By Smangele Nkosi, General Manager, Cisco South Africa

Throughout the three days of GovTech’s 20^th edition, the message from government was clear: South Africa’s digital agenda now needs to move from planning to delivery.

In his keynote, Digital Communications Minister Solly Malatsi called for a shift from defining the vision for digital transformation to actually executing on it, and The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) introduced a ‘Progress Tracker’ to measure delivery across sovereign cloud, AI governance, interoperability, cybersecurity and connectivity.

With a new draft national AI policy due before Cabinet by March 2027, the focus is clearly set on putting AI to work in the services citizens rely on every day. 

From what we’ve seen, AI delivers the best results when two key factors are in place: resilient infrastructure on which it will be based, and stakeholder trust and confidence in safety. These elements are fundamental in moving AI from pilot projects into public services, where the benefits are most quickly felt. SARS offers a good local example, with its auto-assessment system drawing on third-party data to assess more than six million taxpayers this year and pay refunds within 72 hours. 

AI depends on well-governed data and on networks that can move it securely between systems. Our AI Readiness Index shows this is where most South African organisations are still on that journey, with room to evolve: 31% say their networks can't yet scale for the data volumes AI brings, and just 16% move successful AI pilots into production. 

For government, a shared reference architecture for AI, data and automation is one highly practical answer. Common standards for how data is stored, shared and secured allow a solution built for one department to be reused by another, and give good pilots a clear route to becoming services. This is also what the Progress Tracker's focus on interoperability will help measure.

Trust is the next layer. Applying for an ID, a grant or a licence online means handing the state your most personal information. Private sector businesses already feel this. Our State of Wireless 2026 research found that 83% of local organisations experienced at least one wireless security incident in the past year, and a third lost customer trust as a result. Carried onto government services, citizens will judge these services the same way customers judge a business.

As digital ID, payments and data exchange roll out, identity protection and security built in from the design stage will do more to drive adoption than any single feature.

With both layers in place, AI can contribute to the economy in ways people feel. Grants can reach recipients faster, processing times can come down, procurement can be checked as transactions happen, and municipalities can plan water and electricity maintenance using network data. Our research shows these returns compound: organisations that tackle complexity, security and skills together earn a 63% higher return on their network investments, and 67% of South African organisations that treat their networks as a strategic priority report productivity gains.

And we must, of course, remember the primary importance of skills. In the same Cisco AI research, 84% of South African organisations said they struggle to hire the specialists they need, as talent moves towards AI and cybersecurity roles. GovTechframed technology providers as capability partners in localisation, skills transfer and open standards, and that is how we see our role at Cisco. More than 600,000 South Africans have been trained through the Cisco Networking Academy, and building that local capacity alongside government is as important as the technology itself.

The minister described digital sovereignty as a developmental issue, linked to growth, citizens' rights and world-class infrastructure. I agree, and I would add that trust is the infrastructure that makes it possible. If government and industry build the foundation and earn citizens' confidence together, AI will deliver the return South Africa is looking for.