Johannesburg, 12 Apr 2006
The State IT Agency (SITA) has concluded a memorandum of understanding with a Belgian municipal IT group to jointly provide greater IT support for South African municipalities.
SITA CEO Mavuso Msimang says low-key work has been started at the Thabo Mofusengane District Municipality in the Free State, in conjunction with the University of the Free State. The multimillion-rand project forms part of a strategic decision by government to improve municipal service delivery.
Msimang reveals that, over the next 12 months, SITA and the Belgium-based municipal IT group would upgrade two or three municipalities that urgently need IT support. The project, he explains, will include upgrading and centralising outdated and aging IT infrastructure, as well as modernising and standardising components such as billing systems.
"The local government push is a very big one for us. We must go in there and establish templates," he adds.
At this stage, it is expected that all municipalities in SA will be upgraded.
Private sector involvement
Following a large-scale restructuring exercise at SITA, Msimang comments that the company is better positioned to deliver strategic services to government. One of SITA's new business divisions is dedicated to the evaluation of new projects, and houses project management templates created by the group.
SITA's co-operation with the Belgian group is also part of its new strategy to harness more private sector involvement in government projects.
Msimang explains that the new approach to partnership would not only see a greater reliance on private sector partners, but also a shift of asset and capital requirements to partners involved in SITA projects. This, he says, will markedly lower the organisation's capex needs and provide easier access to private sector expertise.
"In the past, SITA took the SITA Act too literary. We need to provide the mandatory services to government, but the view we now take is that how we deliver these services is a matter of operational preference," Msimang states.
SITA's overall capital expenditure for projects during the next financial year is R310 million, up from the current fiscal year's R214 million.
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