Referring to President Thabo Mbeki's state of the nation address, where he said that national government will look to local authorities to deliver national services to citizens, De Klerk says: "National government must take the leading role, but cities' major role is making it work." He adds that this is happening, and cites the cities of Cape Town, Tshwane and Johannesburg, where current digital city pilot projects are successfully running.

He believes that local authorities are taking charge because they are very competitive, and want to build revenue by using infrastructure to create sustainable economies.

Alan Bacher, product manager at Internet Solutions' access division, says government first needs to put together a proper broadband policy and a national strategy. He notes that the US government is currently experiencing problems with broadband access because it did not do this, and says that SA must avoid this at all costs.

Closely related to Bacher's point of view is that of Steve Nossel, regional enterprise business manager for Intel Middle East, Turkey and Africa. Nossel's view of government requires the establishment of a dedicated ICT ministry to focus on the issues of technology and service delivery. "Government should maybe just look at other countries which have done this and see that it can work," he adds.

Dr. Andrew Hutchison, business manager: telecommunication services at T-Systems SA, says: "The driver for cities is the high cost of telecoms infrastructure that they are paying for. They can see the benefits in wireless infrastructures, but the current impediment is still regulations." However, he believes that government can achieve the objective of digital cities and delivering e-services to citizens.