{"id":819740,"date":"2025-04-04T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=819740"},"modified":"2025-04-04T15:52:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T13:52:27","slug":"state-it-agency-in-trouble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/819740\/state-it-agency-in-trouble\/","title":{"rendered":"State IT agency in trouble"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development confronted the embattled State Information Technology Agency (SITA), lambasting it for inefficiency and instability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee urged SITA “to get its house in order and stabilise the organisation” as its inefficiencies continue to impact government work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SITA was established in 1999 to optimise the state\u2019s IT resources for cost savings, improved delivery, and interoperability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mandated by the SITA Act, it enhances service delivery through IT solutions while ensuring information security for government entities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, SITA has had high-profile troubles for some years now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chairperson of Parliament’s Justice and Constitutional Development committee, Xola Nqola, said in a recent statement that during oversight visits to entities in the justice portfolio, SITA was singled out as a major impediment to courts operating effectively due to connectivity and infrastructure issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt comes across as if there are delays in what the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ) have been planning to do due to SITA,” said Nqola.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As far back as last year, we took an official committee decision to call SITA and the department to iron out the challenges,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee was also briefed on the DoJ’s Integrated Justice System (IJS), with input from various agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IJS aims to integrate criminal justice processes and combat fraud by linking systems like SASSA and the Department of Home Affairs for real-time identity verification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the government, it aims to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the South African criminal justice process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It facilitates interdepartmental collaboration to improve the investigation, prosecution, sentencing, rehabilitation, and reintegration of offenders, contributing to public safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the committee heard that SITA does not have the capacity to deliver on IJS projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SITA resources are used to work on multiple projects simultaneously and end up being inundated with work, and the agency’s supply chain processes are also cumbersome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DoJ said a further concern is an ageing and\/or obsolete infrastructure, which remains a challenge across the CJS and may lead to cyber-attack vulnerability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the meeting, SITA acknowledged that it has capacity issues due to a high vacancy rate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisation has cited its instability as a result of challenges with a previous board that was dissolved and then took the matter to court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An interim board was appointed, and the court reinstated the old board. Thus, the interim board has been mixed with the old one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Auditor General told the committee that SITA “was slow” in addressing her recommendations and has now received a disclaimer audit opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe committee and the AG now bear the responsibility of strengthening accountability to see through the problems engulfing the entire system,” said Nqola.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He urged the acting chairperson of the SITA Board to stabilise the organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chairperson stressed the need for an efficient IJS and committed to regular progress meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not the first clash<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Various government departments have expressed their dismay with SITA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi called for a probe of the agency late in December of 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSITA faces mounting challenges, including governance concerns, irregular procurement practices, operational inefficiencies, and an alarming deterioration in service delivery,” said Malatsi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese issues, if left unaddressed, pose a threat to the agency\u2019s mission and its ability to deliver value to South Africans,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November, Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber criticised SITA for inefficiencies, calling it a major obstacle to digital transformation in government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He described SITA as an outdated construct hindering technological progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, SITA spokesperson Tlali Tlali revealed that Home Affairs still operates on a low-tier Bronze service-level agreement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite SITA recommending a Gold or Platinum SLA, the department has not upgraded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, former Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi sought the National Treasury\u2019s approval to bypass SITA and contract a private IT provider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parliament issued a sharp rebuke to SITA, citing governance, procurement, and capacity failures that hinder justice system efficiency, court operations, and digital transformation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":819749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1916,3351,853,4828],"class_list":["post-819740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-parliament","tag-sita","tag-south-africa","tag-state-information-technology-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819740"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819797,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819740\/revisions\/819797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}