"Last year we witnessed an 8 percent increase in overall IT spending by South African organizations, and in 2016 companies are maintaining this, prioritizing software," said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. "Once you have the platform in place, your priority is to add software. South African companies are doing just that this year, purchasing their solutions in North America and Europe primarily, while buying cloud storage where the data needs to reside."

Device spending in South Africa is estimated to decline 6.5 percent in 2016. "Mobile phones, PCs and tablets are cyclical, with dips in 2014 and 2016," said Mr. Lovelock.

"Both the consumer and business segments are showing a decline in 2016, with the larger drop coming from consumers. "Users in South Africa are holding onto their expensive phones longer and refraining from buying cheaper phones," said Mr. Lovelock. "With prices going up, the total spend on mobile phones was down 4.5 percent from last year."

Building infrastructure continues to be paramount in South Africa, as services get more reliable and sophisticated. Communications services remains the largest segment in the country in 2016 with an estimated growth rate in spending of 4.2 percent year on year.

"Cloud infrastructure and software-as-a-service application spending remains low in South Africa. To embrace digital transformation, South African organizations need to continue investing in the Nexus of Forces (mobile, cloud, big data and social) and embrace viable digital alternatives, such as cloud, VoIP and digital assistance, even if purchased from overseas vendors," said Mr. Lovelock.

Gartner's IT spending forecast methodology relies heavily on rigorous analysis of sales by thousands of vendors across the entire range of IT products and services. Gartner uses primary research techniques, complemented by secondary research sources, to build a comprehensive database of market size data on which to base its forecast.