Home Affairs’ choice of the cheapest option to blame for IT issues

Cape Town – The head of the State Information Technology Agency (Sita) said the department of home affairs’ choice of the cheapest network connectivity service plan was to blame for the perennial IT problems the department faces.

Sita executive director Luvuyo Keyise was responding to comments made by Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in which he blamed Sita for the department’s IT issues.

Minister Motsoaledi made the comments in response to a query from provincial premier and constitutional committee chairperson Ricardo Mackenzie during a debate at the National Council of Provinces last week.

Mackenzie said that communities across the Western Cape were continuing to experience slow and poor service delivery from the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), and these problems were regularly blamed on IT problems.

Last Thursday, Keyise said Sita should not be blamed as it had suggested several times that the DHA needs to upgrade its systems in order to improve service delivery.

“Yes, we procure network providers on their behalf, but we have no role in the deal they get and they signed a bronze service plan instead of a platinum one.

“Sita is not to blame for the network downtime that causes DHA offices to go off-line. The fact is that Home Affairs bought the lowest type of network connectivity service.”

With regards to Motsoaledi’s comments about the department’s hopes to be exempted from getting IT services from Sita like Sars, Keyise said Sars, unlike government ministries, was not covered by the Sita Act.

“So it is not an exemption, they are just not covered by the act. For the minister to say he wants an exemption is misleading.”

The department asked for more time for consultations before they could respond.

Meanwhile, the Competition Commission’s call for a first round of written submissions to its online intermediation platforms market inquiry comes to a close this afternoon at 5pm.

The commission officially embarked on an inquiry into online commerce platforms, also referred to as online intermediation platforms on May 19.

This is not the last opportunity to make submissions, as a further call for submissions will be released in early August, with public hearings being held in November 2021.

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