no studies found for 2022, 2023 and 2024. The purpose of this chapter is to assist policymakers by highlighting critical factors they should consider for the successful adoption of digital government in the African region. Future research could explore the impact of each theme in a specific African context, and compare the results for different countriesItem Micro and macro socio-economic drivers of the digital divide in South Africa(LUP and African Minds, 2026) Magida, AyandaThe term ‘digital divide’ pertains to the disparity between those with access to digital technologies and those without, encompassing individuals, households and businesses. Initially viewed as a simple dichotomy, the understanding of the digital divide has since evolved into a multidimensional framework, emphasising the importance of meaningful connectivity. This involves consistent and uninterrupted internet access, access to suitable devices, sufficient data, and affordable connections. The digital divide is further categorised into three levels. The first level concerns physical access to digital infrastructure, encompassing access to computers, the internet, and mobile phones. The second level relates to the effective use of digital technologies, including digital literacy and skills. The third level pertains to using digital technologies to engage in economic, social and political activities. The study described in this chapter was conducted to investigate the micro and macro drivers of the digital divide in the context of South Africa, employing a concurrent mixed-method approach. The micro-level findings indicate that age, geographic location and population group are significant socio-economic factors driving the first level of the digital divide. Additionally, economic activity, population group and education level influence the second level of the digital divide. Qualitative interviews revealed three themes contributing to the digital divide's macro drivers, including the affordability of internet access and ICT devices, the availability of infrastructure such as fibre and network connectivity, and the impact of electricity challenges on internet stability. By utilising mixed methods, this study provides valuable insights into the micro and macro drivers of the digital divide, making important empirical and methodological contributions to this area of research.Item Africa’s Digital Transformation and its Governance: The Long View(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2026) Karuri-Sebina, Geci; Ochara, Nixon MugandaThis introductory chapter sets the stage for an exploration of Africa's digital transformation and its governance. It synthesizes existing research, highlighting the challenges and opportunities within the continent's unique socio-economic and political contexts, conceptualizing digital transformation from both exogenous and endogenous perspectives. It frames key questions for Africa’s digital future, and outlines the contributions of the subsequent chapters in addressing critical dimensions of digital governance, economy, society, and the role of artificial intelligence in achieving Sustainable Development Goals. This chapter aims to foster a critical engagement with Africa's imperative to respond responsibly and boldly to these evolving digital conditions.