Speaking at the recent Google South Africa launch of an initiative to train 13,000 public servants in cybersecurity, Minister Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi emphasised that digital transformation should not leave anyone behind, especially those living in far-flung rural areas of the country.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For these communities, digital transformation means access to healthcare, financial services, and administrative support that does not require costly, time-consuming travel,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Minister Inkosi Buthelezi.<\/p>\n
Minister Inkosi Buthelezi explained that while the Government has taken a posture that puts digitalisation at the centre of efforts to professionalise the Public Service, he worried about the disjuncture between this vision and the skill sets of public servants.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153As we contemplate the opportunities before us, it is crucial to emphasize that South Africa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s public service employs over 1.2 million individuals. Yet only a tiny fraction of 0.03% work in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) roles. This gap represents both a challenge and a call to action,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d observed Minister Inkosi Buthelezi.<\/p>\n
The Minister added that of the 4,500 of the total number of public servants who work with ICT-related functions, an even smaller number specialise in cybersecurity, which put the nation in an unacceptably high risk.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And if a call to action means that we move government online by making services accessible, efficient, and secure for all South Africans\u00e2\u20ac\u201dparticularly rural communities, the elderly, and persons with disabilities\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthen we need a qualified professional workforce,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he warned.<\/p>\n
Minister Inkosi Buthelezi argued that a comprehensive approach where “each public servant understands their role in securing our digital environment” is necessary to address the government’s digital vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In this context, partnerships with private sector innovators like Google are indispensable. By aligning Google\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s technical expertise with DPSA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mandate for capacity-building and professionalisation, we are therefore paving the way for an ICT-enabled public service that is not only resilient but also trusted by its citizens,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the Minister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Speaking at the recent Google South Africa launch of an initiative to train 13,000 public servants in cybersecurity, Minister Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi emphasised that digital transformation should not leave anyone behind, especially those living in far-flung rural areas of the country. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For these communities, digital transformation means access to healthcare, financial services, and administrative support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-service-delivery-improvement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dpsa.gov.za\/thepublicservant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dpsa.gov.za\/thepublicservant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dpsa.gov.za\/thepublicservant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dpsa.gov.za\/thepublicservant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dpsa.gov.za\/thepublicservant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dpsa.gov.za\/thepublicservant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4706,"href":"https:\/\/www.dpsa.gov.za\/thepublicservant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4705\/revisions\/4706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dpsa.gov.za\/thepublicservant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dpsa.gov.za\/thepublicservant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dpsa.gov.za\/thepublicservant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dpsa.gov.za\/thepublicservant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}