The journey

For too long, municipalities treated technology as a compliance obligation. De Wit Coetsee saw a different truth early - that technology, governed well, is one of the most powerful enablers of service delivery and operational effectiveness available to local government. Driven by the Smart City Strategy of the Department of Cooperative Governance and the Western Cape Government's revised Municipal ICT Governance Policy Framework, the conversation shifted. Technology is a frontline service enabler - and the municipalities that embrace this reality earliest are the ones that serve their communities most effectively, sustainably, and with the greatest impact.

De Wit's career began with a simple question: how do organisations work better? That question led him progressively toward technology - and more importantly, toward how technology is governed and managed to create real institutional value. His work on the Public Service Corporate Governance of ICT Policy Framework in 2013 took him through national and provincial government, developing and monitoring implementation across the public sector.

His appointment at Drakenstein Municipality in 2016 to implement the Municipal Corporate Governance of ICT Policy, developed by DCoGTA in 2015, proved to be a defining chapter. Here he saw directly what technology could do for service delivery when it was governed well - and how significantly value creation improved when executive and strategic leadership took genuine ownership of digital adoption. Business requirements and technology aligned. Service delivery improved.

Engagement with ICT managers across the Western Cape deepened this understanding. A consistent pattern emerged across municipalities: the ICT function was treated as a back-office obligation - expected to keep systems running, but excluded from strategic conversation. Technology and business operated in parallel worlds, each diminished by the distance between them.

De Wit saw a different possibility. With the right governance structures, the right leadership accountability, and the right collaboration between the CIO function and the rest of the organisation, technology moves from the back office to the front line. It becomes a strategic partner in service delivery - and the gap between what municipalities promise their communities and what they can actually deliver begins to close.

Working with the Western Cape Government, De Wit facilitated a structured process with district and local municipalities - beginning with executive and strategic leadership workshops that reframed digital value creation as an organisation-wide responsibility. From there, working with each municipality's executive and strategic leadership, De Wit developed their Governance of ICT Policy, their Governance Charter defining structures, roles and responsibilities, and their ICT Management Framework allocating controls and control owners.

Qualifications