BuaNews (Tshwane)
Thapelo Sakoana
6 November 2003
Pretoria — The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) has helped government save millions of Rands by implementing the Open Source Software (OSS) in the public sector.
In a joint effort with SITA, the Centre for Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR), departments of Arts and Culture, Public Service and Administration as well as the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI), developed a strategy for the use of OSS within government departments.
OSS is an alternative to commercial software and allows the user access to human readable version of the software called the "source code", revealing the inner workings of the software while allowing its modification.
In a statement, SITA outlines the system as mainly error-free and resource efficient over proprietary software.
SITA says the system bridges the digital divide and ensures affordable access to Information Communication Technology (ICT).
SITA's group Chief Information Officer (CIO) Mojalefa Moseki says government can save more money on licensing, software procurement, support and upgrades through the use of OSS.
He says the Northern Cape provincial government is the largest user of this system.
Mr Moseki says the Western Cape government also uses an OSS-based document management solution and that its portal is based on the system's platform.
"The department of Land Affairs uses Linux and is about to implement Oracle on Linux," he says.
He says government had also benefited from the increased levels of security and improved response times, as it was dominantly stable.
"WE believe OSS is as good if not better than commercially available software.
"In many cases, it's more stable and more reliable," he says.
However, the OSS system is developed through public collaboration and is available to anyone as it does not require proprietary license fees and may be freely re-distributed.
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