SITA loses its head, completely

This week, ITWeb got wind that the State IT Agency (SITA) has been steaming ahead with the process of finding a new CEO, almost a year since the announcement by Mavuso Msimang that he would be leaving.

Brushing aside accusations of foot-dragging, incompetence and a lack of planning, SITA recently submitted a shortlist of three, totally unsuitable, candidates to public service and administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.

Yes, none of the three - Maanda Manyatshe, former MD of MTN SA; Vincent Raseroka, former MD of Cell C Service Provider turned BEE investor; and Pansy Tlakula, the Independent Electoral Commission's standing chief electoral officer - will take the job.

Sadly, this is where the SITA recruitment bullet-train falls off the track, and the agency is again relegated to the status of headless chicken.

Reportedly, both Manyatshe and Raseroka were deemed "too expensive" by Fraser-Moleketi, while Tlakula was not interested in taking the job.

So, once again, nice going guys! Keep up the good work! Looking forward to your next trick.

Government must be feeling rather battered and bruised right now, and is likely not a big fan of anything IT-related.

Following the debacle that was the implementation of the electronic National Traffic Information System (eNatis), and the recent little hiccup experienced by the taxman's R140 million new e-filing system, it was revealed the Gauteng Shared Services Council (GSSC) has issues of its own.

Until now, government had managed to keep the GSSC's woes neatly under wraps, but yesterday a GSSC spokesman admitted the entire IT system had been down for two weeks. The GSSC - which handles Gauteng's learner and driver licence bookings, as well as the payroll for 120 000 provincial government workers - fell victim to a malicious little virus.

Sadly, due to the antics of the R400 million-plus eNatis, the GSSC was already faced with a backlog of 37 000 licence bookings. The two-week vacation from all things IT means the backlog has grown by 110 000.

At least some of the GSSC guys are on the ball. According to an observant Emmanuel Mdawu, media liaison officer for the GSSC: "There has definitely been an impact." Not too sure what this means though. We will have to wait and see what awaits the country's motorists.

But, apparently, the system is up and running again, and the GSSC is frantically trying to figure out what went wrong. So far the GSSC would only say a virus entered the system via an Internet download, but it is not known whether this was due to a malicious act.

I say: Less downloading of porn and more paper-pushing, please.

I'm not too sure why Microsoft is so happy about losing its sixth senior executive in the last year.

Martin Czernowalow, news editor, ITWeb

Vodacom and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are at it again. Following a recent strike at the country's biggest mobile operator, 23 union members were suspended for alleged misconduct during the industrial action.

In addition, it is understood the "state prosecutor has issued warrants of arrest for certain individuals who contravened the court order during the strike".

This is no doubt the start of a whole new journey for both parties. Vodacom is charging that CWU members were suspended because they violated picketing rules and displayed aggressive behaviour towards other employees and members of the public.

The arrest warrants were issued because employees violated the interdict implemented by the Labour Court preventing union members from marching on Vodacom's premises.

CWU spokesman Mfanafuthi Sithebe says union members complained about the behaviour of Vodacom security personnel and the risk management services during the strike action.

The ever-so-eloquent Sithebe said: "Unfortunately, our complaints were not attended to by the intransigent and myopic management."

Despite a large-scale exodus from Microsoft's local operations, the software giant is smiling. I'm not too sure why Microsoft is so happy about losing its sixth senior executive in the last year (excluding former MD Gordon Fraser).

The last two to resign were Hennie Loubser, enterprise and partner group director, and Belinda Godfrey, small and mid-market solutions and partner group director.

Yet, instead of being even slightly concerned, Microsoft SA COO Heather Third said: "These people have left to pursue wonderful new opportunities, and do so with Microsoft's best wishes."

Wow, what a nice bunch that Microsoft...