The under-fire State Information Technology Agency (SITA) has committed to digitise outstanding South African courts within the next two months.
This, after the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development this week lambasted SITA for the delays encountered in implementing the Integrated Justice System (IJS) across the country’s criminal justice system.
Digitising South Africa’s criminal justice system is crucial to improve efficiency, transparency and accessibility.
An entity of the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT), SITA sits as a central pillar of government's IT procurement. It is also responsible for developing, operating and/or maintaining ICT services consumed by government departments.
The primary objective of the IJS programme is to electronically enable and integrate the end-to-end criminal justice business processes − from reporting a crime, to releasing a convicted person − through technology solutions.
Furthermore, it aims to manage the related inter-departmental information exchanges across the criminal justice system.
The IJS is also used to fight fraud in the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) and verify the identity of social grant beneficiaries using the home affairs database. It enables the integration of SASSA into the Department of Home Affairs, making a near-real-time person verification service available.
According to the portfolio committee, at a meeting held earlier this week in KwaZulu-Natal, SITA was singled out as a major impediment to courts operating effectively due to connectivity and infrastructure issues.
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJ&CD) is the lead department of the IJS programme.
Procurement deviation
In an e-mail interview with ITWeb, SITA spokesperson Tlali Tlali detailed the challenges the agency is facing in implementing the IJS.
According to Tlali, in the last few years, the DOJ&CD applied for and was granted authorisation to deviate from the SITA procurement framework on ICT services defined in terms of the SITA Act.
He noted that once the authorisation was granted, the DOJ&CD obtained wide area network services directly from Telkom.
“There is now an understanding between the parties that DOJ&CD will migrate back to SITA, and SITA has presented a proposal to the DOJ&CD on the migration project. While the details around the design, planning and pricing are being finalised, SITA and Telkom have agreed that Telkom will continue to render services to DOJ&CD during the transitional period.”
Tlali explained that the arrangement is intended to provide seamless migration and ensure business continuity.
“Parallel to the migration project, the DOJ&CD requested that several sites (more than 300) be upgraded from copper to other mediums. In line with the tasking received from DOJ&CD, all sites were successfully migrated from copper in the last year.”
Tlali noted SITA has been tasked to provide local connectivity – local area network (LAN) and WiFi – for 18 courts.
“Of these, connectivity has been addressed for 16 courts and two are yet to be finalised. Procurement glitches impacted the finalisation of the two outstanding courts, and we are confident the two courts will be addressed soon.”
According to Tlali, five high courts have gone live with “Court Online”, with 11 more ready to go live once the outstanding consultations have been dispensed with. This process will be overseen by the Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ) with the heads of the court.
Court Online is an end-to-end e-filing, digital case management and evidence management system for SA’s high courts. It provides law practitioners with the opportunity to file documentation electronically online anywhere and anytime without being physically present at court.
To settle the challenges facing the IJS, Tlali said SITA will address scope and pricing through negotiations with suppliers and present the proposal acceptance to the OCJ.
“Implementation is estimated to take two months after acceptance of the proposal to address the LAN and WiFi for the two remaining courts. This is in line with the scope of the tasking SITA has received.
“It is important to understand that SITA was tasked to address the 18 courts from a LAN connectivity perspective. All other courts are the responsibility of the OCJ. SITA will engage OCJ for guidance on the way forward in relation to other courts, as matters raised and the portfolio committee on the challenges the courts are facing, fall outside the current scope defined by the client.”
Problem child
On top of the challenges with the DOJ&CD, SITA has been criticised by other government departments over ICT issues.
Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber recently slammed SITA as an “artificial construct that stands squarely in the way of technological progress, not only at home affairs, but across government”.
He blamed SITA for hindering progress across government and dragging on its ambitions to become a modern, digital department.
The DCDT recently briefed the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies about the ongoing governance issues and allegations of maladministration at SITA.
The entity was also recently in the communications minister’s crosshairs when its outgoing board “unilaterally” appointed an acting MD without ministerial approval.
An acting MD has since been appointed, effective 5 February. However, it remains without an executive board, as their term expired on 31 January.
There are also ongoing investigations into SITA governance matters, such as those being conducted by the Public Service Commission and Public Protector, which is looking into the process to appoint the previous acting MD and chief procurement officer.
Share