Open Source Approaches to Secure Data Exchange in SA Digital Public Infrastructure

My talk will explore 3 major subject areas:

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1. Understanding Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): An overview of DPI and a brief summary of South Africa’s Digital Transformation Roadmap.


2. The Case for Open Source in Government: Why governments need Open Source alternatives to proprietary solutions.


3. Implementing a Secure Data Exchange: Practical insights and lessons learned from deploying a secure data exchange in national government using Open Source software.

High level discussion points:

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Introduction to DPI, it's core components and foundational principles. (+- 5 minutes)

DPI and SA's latest Digital Transformation Roadmap presented by ZA Presidency (+- 5 minutes)

Open Source in Government: Opportunities and challenges (+- 10 minutes)

Real-world use case of Open Source Digital Public Goods being implemented at National Government and key learnings (+- 20 minutes)

Abstract:

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Building Mzansi Xchange: Open Source Approaches to Secure Data Exchange in South African Digital Public Infrastructure

South Africa’s digital future depends on robust, scalable, and inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). My talk introduces the core components and foundational principles of DPI, highlighting the latest directions in the South African Digital Transformation Roadmap, as unveiled by The Presidency. We’ll discuss why governments globally—including South Africa—are embracing Open Source solutions to reduce vendor lock-in, foster innovation, and ensure transparency, while exploring local challenges around adoption, interoperability, security, and compliance with regulations like POPIA.

The heart of my session is a real-world use case: building Mzansi Xchange, a secure, national data exchange platform co-designed with government and built primarily on Open Source software. We’ll unpack the architectural choices, implementation milestones, and hands-on lessons the project team learned, from aligning with the National Data and Cloud Policy to establishing federated data governance and deploying secure Open Source software.

Outcome:

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I am hoping attendees will leave with a framework for evaluating Open Source digital public goods for government, insights into pragmatic collaboration between public sector and developer communities, and actionable strategies to accelerate South Africa’s digital transformation. I am also hoping Open Source contributors will be encouraged to continue their amazing work as they see the impact of Open Source Digital Public Goods.

Python mentions:

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We used Python AWS CDK for DevOps

Airflow for Data ETL pipelines

FastAPI framework for developing APIs

Audience:

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Open Source Community members and contributors

Tech Leaders in Government & Civic Tech space

Digital Public Infrastructure stakeholders

DevOps enthusiast for large system IaC deployments