4. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - Faculties submissions

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    Digitalisation of government services for service delivery: Case of The City of Ekurhuleni
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Dlamini, Luke Mhlonishwa; Mawela, Tendani
    The implementation of digital solutions presents numerous opportunities for both private and public organizations, aiming to enhance effectiveness, efficiency, and gain competitive advantage. While the private sector has already embraced digitalisation, the public sector has lagged in adopting technology. This study aims to highlight the benefits of digitalisation, identify the challenges hindering its adoption, and propose a framework for its implementation. Digitalisation is viewed as a means to enhance agility within organizations. South African municipalities and the public sector have faced widespread criticism from citizens regarding inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Therefore, many of these entities have initiated efforts to automate their services to enhance service delivery. Automating services and systems could have addressed criticisms of poor service delivery. However, this effort is hindered by unstable and unreliable networks, as well as a shortage of experienced personnel to oversee the digitalisation process. Consequently, South African municipalities often outsource many of their services to third-party companies through professional services to overcome these challenges. Despite the well-documented benefits of outsourcing digitalisation services, municipalities lack guidance on how to do so successfully. Insufficient research has been conducted on this emerging trend of digitalisation. Thus, this study aimed to formulate a model for the implementation of digitalisation in the city of Ekurhuleni. Employing a qualitative approach, data was gathered from the city's ICT department. Subsequently, qualitative analysis was conducted on the data obtained from middle and senior management. The findings revealed that organizational factors, either collectively or individually, exert a significant influence on the adoption of digitalisation. The analysis revealed that technological factors, including innovation characteristics and organizational readiness for technology, are significant determinants of digitalisation adoption. Environmental factors were also identified as influential in this regard. This study addresses the lack of literature on digitalisation adoption in municipalities and proposes a model that can guide further research in this area. Additionally, the developed model can inform decision-making processes regarding digitalisation adoption in government. Other cities can utilize this model to inform their own digitalisation strategies, thereby making a valuable contribution to practice and management.
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    The Assessment of the Current Geographical Information System (GIS) initiatives in the public enterprises of Swaziland
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Khumalo, Malungisa Blessing; Adam, Elhadi
    There is a growing use of geographic information systems (GIS) within the public sector in many countries. GIS require considerable financial resources and investment in information and communication technology (ICT) and human resources, which are primarily financed by public funds. The growth in adoption is partly influenced by the promising potential of GIS that has been widely discussed in the literature on GIS. The usefulness and application of GIS in aiding decision making and in public policy formulation and implementation have also been widely discussed in the literature on GIS. To examine the effectiveness of GIS in public policy, one has to develop a mechanism for measuring the success achieved by the implementation of GIS in decision making. However, the methodologies for the evaluation of the use of GIS in the public sector are mainly lacking. The aims of this research were to evaluate the effective use of GIS in the public sector in Swaziland. Three organisations were selected, namely the Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications (SPTC), Swaziland Water Services Corporation (SWSC) and Swaziland National Housing Board (SNHB). Like in most developing countries, the lack of GIS evaluation to improve implementation is a challenge for these organisations. The current GIS applications at SPTC, SWSC and SNHB were evaluated using maturity, value and GIS product assessments. Four methods of analysis were used for data analysis: GIS maturity calculation; relative frequency of maturity calculation; gap analysis; and GIS value assessment. The results found that the SPTC, SWSC and SNHB were all in the exploitation stage of maturity. The overall relative frequency of maturity in the dimensions is the following: 35% of indicators are in the exploration stage; 56% are in the exploitation stage; and 9% are in the enterprise stage. The gap analysis shows that the organisations are in the exploitation stage of maturity. Cost prevention, coordination, employee satisfaction, better data management, time saving and better quality of information were regarded as the main ways in which GIS add value to organisations. The GIS product assessment results show that the overall compliance rate with the cartographic standards is 57.09%.