Preparedness of South African deep rural SMMEs to deliver e-government services to local communities

Abstract

This paper reports on a research to assess the readiness of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) to deliver e-government services to deep rural communities through information dissemination by the SMMEs. This research was conducted as a case study at KwaNongoma rural area in KwaZulu-Natal. The study was meant to determine the ways SMMEs operate, assess the ICT infrastructure and ICT skills in the community, identify the community needs on service delivery and then give an assessment on the level of preparedness by the SMMEs to deliver e-government services. The conclusion reached was that, although there is a willingness by the SMMEs to deliver e-government services, these deep rural SMMEs are not in a position to currently. Lack of ICT skills, prohibitive costs of ICTs and unreliable electricity supply all contribute to this. However this is mitigated by the fact that the SMMEs are run by young people who are eager to embrace ICTs, there is an opportunity for alternative sources of energy to the communities to drive ICTs and the government has already developed e-government services and products.