For its own security, South Africa needs to put time, funding and effort into securing digital sovereignty: the capacity to exercise self-determination over its digital data, infrastructure, platforms and the rules that govern them, says Gijima Deputy CEO Roberta Gumede.
Gijima, a proudly 100% black-owned South African information and communications technology (ICT) company with Level 1 AAA+ B-BBEE status, is bringing more than 30 years’ experience and expertise in providing ICT solutions to South Africa’s public and private sector to the 2026 GovTech conference. The conference will run in Durban from 21 to 23 September in 2026, its 20th year.
“Digital sovereignty is a vital component of state security. It runs all the way from guarding against election interference to making sure our government is never so locked into infrastructure it doesn’t own or control what it can’t afford to change course,” says Gumede.
Under the theme “South Africa as Architect of its Digital Destiny for Citizens”, the 2026 programme shifts the focus from defining this vision to executing it, with a focus on measurable delivery, institutional accountability, sovereign capability and outcomes that directly benefit citizens.
Says Gijima chief technology officer Christo Abrahams: “At GovTech, we bring the full digital sovereignty experience and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) experience to the vital conversation that must be had on how to fully secure South Africa’s capacity to develop, own and operate its own public service digital architecture. We are proud to be a zetabyte (headline) sponsor for the conference.”
Gijima helped build and implement the State Information Technology Agency’s (SITA’s) government cloud infrastructure, in partnership with major technology multinational companies IBM and Huawei. SITA remains the owner and operator of the government cloud, which was intended to consolidate government ICT infrastructure and provide a shared, secure platform for departments.
In 2020, Gijima was appointed to implement and provide managed support for the Gauteng Department of Health’s (GDoH’s) integrated health information system, under a SITA-awarded contract. The core system is already up and running, but the full clinical and digital patient record system is being rolled out progressively. The remaining expansion was expected to continue through to around 2028.
“When the GDoH’s system is fully operational, the department will have a single view of each patient, across all the department’s entry points. The cost and time savings will be phenomenal. For example, blood tests won’t have to be replicated,” says Abrahams.
From security to compromised autonomy in financial decisions, the cost of being digitally dependent on ICT companies domiciled in other jurisdictions, under those jurisdictions’ laws, is increasingly concerning, says Abrahams.
Despite SITA’s government cloud system, many government departments, especially at local municipality level, have separately entered into software contracts, particularly with Western-based software companies. This means that their data is housed on a system that, while cloud-based, is housed on servers based in a country other than South Africa. The cost of repatriating that information is prohibitive, and there is risk inherent in geopolitics – if South Africa’s relationship with the country in which the data is housed deteriorates badly, it could be held hostage or manipulated against us.
Also, licenses have to be renewed annually. “You are paying in euros, dollars and yen and that goes into billions of rands, according to a report by the Industrial Development Corporation, the time to rectify this state of affairs is now,” says Abrahams.
“Gijima has the capacity and capability to help the government secure South Africa’s digital sovereignty. It’s only going to become harder and more expensive, financially and otherwise, to do.”