SITA diversifies board

By Christelle du Toit for SITA
Johannesburg, 22 May 2008

Four new board appointments, as well as one secondment to the position of deputy chairman, have brought the State IT Agency's (SITA's) board close to full capacity.

Parliament recently approved the appointments of the following individuals as non-executive directors of the SITA board: Saleem Badat, Mthunzi Luthuli, Mmamathe Makhekhe-Mokhuane, Colette Clark and Nosipho Malope.

Michelle Williams, who had already been serving on the board, was seconded to the position of deputy chairman.

The appointments are for a period of three years and were authorised by public services and administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.

Williams says the Department of Public Services and Administration (DPSA) purposely chose mostly individuals that do not come from a traditional IT background to serve on the board, as this results in fewer conflicts of interest.

Badat is the vice-chancellor of Rhodes University and, according to Williams, was brought onto the board from a good governance perspective.

Malope is a chartered accountant, while Clark works for the DPSA in HR, and Luthuli is an electrical engineer.

Makhekhe-Mokhuane is the current chairman of the Government Information Technology Officer council.

According to Williams, there is still one non-executive seat available on the SITA board, and the body also has the option of appointing executive directors, should it choose to do so.

However, she maintains there is "no urgency" to fill the final seat, as the board currently has 13 members, which in her opinion, is a significant number.