The Adoption of E-Government in the Department of Home Affairs – Unpacking the Underlying Factors Affecting Adoption of E-Government within the Selected Service Centres in Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

Recent developments in South Africa show that since the introduction of e-government policy initiatives within state institutions, there have been major advances made in terms of e-services. The reviewed literature focused much attention on Government to Citizens (G2C) e-services with little on how the affected departments communicate internally, Government to Government(G2G). Most user departments, such as the Department of Home Affairs, which is the contextual focus of this article, have demonstrated that the adoption of e-government has not been an easy ride, meaning that there are influential factors that cannot be overlooked. The current study investigated the factors affecting the adoption of e-government in the selected DHA centres in the province of Limpopo. A qualitative approach was employed with data collecting tools such as (face-to-face) interviews used to glean information from nine officials, three from each of three centres, consisting of management and help desk (junior) officials. The study confirmed that there are a number of common factors affecting the adoption of e-government in those centres. These are: age, poor infrastructure, language barrier and motivation. This article proposes a number of solutions that can enhance adoption of e-government in the DHA.