Solly Malatsi and Khusela Diko, the chair of parliament’s portfolio committee on communications, are caught up in yet another heated row, this time over the communications minister’s decision to introduce regulations that allow government departments to bypass the State IT Agency when procuring digital services.
Speaking to Radio 702 on Wednesday, Diko alleged that Malatsi is repeating a mistake he has made on previous occasions, where the minister may have a valid point but executes on it in a way that’s beyond his legal ambit as minister.
“It is really unfortunate that [we are] back at this spot for exactly the same reasons – the minister seems determined to be legally delinquent,” Diko said in the interview.
“The minister has merit on some of the issues that he wants to address, and he is well within his right to do so. But the minister has to follow proper process and stick to the letter and spirit of the law.”
Diko said the regulations Malatsi wants to introduce will effectively devolve Sita’s powers as the sole IT procurement service provider to various government departments. She said Malatsi cannot do this because the Sita Act “is very prescriptive that Sita is the sole procurement agency for government on IT services”. The act does not have provisions for the minister to make substantial changes to it, said Diko.
Sita has come under fire from senior leaders in government, including home affairs minister Leon Schreiber and police minister Senzo Mchunu, for how its inefficiencies cause project delays and cost overruns for the departments it ought to be serving. These delays are one of the main reasons why some departments have asked that they be allowed to procure IT themselves.
‘Simple solution’
Diko said there is a “simple solution” to the procurement backlog at Sita, which is to automate the process. She accused Malatsi of “throwing out the baby with the bathwater” and “choosing to cripple the system instead of strengthening it”, urging him to exercise the option of appointing a new board and executive team to drive reforms instead.
“At a time when our country is still recovering from a period in which the capacity of the state was all but hollowed out, that minister Malatsi should be seeking a return to that unfortunate trajectory should alarm us all,” she charged in a Tuesday statement.
“Sita was established with the express intention of achieving efficiencies and cost-effectiveness, so the minister should be occupied with strengthening this critical agency, not crippling it. The service delivery challenges at Sita are not insurmountable. They require effective leadership prepared to put in the work, like many other ministers, to rebuild and strengthen existing state institutions,” she said.
Read: Malatsi orders Sita probe amid governance concerns
The statement, posted on Diko’s X feed, drew heavy criticism on her timeline. One user, @iTouchCandi, confessed to be a member of the ANC himself, but questioned whether Diko would have responded to an ANC minister in the same way if they had introduced the new Sita regulations instead of the DA’s Malatsi.
Another user, @Lizo Nyangiwe, who is employed as an assistant director in the Western Cape government, said: “Sita does not have the capacity to cater for all these departments, as a result, we have been waiting for more than two years for network points procurement.”
Sita’s alleged use as a method for corrupt networks within the ANC to siphon state funds also came into focus in the thread.
Nothing could be further from the truth. We’ll lay out the facts today. No spin. https://t.co/sVdBAwxcyq
— SollyMalatsi (@SollyMalatsi) April 9, 2025
Later on Wednesday, Malatsi hit back hard at Diko’s statement, saying her allegations against him are “devoid of truth”.
He said the regulations, allowing government entities to procure IT outside Sita’s structures, enjoy “overwhelming support” from ministers in the GNU as well as the provincial governments.
“These regulations are fully aligned with existing laws on government procurement and already have the concurrence of the minister of finance, as required by the Sita Act. It is plain for all to see that this propaganda campaign is part of [Diko’s] political audition for a possible executive role. We see it for what it is, and we will not be distracted from improving the delivery of services to the citizens of this country,” said Malatsi. — (c) 2025 NewsCentral Media
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