The COVID-19 pandemic and e-governance innovations in Ngwathe Local Municipality

Abstract

The adoption of e-Governance in local municipalities is important as it improves internal operations, service delivery, customer services and accountability. The South African local government is still facing challenges in the absolute implementation of the use of the internet and communications technology to provide improved and transparent public services. The study aimed to explore the implementation of e-government innovations in Ngwathe Local Municipality in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study employed the qualitative approach, and data was generated from twenty semi-structured interviews. Findings from literature revealed that modern organisations rely on information and communication technology platforms to survive and accomplish their objectives in a dynamic and complicated environment. The study results confirm existing literature which shows that e-procurement, social media and digital payments are the e-government innovations implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The main challenges in the implementation of e-Government innovations are human resource issues, poor coordination and cooperation, resistance to change, inadequate infrastructure and security concerns. In order to improve governance, it has been recommended that the municipality should also invest more in training, awareness campaigns, Private Public Partnerships and data encryption to mitigate against security breaches. Future studies can expand the scope of this research by including more municipalities to allow for comparative analysis of e-government implementation across different local government in South Africa.