• Artificial intelligence is being used in some aspects of government, but not many, and mostly to make things more efficient.
• The president also mentioned plans to establish a digital ID system.
• Furthermore, there appears to be good news on the horizon for tech startups looking for funding from government.

On Thursday night President Cyril Ramaphosa stood before the country to deliver the State of the Nation Address (SONA). As usual we were interested in how technology forms part of the plans for the year ahead and this year, there was a lot of talk about technology, including artificial intelligence.

The first mention of the technology being used in the State of the Nation Address is to improve tourism.

“As part of our reform agenda, we will continue to enhance our visa system to make it easier for skilled people to invest in our country and to grow tourism,” the President stated.

“This year, we will launch an Electronic Travel Authorisation system to enable a secure, fully digital visa application process. This system will use artificial intelligence and automation to reduce the scope for corruption and enable rapid turnaround times for tourist visas.”

The president also talked up how AI powered fraud risk detection has been used by SARS to prevent leakage of more than R95 billion in impermissible refunds, recovered R20 billion in revenue and dismantle an illicit tobacco and gold scheme.

As regards other aspects of technology, government looks to be aiming to digitalise more of its services, making them available to all citizens at all times. This will be accomplished through investment into digital infrastructure and a relaunching of the gov.za platform.

While the gov.za website is rather useful already for finding news, speeches and legislation, it would be great to have a centralised destination for all national services. One of the core aspects of this digitalisation is a digital identity system.

Rather than needing to upload copies of your ID, proof of residence and other documents, one could use their ID number which links to a trusted database that contains all of that information. A system such as this is vital for digital inclusivity and broadening access to a range of services and systems.

These measures will transform the relationship between citizens and government, and create one government that is accessible to every person at a touch,” said Ramaphosa.

The president also mentioned that the country will be setting up a digital forensics lab in support of investigating complex corruption and financial crime.

The Department of Science, Technology and Innovation has been instructed to establish an Innovation Fund that will provide venture capital to tech startups, with a focus on startups set up by graduates fresh out of college and university.

Unfortunately, broadband access and connectivity in general wasn’t mentioned. There is a government initiative aimed at getting every citizen connected to the internet affordably. That project is called SA Connect and it launched in 2013. However, the drive to get all citizens online only started in 2022 and while the project aims to have all South Africans online by 2026, there are precious few updates about this initiative.

In 2024 the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies was asked about closing of the digital divide and unfortunately, the minister seemed to be leaning on private-public partnerships

“In addition to the SA Connect programme, a new initiative I am championing is the exploration of equity equivalent options, which I see as one of South Africa’s most significant empowerment programmes. This initiative encourages multinational ICT companies to invest in the country by offering alternatives to traditional equity ownership requirements. It aims to expand broadband infrastructure in underserved areas, reduce data costs, and increase network coverage, ensuring more South Africans, especially in rural areas, have access to affordable digital connectivity,” read Minister Solly Malatsi’s response.

While the minister said that SA Connect remains part of its strategy to expand access, one has to wonder when the project will eventually achieve what it set out to do over a decade ago.

The talk of technology from Ramaphosa during the State of the Nation Address also comes down to plans and setting things up. Here’s hoping that all comes to ahead.

[Image – Cyril Ramaphosa on X]