The department of communications & digital technologies has been hauled over the coals by MPs for achieving only 54% of its targets for the first quarter of the current financial year.

Justice Libago, chief director of strategic planning and monitoring in the department, told parliament’s communications portfolio committee on Tuesday that the department had achieved just 13 of its 24 targets.

The department performed poorest in ICT policy and development research (50%) and ICT information society and capacity building oversight (43%), while it failed entirely to meet targets for ICT enterprise and public entity oversight.

The committee’s acting chair, Shaik Imraan Subrathie (ANC), told the department’s team, which included director-general Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyani, that a 54% achievement “is not acceptable to this portfolio committee”.

Libago highlighted several key aspects that he said required improvement. “We also had areas where we did not do very well… One is with regards to the digital economy masterplan. We had a delay in terms of the appointment of the executive oversight committee members. We have done some spade work, but there has been a delay from the minister (Solly Malatsi) in making sure these members are appointed,” he said.

There has also been a delay in work being done to shut down 2G and 3G networks in South Africa. Libago said a “dedicated resource” was allocated in June as communications regulator Icasa was not “consulted” on the matter at the beginning of the financial year.

Sita review

The formal deadline for sunsetting the legacy networks was December 2027. However, there is now no set time, and mobile network operators will decide what works best for them.

The department is also behind on a review of the State IT Agency’s business model. The finalisation and approval of the terms of reference of a service provider to undertake the work has delayed the process

Mlindi Mashologu, a deputy director-general in the department, told the committee that the process will include probing the costs of Sita’s services, as government departments say they are too expensive, benchmarking them internationally and establishing if the agency’s mandate is still in line with what it is meant to achieve.

Read: 15 months in, Solly Malatsi defends his record as critical ICT reforms stall

The long-planned merger of Broadband Infraco and Sentech, to create the State Digital Infrastructure Company, has also been delayed.

According to un update presented by the department, a lack of expertise in mergers and acquisitions to drive this is a problem. It will now appoint a service provider to assist, with procurement terms being developed in the second quarter.

State IT Agency - Sita Communications department chief financial officer Refilwe Mafolo said that in the first quarter, the department spent R1.06-billion, which is 42% its allocated budget of R2.55-billion for the year.

“The department’s approved organisation structure, signed in August 2024, could not be aligned with the 2025/2026 financial year budget structure. This is because the organisational structure was finalised after the MTEF (medium-term expenditure framework) budget timelines in July 2024. As a result, the budget structure remains based on the previous organisational structure,” explained Mafolo.

Questioned by Subrathie on what the department’s plans are to improve its performance, Jordan-Dyani said that that late placement of staff, especially senior managers, had caused “instability”.