Government’s private cloud ecosystem (GPCE) is not being fully utilised to harvest meaningful data that can be used for effective policy-making.
So said Dr Setumo Mohapi, newly-appointed CEO of Tafari Capital and former CEO of the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), in an interview with ITWeb TV.
Mohapi joined SITA in 2015, becoming the government IT agency's 18th CEO. The SITA board asked him to renew his contract, but Mohapi resigned in 2019 and went on to join Dimension Data.
During the ITWeb TV interview, Mohapi reveals why he decided against extending his contract with the organisation.
Prior to SITA, he was CEO of state-owned signal distributor Sentech.
During his tenure, he was vocal about the agency’s legacy issues and was committed to what he termed a “SITA clean-up”.
The new Tafari Capital CEO prides himself on the fact that he is the only individual to serve their full tenure at the helm of SITA. In 2023, he was replaced by Dr Bongani Mabaso, who left eight months into the job.
Since Mabaso’s departure, SITA has had acting CEOs and it has been shrouded in governance issues, which are impacting its ability to fulfil its mandate.
In the wide-ranging interview, Mohapi discusses the reasons for his longevity in SITA’s hot seat and provides advice to the incoming CEO.
Mohapi also reflects on his time at Dimension Data, where he served in different executive capacities. He outlines his involvement in internet service provider Riot Networks, as well as plans for his new role at Tafari Capital.
An entity of the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, SITA is a central pillar of government's IT procurement. It is also responsible for developing, operating and/or maintaining ICT services consumed by government departments.
In 2018, Mohapi was the brains behind a partnership between SITA and IT services company Gijima, IBM and Huawei, to launch the “first government cloud” – dubbed the GPCE. The entities signed a 10-year contract.
The cloud programme aims to provide a common and secure government private cloud to assist departments to consolidate their solutions, provide efficiency, interoperability and collaboration.
GPCE tears
According to Mohapi, he is yet to see some tangible results from the GPCE.
“When I look at the utilisation of the government cloud platform, I cry because I don’t have any sense that there is a deliberate attempt to build a well-functioning digital public infrastructure that is suitable for the country and its challenges.
“This is because when we were building it, we used to have industry days where we would bring people and ask them what they thought about the platform. That’s how we dealt with the process of knowledge acquisition. I don’t see that anymore. I don’t see those forums anymore.”
He pointed out that there are so many issues in the public domain affecting South African society that the GPCE is not addressing.
“Maybe it’s happening, but when we set this thing up, we set it up as an ecosystem; therefore, it has to engage with the external world. Not the tenderers per se, but the people who engage with government across the board.
“We started this thing around 2016, so it’s been almost 10 years now building a GPCE, but I don’t think it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing.”
He said with the platform, government should be able to analyse vast amounts of data for planning and policy-making purposes. “It was our proposal that there are many things that we can do in terms of applying the GPCE.”
Mohapi added that the platform must enable South Africans to participate in the digital economy.
“The president, during the State of the Nation Address, mentioned that people always ask: I give my information to government about who I am at so many points of service, but why should I be introducing myself every time? Why shouldn’t I have one introduction and government knows me?”
Survival mode
On how he served his full tenure at SITA, he says in a government corporate, there are many things that are outside of your control that matter.
“You are appointed by government through the line minister. Ministers change during your tenure and the relationship [with the new minister] should not break.
“In my view, if the relationship breaks, you will have to give way because the elected person ultimately is the minister. As CEO of SITA, you are also managed by a board of directors, which is appointed by government. These are the people that manage you throughout the year and you need a good relationship with the board. You also work with an executive team and the relationship with them must work. You will also need to maintain good relationships with clients.”
A SITA CEO has to manage complexity, he noted. “But more than anything else, it’s about humility. You cannot go through this thing without a good sense of home-made humility. That’s the only thing that I can think of that made me survive – the humility to know that I am dealing with people from different backgrounds, with different aspirations and different needs and wants.
He pointed out that usually when a new minister is appointed, there are leadership changes at SITA. This has a negative impact, as it takes away the momentum in the organisation.
When his contract expired, SITA offered to extend it but Mohapi turned it down.
“I had to look at my mental health, as well as the stress and anxiety, which leads to depressive results. I was completely depressed clinically so I had to put a circuit breaker just to take care of myself.”
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