Role of ICT in National Development: A Critical Discourse Analysis of South Africa’s Government Statements

Wallace Chigona
Department of Information systems, Department of Information systems

Palesa Mjali
Department of Information systems, Department of Information systems

Nico Denzl
Department of Information systems, Department of Information systems

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     Last modified: October 2, 2007
     Presentation date: 11/19/2007 4:00 PM in RH MZ05
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can have a profound impact on the development of a country. However, the impact on an individual country depends, to an extent, on the attitude of the government on the role of ICT on development. For example, it has been noted that techno-centric views of ICT often lead to white elephant ICT projects with minimal impact on the people. It can be argued, therefore, that through analysing the government view of ICT one can predict the possible success of ICT in development. Using critical discourse analysis, this paper analyses the views of the South African government on ICT and development. The government views are extracted from speeches of government officials. The research does not find conclusive evidence of techno-centric views. However, questions about the government’s ICT training initiatives are raised. A further finding is that there is a strong reference between the different spheres of government and that political motives may distort some of the discourses.