Who does not dread having to use the Government's services? The Department of Home Affairs, the Traffic Department or the police station; citizens may as well be summoned to a substation of hell as far as they are concerned.

The private sector's services are faster, more reliable and less frustrating to access. On the other hand, which company has a clientele of 44, 4 million individuals, to whom they have to render various different services?

Mobile technology would certainly be able to streamline any and all processes of service delivery. Mobile technology might just be the strategy to solve the problem of slow response rates and access to services.

A number of observations led to four pilot projects by the government in 2005. Mobile technology was identified as the solution on the basis of the recent explosion of the mobile industry in South Africa, the increased number of value added services using mobile technology in the private sector and the increased prominence of wireless networks for organizations.

The four pilot projects were initiated by the CSIR, South Africa's largest Science and Technology Research Organization. Mohwiti Technologies is implementing a solution called AccessHealth for the Department of Health. The quality of health care will be improved by means of referrals between local clinics and district hospitals.

BCIT is piloting a mobile system that will assist Home Affairs with a self-help system. SMS notifications will be sent informing citizens of the status of their applications.

The Dokoza solutions involve data exchanges with regards to health care. The system will fulfill a policing role with regards to stock control of medicine.

A consortium led by the Council for Scientific and Industrial research is currently addressing the issuing of crucial documents to citizens. The system will offer information such as documents needed by the Department to issue the documents, a scheduling service, an alerting service and a system that will help blind citizens to make use of the service as well.

Citizens in under-serviced areas could greatly benefit form these services. A little order could go a long way in lightening the load on an overloaded infrastructure.