Twenty-five women, mainly from the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), met with their Google South Africa counterparts on Monday, 21 August 2022, to exchange ideas on work-related experiences.
The morning session, held at the Google South Africa offices on the outskirts of Johannesburg, focused on the need for self-affirmation, particularly in the worlds of work that males dominate, under the tech company’s I Am Remarkable women empowerment programme.
Also in attendance were female colleagues from the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) and their Director-General (DG), Ms Nonkqubela Thathakahle Jordan-Dyani.
In her opening remarks before the start of the Women’s Month session, the DG of the DPSA, Ms Yoliswa MMkhasi, said one of the objectives of the DPSA/Google South Africa Women’s Month session was to forge a partnership with the tech giant to open up opportunities for women in the Public Service to acquire technology and digital skills.
“In general, one of the areas that we are struggling with as Government is the scarcity of data analysts, and Google has online programmes that could help close this gap,” said DG Makhasi.
DG Makhasi further noted the process of formalising a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the DPSA and Google South Africa, which will leverage partnerships to ensure that the Public Service learns and improves on how it operates, with a primary focus on women.
The envisaged partnership between Google South Africa and the DPSA is expected to tap into the 1 billion US investment Google made in Africa in 2021. The focus of the investment includes skills development, according to Ms Abongile Mashele, the Senior Manager for Government Affairs at Google South Africa.
At the session’s close, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies Director-General, Ms Jordan-Dyani, applauded Google South Africa for its women-friendly work environment that includes providing child-care facilities, which she said is something that the Public Service could emulate.
In addition to the I Am Remarkable self-affirmation session, DG Jordan-Dyani expressed her department’s appreciation of the potential partnerships between Google SA and the South African Government. As the head of the department in charge of communications and digital technologies in the country, DG Jordan-Dyani stated that collaboration on the Public Service’s digital transformation journey would be especially welcome because it would help ensure that Government employed Chief Information Officers acquire the appropriate set of skills to lead and manage the transformation of the Public Sector.
