Sustainability of E-Government Initiatives: Evidence from Gauteng Provincial Government, South Africa

Authors

Keywords:

e-government, sustainability, Gauteng Provincial Government, South Africa, Delphi technique, strategic planning, infrastructure development, digital divide

Abstract

This study examined the sustainability of e-government initiatives in the Gauteng Provincial Government, where sustainability refers to the long-term viability, adaptability, and institutional integration of digital public services. We used the Delphi method to gather expert consensus from nine professionals over three iterative rounds of anonymized questionnaires. Findings revealed that sustainability was impeded by infrastructural deficiencies, limited digital literacy, and fragmented interdepartmental coordination. Despite these challenges, experts emphasized that transparency, citizen engagement, and inclusive digital capacity building offer viable pathways for enhancing long-term impact. We concluded that sustainable e-government requires strategic planning, coordinated governance, investment in foundational ICT infrastructure, and a commitment to participatory digital transformation. These findings contribute to the discourse on e-government in developing contexts by offering policy-relevant recommendations grounded in expert insight.

References

Abbas Q, Alyas T, Alghamdi T, Alkhodre A.B, Albouq S, Niazi M, Tabassum N. 2024. "Redefining governance: a critical analysis of sustainability transformation in e-governance." Frontiers in big Data 7: 1349116.

Abdulnabi, S.M. 2024. "Issues and challenges of implementing e-governance in developing countries: a comprehensive analysis of civil service models." Cogent Business & Management 11 (1): 2340579.

Auty R.M, Brown, K. 2021. "An overview of approaches to sustainable development." Approaches to sustainable development 3-17.

Belton I et al. 2022. "A critical evaluation of 42, large‐scale, science and technology foresight Delphi surveys." Futures & foresight science 4 (2): e2118.

Bolívar M.P.R, Muñoz C.A, Muñoz L.A, de la Torre Martínez R. 2025. "European urban strategic initiatives involving emerging technologies for addressing climate change." In Conference on Digital Government Research.

Distel B, Koelmann H, Plattfaut R, Becker J. 2022. "Watch who you trust! A structured literature review to build a typology of e-government risks." Information systems and e-business management 20 (4): 789-818.

Franc J.M, Hung K.K.C, Pirisi A, Weinstein E.S. 2023. "Analysis of Delphi study 7-point linear scale data by parametric methods: use of the mean and standard deviation." Methodological Innovations 16 (2): 226-233.

Gacitúa R, Astudillo H, Hitpass B, Osorio-Sanabria M, Taramasco C. 2021. "Recent models for collaborative e-government processes: A survey." IEEE Access 9: 19602-19618.

Gupta K.P, Singh S, Bhaskar P. 2016. " Citizen adoption of e-government: a literature review and conceptual framework." Electronic Government, an International Journal 12 (2): 160-185.

Harvey, Z. 2024. "The Potential of Cloud-Based Virtual Technologies to Enhance Project Management: A Delphi Study of the West Coast Governments." Journal of Information and Technology 8 (1): 81-97.

Irani Z, Abril R.M, Weerakkody V, Omar A, Sivarajah U. 2023. "The impact of legacy systems on digital transformation in European public administration: Lesson learned from a multi case analysis." Government Information Quarterly 40 (1): 10178.

Islam, S. 2025. "Public Finance and Policy Effectiveness A Review Of Participatory Budgeting In Local Governance Systems." Journal of Sustainable Development and Policy 1 (1): 115 – 143.

Luna-Reyes L.F, Gil-Garcia J.R, Romero G. 2012. "Towards a multidimensional model for evaluating electronic government: Proposing a more comprehensive and integrative perspective." Government Information Quarterly 29 (3): 324-334.

MacLean D, Titah R. 2022. "A systematic literature review of empirical research on the impacts of e‐government: a public value perspective." Public Administration Review 82 (1): 23-38.

Malik V, Mittal R, Mavaluru D, Narapureddy B.R, Goyal S.B, Martin R.J, Srinivasan K, Mittal A. 2023. " Goyal, S.B., Martin, R.J., Srinivasan, K. and Mittal, A., 2023. Building a secure platform for digital governance interoperability and data exchange using blockchain and deep learning-based frameworks." IEEE Access 11: 70110-70131.

Manana T, Mawela T. 2022. "Digital skills of public sector employees for digital transformation." In 2022 International Conference on Innovation and Intelligence for Informatics, Computing, and Technologies (3ICT) (IEEE) 144-150.

Mohammed, U.U. 2024. " Effect of coordination on organizational performance in Nigeria: A study of Kano State Civil Service Commission." International Journal of Intellectual Discourse 7 (3).

Molina Rodríguez-Navas P, Medranda Morales N, Muñoz Lalinde J. 2021. "Transparency for participation through the communication approach." ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 10 (9): 586.

Naveed S, Siddique N, Ul-Durar, S, De Sisto M. 2024. "Navigating Sustainable Practices in Public Sector Organizations: Current Themes and Emerging Trends." Public Administration Quarterly 07349149241296011.

Nkomo N, Moyane S.P. 2021. "Implementation of grassroots e-government services in South Africa: A literature analysis." African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science 31 (2): 203-214.

Nusir M, Alshirah M, ALMashaqbeh S, Ahmad S, Fakhfakh S. 2024. "The Delphi method to analyze the expert views on possible futures of the smart city adoption and development in developing countries: the case of Jordan." PeerJ Computer Science 10: e2061.

Omweri, F.S. 2024. "A systematic literature review of e-government implementation in developing countries: examining urban-rural disparities, institutional capacity, and socio-cultural factors in the context of local governance and progress towards SDG 16.6." International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science 8 (8): 1173-1199.

Osah J, Pade-Khene C. 2020. "E-government strategy formulation in resource-constrained local government in South Africa." Journal of Information Technology & Politics 17 (4): 426-451.

Panday A, Verma V, Malik A. 2024. "Blockchain Based Framework for E-Governance: A Review of the Literature." Computer Science Engineering and Emerging Technologies 568-573.

Pandey N, de Coninck H, Sagar A.D. 2022. "Beyond technology transfer: Innovation cooperation to advance sustainable development in developing countries." Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment 11 (2): e422.

Pislaru M, Vlad C.S, Ivascu L, Mircea I.I. 2024. "Citizen-centric governance: Enhancing citizen engagement through artificial intelligence tools." Sustainability 16 (7): 2686.

Rarhoui, K. 2024. " An analysis of African E-Government Development: Trends and Challenges." African Scientific Journal 3 (22): 445-445.

Rarhoui, K. 2024. "An analysis of African E-Government Development: Trends and Challenges." African Scientific Journal 3 (22): 445-445.

Reddy R.C, Bhattacharjee B, Mishra D, Mandal A. 2022. "A systematic literature review towards a conceptual framework for enablers and barriers of an enterprise data science strategy." Information Systems and e-Business Management 20 (1): 223-255.

Saeed, S. 2025. "Digital Transformation in Governmental Public Service Provision and Usable Security Perception in Saudi Arabia." Information 16 (3): 247.

Schifano J, Niederberger M. 2025. "How Delphi studies in the health sciences find consensus: a scoping review." Systematic Reviews 14 (1): 14.

Shankar V, Urban G.L, Sultan F. 2002. "Online trust: a stakeholder perspective, concepts, implications, and future directions." The Journal of strategic information systems 11 (3): 325-344.

Singh P, Sirpal S, Pal O. 2025. "Cyber resilience in e-governance: A review of strategies, challenges, and directions." Internet of Things 101702.

Umbach G, Tkalec I. 2022. "Evaluating e-governance through e-government: Practices and challenges of assessing the digitalisation of public governmental services." Evaluation and program planning 93: 102118.

Wong Y.N, Jones R, Das R, Jackson P. 2023. "Conditional trust: Citizens’ council on data-driven media personalisation and public expectations of transparency and accountability." Big data & society 10 (2): 20539517231184892.

Downloads

Published

2026-02-27

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Sustainability of E-Government Initiatives: Evidence from Gauteng Provincial Government, South Africa. (2026). Acta Universitatis Danubius. Œconomica, 22(1), 210-237. https://dj.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/AUDOE/article/view/3882