Barriers to the effective implementation of e-governance in the Ethekwini Metropolitan Municipality of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa

The desire for a more personalised between government and citizens has, according to various studies, increased over the past few years. This has prompted a growing need for citizen- and business-focused digital government. However, achieving transparent and efficient e-governance often involves crossing many hurdles, which are often unique to specific municipalities across nations. Hence, this study sought to explore the unique hurdles faced by government to gain insights on how to create a more inclusive, responsive and impactful e-government landscape that serves all stakeholders. The chief goal of the present study was to explore and analyse the challenges and barriers in implementing and utilising e-governance in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality specifically, which is a municipality that services millions of people. Factors that were explored included infrastructural readiness, institutional capacity, user engagement, and the socio-economic factors that affect both the adoption and outcomes of digital governance tools. The convergent mixed method research approach was used in this study. Survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to collect primary data from eThekwini citizens as well municipal workers. These participants were selected using convenience and purposive sampling, for the quantitative and qualitative parts respectively. The latest version of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to descriptively analyse the quantitative data collected and thematic analyse the qualitative data. The findings reveal that both staff and citizens are relatively open to e-government services; however, there are numerous hurdles such as internet connectivity, the user interfaces, and digital literacy that need to be overcome to improve the ‘buy-in’ and usage by both staff and citizens. The study highlighted both the achievements and challenges associated with e-governance in the eThekwini Municipality. The municipality’s adoption of ICT in service delivery has yielded improvements in efficiency and accessibility for digitally connected residents, demonstrating the potential of e-governance to enhance public services. However, barriers, such as digital infrastructure gaps, organisational resistance, and socio-economic disparities, limit the full realisation of these benefits. For stakeholders to benefit maximally from e-governance there has to be increased efforts to build digital proficiency amongst citizens and staff, and more ICT infrastructure build in peri-urban communities. Key Words:eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, Public Service Delivery, E-governance