Question NW2176 to the Minister of Home Affairs
13 September 2021 - NW2176
Tito, Ms LF to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
What measures does he have in place to cut the reliance on the State Information Technology Agency and secure an efficient IT system for Home Affairs offices, since his department is still failing to mitigate the situation of long standing queues?
Reply:
1. The Department is in the process of evaluating its internal skills with a view to creating the necessary capacity for its work.
2. A review of its enterprise architecture is also underway. This will allow it to better plan its systems in line with the Government Wide Enterprise Architecture framework while pointing out areas where dependency on SITA can be managed
3. In addition, the Department has had an Executive Engagement with SITA, and the following interventions are currently in the pipeline:
- SITA’s proposal for an upgrade to Gold or Platinum will be tested through a proof of concept.
- Go to Market Strategy for Access Link – The implementation of a strategy wherein DHA has access to a localised pool of pre-approved service providers wherein a procurement of a connectivity service can be expedited without the onerous procurement processes has long been awaited by DHA. SITA’s promise to implement in early 2022/23 will be closely monitored and reported upon.
- SITA Strategy and Investment Plan for Uninterruptible Networks - SITA submitted a proposal to DHA that required a financial investment by DHA to the tune of R700m, whilst the Plan may not have been wholly accepted by DHA, the following critical parts of the Plan are being implemented by SITA and DHA:
- Upgrade and maintenance of the dilapidated network equipment (routers and switches) - DHA.
- Upgrade of SITA Switching Centres – SITA.
- Expansion of SITA Core Network to reduce regional network outages – SITA.
END