Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has raised concerns over the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), accusing it of hindering his department’s efforts to digitize its systems.
Schreiber emphasized that fully digitizing applications for official documents is critical to eliminating corruption that has plagued the Department of Home Affairs for years. Speaking to the National Council of Provinces on Wednesday, he described SITA’s monopoly on digital technology as a significant obstacle to modernization across government.
Despite these challenges, Schreiber highlighted notable progress within just five months, including a major clean-up operation that led to the dismissal of 18 corrupt officials. However, he stressed that removing human intervention in the document application process is essential to achieving lasting reforms.
“The SITA monopoly means Home Affairs is operating with one hand tied behind its back,” Schreiber said. “Even as we urgently reform the technological aspects under our control, our efforts will fall short as long as we cannot maintain, procure, and properly manage our own IT infrastructure.”
Schreiber also noted that frequent system downtimes, which are beyond the department’s control, exacerbate inefficiencies.
However, not all agreed with his stance. Sifiso Zulu of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party criticized Schreiber for blaming SITA, attributing the department’s struggles to poor leadership instead.
“If SITA is such a problem, why has the government not acted sooner to address these issues?” Zulu questioned, adding that long-standing inefficiencies should not be deflected to a single entity.
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