Sita appoints new interim board

The State IT Agency (Sita), the entity responsible for centralised IT procurement across all organs of state has appointed a new interim board.

Government will be hoping the move hopes to close a leadership vacuum at Sita following a legal battle between former communications minister (now deputy minister) Mondli Gungubele and the board he fired in July 2023 over a spat around then CEO Bongani Mabaso’s salary.

Sita has become the subject of heightened scrutiny by parliament and new communications minister Solly Malatsi over a years-long procurement backlog that is crippling other organs of state by stalling their IT projects.

“Sita welcomes the appointment of the interim board of directors,” Sita said in a statement on Friday. “This significant development marks a new chapter in the journey of the company as it works towards achieving excellence and delivering in accordance with the expectations of its customers.”

According to the statement, the new interim board “brings a wealth of experience and expertise to both the ICT industry and other sectors”. The new non-executive directors are:

• Sedzani Mudau, who will serve as chairman;
• Willie Vukela, who will represent the department of public service & administration;
• Willie Mathebula, who will serve as national treasury’s representative;
• Advocate Johannes Collen Weapond, who will represent the department of communications & digital technologies; and
• Omega Shelembe, who will also represent the communications department, which has oversight of Sita.

Sita’s acting MD Gopal Reddy and chief financial officer Molatlhegi Kgauwe will serve as executive directors on the board.

Sita has come under fire as both Malatsi and the parliamentary portfolio committee on communications have both launched investigations into the governance issues at the embattled agency. Some of the key issues identified at Sita include service delivery failures, governance challenges, leadership instability, irregular procurement practices and missed performance targets.

Digital overhaul

Since Sita sits at the centre of government IT procurement, these interventions are crucial to implementing the state’s proposed digital overhaul announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his state of the nation address earlier this month. Ramaphosa promised government-wide digital reforms that aim to “transform the relationship between citizens and government and create one government that is accessible to every person at a touch”.

Read: Public Service Commission agrees to Sita probe

The inefficiencies at Sita have led to several government departments demanding that they be exempt from being forced to use it to procure IT services. Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber last November told parliament that Sita’s monopoly over public sector IT services meant that government departments were operating “with one hand tied behind our backs”.

“Sita is an artificial construct that stands squarely in the way of technological progress, not only at home affairs, but across government,” said Schreiber.

The appointment of a new board at Sita is one of the recommendations for remedial actions meant to spark a turnaround at the agency stemming from a report by law firm Cliff Dekker Hofmeyr, which was adopted by parliament on 12 February.

Other recommendations include actions to be taken regarding Sita’s awarding of an allegedly irregular R1.2-billion tender for the provision of local-area network services to Western Cape schools and establishing whether it is desirable to pay fees to those board members who were fired by Gungubele and subsequently won a court case ordering that they be reinstated.  – © 2025 NewsCentral Media

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