Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), has voiced serious concerns regarding the governance and performance of the State Information Technology Agency (SITA).
Zibi detailed the alarming consequences stemming from SITA’s governance issues, which include a plethora of unfilled vacancies and a notable deficiency in IT support meant to bolster governmental function.
He emphasised that SITA’s repeated failures over several years to achieve satisfactory audit outcomes have severely impacted government departments, agencies, and public institutions.
“It is unacceptable that at a time when information technology is so critical to financial controls, governance, and operational effectiveness, the sole agency tasked with supporting government is failing so dismally and for so sustained a period.
”Talk modernisation in different areas, such as the police, will remain in different areas, such as the police, will remain a pipedream if reliance is placed solely on SITA,” Zibi said.
The SCOPA committee was informed that despite a new board being in place since February 2025, critical vacancies such as the Chief Digital Officer remain unfilled.
Zibi announced that the committee would invite the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi to explain the steps being taken to ensure that SITA recovers and fulfils its constitutional mandate.
“The SITA’s failures have become a serious financial and national risk that should not be tolerated any longer,” Zibi said.
Meanwhile, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) has vehemently rejected the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies’ (DCDT) 2025-2030 Strategic Plan, its Annual Performance Plan, and the proposal to repurpose SITA.
The party criticised the DCDT for consistently failing to meet targets and underperforming in delivering ICT infrastructure programs.
In a statement, MK Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela argued that the government’s attempt to reconfigure SITA into a State Digital Services Company (SDSC) was unrealistic and would not resolve the ongoing issues.
“It is a futile exercise to continue to discuss a non-existent budget. The Department has historically failed to meet all its targets and underperformed in delivering ICT infrastructure programs. Over-ambitious plans are fundamentally flawed and lack clear implementation plans that should be measurable through concrete timelines,” Ndhlela said.
The MK Party also expressed concerns over the long-standing corruption allegations against SITA and criticised the proposed restructuring efforts as ineffective.
“The so-called Government of National Unity (GNU) has now run out of ideas. Their solution to address the government’s failure in service delivery and ensure movement toward the digital economy and the Fourth Industrial Revolution is to reconfigure SITA into a State Digital Services Company (SDSC). This is unrealistic. Instead, the MK Party demands a complete wind-down of SITA, as it has failed to meet its mandate,” Ndhlela said.
The MK Party argued that the government’s continued reliance on a failing SITA is an example of “disguising inefficiencies with a new name” while keeping the same individuals responsible for the agency’s failures in charge.
“We call for the Minister to stop throwing more of the taxpayers’ money towards the irreversible SITA decay.”
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
IOL Politics
