The elections have come and gone

The national and provincial elections have come and gone. The results are out, and both the national and provincial (Western Cape) results are not very different from what I predicted would happen, reminding me again not trust my own instincts and not be overly influenced by the many so called expert analysts who commented throughout this process. It will be interesting to understand how so many analysts and media people could have got it so wrong. What does it mean about their understanding of the issues affecting ordinary people? What does it mean about the way that they report on similar events and issues in the future? Anyway, this is not my area of expertise, so I will leave it to the experts and other interested parties to debate. I will watch with interest from the sides.

The key issue on my mind (and probably many others) is who the ministers, deputy ministers, premiers and MECs are going to be, and what the key priorities for the new government are. From an ICT policy and strategy perspective, ICT issues have not featured very strongly in this campaign (although the use of ICT in campaigning was probably higher than it had ever been before). The election focused more on bread and butter issues (poverty, joblessness, service delivery, etc.), as it should. However now is a good time for the ICT industry to start to look at what its focus for the next 5 to 10 years should be.

In my opinion, the ICT industry in this country has not really embraced a developmental role. Very little time and effort has been spent understanding the challenges and opportunities that we have as a nation, and constructing locally appropriate and innovative solutions to help us overcome our challenges and exploit our opportunities. Instead, the ICT industry has largely been a reseller of foreign solutions, mainly from Westernised countries. This has resulted in an ICT industry which is predominantly focussed on chasing software licence revenues, hardware sales (and associated maintenance contracts) and support contracts to maintain these applications and hardware platforms. Very little emphasis has been placed on innovation and utilising technology to assist with resolving the problems that plague our society.

This does not mean that ICT cannot help meet the developmental challenges facing the country. I, for one, believe that ICT has a critical and pivotal role to play in this. I just believe that the power and potential of technology is not being fully realised, and that most players in the industry focus on narrow, parochial issues.

It is time for this to change. If the ICT industry wishes to grow and excel, it is critical that it becomes relevant within the context of the key issues facing our society today. This means that it has to become more developmental in its approaches.