The first State-owned IT Agency (Sita) officially opened in Pretoria today. This follows Parliament`s approval of the Sita Act, which enabled government to institute an agency to provide IT-related services to national departments and provinces.
The Act institutes Sita as a State-owned company incorporated in terms of the Companies Act, and as a result, the State is the sole shareholder in the agency.
"The services of the private sector may be utilised whenever the agency deems it cost-effective," says Dr Zola Skweyiya, minister for Public Service and Administration.
Theo van Zyl, director of the Organising Policy Unit of the Public Servants Association (PSA), echoes this point: "While Sita is an organisation created by the government and used for the government, it will not hesitate to bring in private IT contractors when it is economically viable to do so."
"I believe this will benefit the IT industry and government, and will also nurture public-private partnerships in the IT industry as proof of the government`s commitment to such relations," says Skweyiya.
Sita was formed through integrating the IT resources, skills, experiences and practices of InfoPlan, Central Computer Services and the SA Police Service, in order to provide IT, information systems and related services to government departments and organs of state.
Van Zyl adds that other state departments will follow this integration into Sita over a period of time.
"All legal issues regarding Sita and the government have been sorted out and as for claims that Sita is unconstitutional, well, they were false," he says.
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