CAPE TOWN, South Africa, August 2, 2017/APO/ -- 

The Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training has said capacity challenges at the State Information Technology Agency (Sita) needed to be attended to as a matter of urgency.

The Acting Chairperson for the Committee, Mr Danny Kekana, said Sita was one entity that needed not to fail as the world is entering the digital era.

South Africa should move with the times and Sita should be an enabler for such a transition

“The Committee welcomes what it has witnessed at Sita and the systems they are using, but more work needs to be done in order to keep up with the pace of digitisation and technological advances. The progress Sita has made on many fronts, particularly when it comes to education departments, is something to marvel on,” Mr Kekana said.

The Committee is on a week-long oversight visit to Pretoria where it will visit, among other places, the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University and a number of Sector Education and Training. On Tuesday it visited both the Department of Higher Education and Training and the Sita.

The Committee was informed that Sita hosts all the transversal systems that government uses, but some were outdated and complex to operate. It also heard that the challenge with the certification backlogs for many TVET colleges has been reduced significantly.

“South Africa should move with the times and Sita should be an enabler for such a transition. Production of certificates should be seamless and within reasonable time. Poor children, especially if they pass, should not be held back by lack of certificates,” Mr Kekana said.

He said if students are unable to pay for the certificates it should be indicated so that plans could be made to engage with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.

Distributed by APO on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.