The Realities of E-government in the South African Local Government: Are We Moving from Access to Inequality?

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19566606

Simon Matome Nkgapele¹ and Sifiso Mofokeng² (Department of Public Administration, University of Limpopo, South Africa¹ and Department of Public Management and Leadership, Nelson-Mandela University, South Africa²)

In recent years, public administration has increasingly shifted toward the digitalisation of government services to enhance both administrative efficiency and service delivery. In line with this global trend, many governments, including the South African government, have adopted digital initiatives to improve their efficiency and the quality of services provided. During this movement, numerous challenges have arisen, and while earlier research has largely concentrated on these issues, it has paid comparatively less attention to whether e-government initiatives improve access or exacerbate inequality. This paper closes the gap by expanding the literature on how e-government initiatives can contribute to inequalities instead of fostering access to services. The paper is qualitative in nature and uses secondary data to address the questions, aims and objectives. The authors find that there are numerous elements, such as poor digital literacy, infrastructure, socio-economic issues, and political limitations. These elements hinder the abilities of communities in fully accessing e-government platforms and services. As such, the communities are not fully able to access e-government services, which indirectly translates to inequalities. The paper further demonstrates that communities in rural areas suffer the most in terms of accessing the e-government platforms and services. It is recommended that the local government function hand in hand with other levels of the government to ensure that e-government platforms and services are accessible to the communities. This is especially important in rural areas.