Huawei and partners chart a smarter, AI-native future for South Africa’s public sector

Huawei convened the Digital AI+ Government Summit, part of Huawei South Africa Connect 2026, themed “Smarter Government, Better Services”, bringing together government, healthcare and aviation leaders in Johannesburg. Together, they explored how Huawei and its partners are supporting the next leap in government digitalisation. Michael Zhuang, vice president of the Enterprise Sales Department at Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa, delivered the opening speech at the summit.

He stated, “Technology is propelling public governance beyond ‘office automation’ and ‘digital processes’ into its third phase: ‘AI-native governance.’ Huawei believes that public sector transformation must be built on trusted AI. “This means three things: data localisation, end-to-end security, and deep local partnerships. Huawei will work with customers and partners to use intelligence to improve governance and technology to improve people’s lives.” Augustine Chiew, Huawei Global Public Services BU chief technology officer, stated: “AI is profoundly impacting the global economy, with many countries already proposing their national AI strategies.

“To systematically address the challenges posed by these strategies, Huawei has introduced the Viva framework and fully integrated this concept into its ‘1+3+N’ architecture design. “This framework uses ‘1’ trusted national large models to accelerate the intelligent transformation of ‘3’ core segments, increasing the competitiveness of ‘N’ industries. Huawei has successfully provided products and solutions in various fields, including AI + Smart City, AI + Digital Twin & Super App, AI + Physical Security, AI + Cyberspace Governance, AI + Education, and AI + Healthcare.” Robin Chen, vice president of Huawei’s Public Services Business Unit, pointed out that AI applications are evolving into actionable agents.

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Building a more efficient and fair digital government and society through cloudification and AI is the future direction. To establish new platforms, enhance new experiences, and empower the new economy, Huawei is constructing the next-generation public service architecture to create entirely new experiences. “Sita provides services to government in the fields of data sovereignty, innovative digital solutions, and interoperability and standards.

From a transactional service provider to a strategic partner, Sita is now driving more service and innovation for its clients.” Dr Bello Moussa, Huawei South Africa’s chief solution architect, emphasised that emerging security threats, particularly with the rise of AI-driven fraud and sophisticated cyber-attacks, are escalating in both frequency and severity. To stay ahead, public safety must evolve from reactive models to proactive, intelligence-led ecosystems. Central to this transformation, according to Dr Moussa, is the convergence of Video+AI, which enables real-time visual insights powered by machine learning, and an AI Command Centre that serves as the central nervous system for threat detection, decision-making, and coordinated response.

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