Zoran Mitrovic

Awareness of E-government related small business development services in Cape Town

Small businesses are widely regarded by national and international bodies, including the South African government, as an “engine of economic growth”. However, much available evidence suggests that establishing a new small business in South Africa is difficult because of a lack of appropriate support. The project reported here set out to examine the actual support that has been available, and the viewpoints of both the support service providers and the intended beneficiaries – small business owners and managers. It was found that government‐based services were predominant in the minds of small businesses and other involved parties, and that much of the interest in these services was based on use of the Internet, in the context of “e‐Government”. However, despite claims of success by service providers, it is found that many small businesses are not aware of available support services, and that where they are known there is scepticism about the benefits of engaging with them. Problems therefore centre around a lack of awareness of available services, and a lack of proper engagement between the parties involved.

The Place of e-Astuteness and e-Social Astuteness in e-Skills Policy-making in South Africa

The development of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) in recent decades represents a material foundation for a networked society, which requires profoundly new ways of thinking, working and living, including building of new capacities for the entire nation. In that regard, South Africa (SA) needs a new approach to ICT skilling (‘eskilling’) in order to achieve a positive impact on meeting the national goals and aspirations. It was recently concluded at some relevant gatherings in SA that some social and “intuition” related skills (“soft” skills) needed to be included in the e-skilling agenda, if the majority of citizens were to be successfully included in the emerging Knowledge Society. Hence, SA e-Skills Institute introduced the concepts of “astute” use of e-skills for personal growth and self-reliance (eAstuteness) and collective development through use of ICT (e-Social Astuteness) into its strategic plans. However, to this point it was not clear how the concept of e-Astuteness and e-Social Astuteness relate to the e-skills policy- making framework in South Africa. Thus, we set an objective of exploring the fit of these still novel concepts into the SA e-Skills Policy-making Framework. Utilising approach of theory development, this paper attempts to give answer to that question by suggesting that the concepts of e-Astuteness and e-Social Astuteness are cross-cutting throughout several elements of this framework. It is envisaged that this study will benefit e-skills policy-makers, practitioners and researchers who would, hopefully, advance our work.