HISTORY OF GAUTENG ONLINE

Corporate Structure and Governance
GautengOnline - bridge the divide and educate the youth

How did GoL come about?

President Thabo Mbeki at State of the Nation Address in 2002 indicated that ". a critical and pervasive element in economic development in the current age is the optimum utilisation of information and communication technology."

Premier Mbhazima Shilowa translated this into Gauteng 's commitment when he stated at the opening of the Legislature: " Building a 'smart economy' and 'bridging the digital divide' are among our core priorities."

The GautengOnline concept document was adopted by the Provincial Cabinet and the GautengOnline Team were assembled to turn rhetoric into results at the beginning of 2002

The main outcomes of the Programme were to:

• Contribute towards building the human resources capacity of the Province and the country through the provision of quality education;
• Contribute towards stimulating positive economic activity in the country through the creation of a strong local IT industry that has a capacity for IT development and innovation;
• Enhance the efficacy of government for improved service delivery and a better life for all;
• Position the Province at the cutting edge of change through technological innovation; and
• Bridge the digital divide.

In developing these outcomes into a coherent Programme, GDE enlisted the help of strategic implementation partners Accenture, KPMG and Ernst & Young.

The entire South African IT industry was invited to participate in a pilot project to design the most suitable IT educational solution for Gauteng schools. Seven consortia were assembled in 2002-3 to design build and run end-to-end solutions for a range of Gauteng schools - some of these were successful in a later tender process, others were not.

A school classroom was identified and refurbished and fortified in preparation for the installation of computers. Where necessary, a new classroom was built. A team of project managers and contractors made 1 100 schools ready for the computers.