142  No. 50741 GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 31 May 2024 Lastly, data and cloud service providers need regulatory clarity to guide their investment. This regulatory clarity is provided by policies and legislation that outline compliance requirements for infrastructure rollout and performance standards, specifically for the government. Due to water and electricity supply constraints and the high demand for these resources by data centres, data centre hosts and suppliers should have water and electricity backup to avoid service disruptions and reduce pressure on the grids. The government may need to develop incentive schemes to encourage water and electricity conservation by data center operators. Policy interventions 15.1.1. Funding, technical, and other related resources shall be galvanized towards achieving the target of 100% broadband coverage by 2030 to ensure broadband access for all South Africans. 15.1.2. Government data shall be stored in unified, cloud-enabled data centers, facilitating data-sharing, interoperable systems, scalability, and cost optimization. This infrastructure will be supported by redundancies in designated locations to meet business continuity requirements. 15.1.3. The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) shall be the responsible authority, by virtue of its legislative mandate, to source data infrastructure and cloud services for the government. SITA will ensure the development and monitoring of service level agreements that guarantee consistent, reliable, and secure data and cloud services for the government. To this end, the government should ensure that SITA is adequately capacitated and resourced to fulfil its responsibilities. 15.1.4. The Minimum Information Security Standards (MISS) shall be the guiding framework for access to government data in unified government data centers and will be updated to align with technology-driven computing. Organizations such as the South African Revenue Services (SARS) and Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) shall retain their data access governance requirements in accordance with their legislation. 15.1.5. In line with the e-strategy, SITA shall drive the adoption of digital government services, applications, and solutions, with respective national and provincial departments running and managing their own applications. 15.1.6. All data centres in South Africa shall be required to comply with the following: 20 This gazette is also available free online at www.gpwonline.co.za