Archive video: State IT Agency announcing the adoption of open source software for all South African government departments

The exact date is uncertain when this aired but it is probably in the mid-2000's and definitely before 2007 when SITA was on the point of migrating all of its desktops across to Ubuntu Linux. Both these moves came about because of the policy on use of open source software for South African government which was approved in 2006. SITA was tasked to implement the policy in support of the DPSA (then headed by Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi).

Why the initiative lost its momentum is quite complex, and we are busy unravelling that still, so it is the subject of a future post. But there are fresh efforts under way nationally to resuscitate the open source focus that should be priority in South Africa for reasons of cost savings, local economic investment, interoperability, and eradicating vendor lock-in.

Watch at https://youtu.be/tZRza98sPZw and a video of the Minister's speech about FOSS at the Idlelo FOSSFA conference at https://youtu.be/dJ5E4EpYlSQ

#opensource #southafrica #government
#^SITA Adopting Open Source Software for the South African Government

The exact date of this broadcast on Summit TV is unfortunately not known but the FOSS Programme Office at the State IT Agency (SITA SOC Ltd) which was drivin...

#^Ministers Opening Address at Idlelo

Opening Address by the Minister of PSA of South Africa, at Idlelo FOSSFA conference

source https://gadgeteer.co.za/archive-video-state-it-agency-announcing-adoption-open-source-software-all-south-african-government