New Home Affairs CIO Nhlanhla Mabaso has knuckled down to work, the department says. Among his first jobs will be nailing down a R2 billion contract with GijimaAst to overhaul the department's IT.
Mabaso replaces acting CIO Solomon Ngubane. Home Affairs director-general Mavuso Msimang has described the role as key.
Msimang said in June he would prefer a recruit from the private sector. He added the major difficulty would be to pay such a person a market-related salary. It is unclear if Ngubane was in the running for the slot.
Mabaso was previously manager of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's Open Source Centre and an advocate of open source software. He also served on the secretariat of the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa.
The Home Affairs DG was himself only appointed in May, but with a remit to turn the failing and flailing department around. Speaking to ITWeb the next month, Msimang did not mince his words on the lack of capacity in the department's leadership cadre. He said this must be addressed for the turnaround to work.
"There is a clear lack of capacity. The consultants have done a great job re-engineering processes, but it is the leadership who must take things to implementation."
He was referring to FeverTree Consulting, previously AT Kearney SA, appointed shortly after he took the reins to help inform the department's rebuild.
Saying he did not want to bash his own department too vigorously, he added that, while there were some "bad guys" in the department, there were also "lots of good guys".
To help the latter, training was stepped up and management technology introduced. To rid the department of the former, more technology was deployed and policing stepped up. The department has since May taken disciplinary or criminal action - or both - against around 200 officials, of whom 55 have been fired.
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