SU workshop helps shape thinking on digital public infrastructure in SA

The Policy Innovation Lab at Stellenbosch University (SU), in partnership with the Technical University of Munich (TUM) Think Tank and the Global Network of Internet and Society Centres, recently hosted a hybrid workshop to explore how regulatory sandbox approaches could support South Africa’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).

Hosted at SU’s School for Data Science and Computational Thinking, the workshop brought together senior South African government officials, international experts, academics and policy practitioners. 

Over two days, participants examined how governments can regulate increasingly complex digital systems in ways that enable innovation while safeguarding public values such as accountability, inclusion, privacy and security.

“Sandboxes have emerged internationally as one of several tools that governments can use to address the challenge of regulating digital technologies,” explains Prof Willem Fourie, director of the Policy Innovation Lab. “They provide structured, time-bound environments for experimentation that policymakers and regulators to test new technologies, services or policy approaches under defined conditions and safeguards,” added Monique Bennett, organiser of the event and policy dialogue manager at the Policy Innovation Lab.

Building a shared understanding

The first day focused on developing a shared conceptual understanding of regulatory sandboxes. Rather than jumping straight into South Africa-specific design questions, discussions explored what sandboxes are, what they are not, and why they have emerged as governance tools in different jurisdictions, said Bennett. 

As one participant from an international research network noted: “The real value of sandboxing is not speed, but learning. It gives institutions a way to test assumptions before they become embedded in law or large-scale systems.”

Participants were introduced to different types of sandbox approaches, including operational, policy and hybrid models. This helped officials recognise that experimentation already takes place in government, but often without shared terminology or formal ways to capture and apply what is learned.

Speakers also cautioned that sandboxes are not universally appropriate. They require significant institutional capacity, coordination and political support. Poorly designed or weakly governed sandboxes risk becoming symbolic exercises that add complexity rather than clarity.

Adding public value

Questions of accountability and public trust featured prominently, said Bennett. Participants stressed that digital public infrastructure has system-wide implications for citizens and businesses once scaled.

International case studies from areas such as artificial intelligence, data protection and online safety offered candid reflections on challenges, including slow institutional uptake and difficulties translating sandbox lessons into formal policy reform. A recurring message was that the impact of sandboxing depends less on the experiment itself and more on how institutions act on the learning it produces.

From global lessons to South African application

The second day moved from global concepts to national realities. Participants examined where sandboxing might add value within South Africa’s DPI agenda, with a particular focus on institutional readiness and interdepartmental coordination.

The core of the day was a facilitated exercise focused on South Africa’s three priority DPI initiatives: Digital Identity, Data Exchange and Digital Payments. Rather than starting with technology, groups identified legal, institutional and social uncertainties that could affect implementation and public trust.

Across discussions, participants resisted treating sandboxing as a blanket solution. In several cases, they concluded that clearer institutional mandates or policy clarification might be more effective than experimentation. Where sandboxing was seen as useful, it was framed narrowly as a mechanism to test coordination models or clarify regulatory interpretation, rather than to accelerate large-scale technical pilots.

Foundation for future work

During plenary feedback, a key insight was the need to align any sandbox efforts with South Africa’s constitutional and administrative law framework, including obligations related to rights, accountability and public participation. This reinforced the view that sandboxing in the DPI context is primarily a governance and policy learning exercise.

The workshop concluded without prescriptive recommendations, notes Fourie. “Instead, it provided policymakers with a clearer framework for judging when sandboxing is appropriate and what institutional conditions are required for it to add value.”

The workshop created space for informed, context-sensitive reflection and laid the groundwork for more deliberate, evidence-based approaches to governing South Africa’s digital future, added Fourie.