South Africa freezes smart card IDs
Johannesburg (IT News Africa) -SOUTH Africa’s Home Affairs minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the issuing of smart identity document cards has been shelved owing to investigations into the State Information Technology Agency (SITA).
She revealed this during an interaction with local media following the tour of Government Printers.
“As you know government had decided that all ICT tenders are given to SITA who then makes the appropriate recommendations. The process was taken to SITA. Something went wrong at SITA in their processes and at the moment the smart card processes have been stopped and there are investigations that are going on at SITA. I am not sure when this will be completed,” Dlamini-Zuma said.
“We are at the moment looking at alternatives to this process. And perhaps one of the alternatives we were looking at is whether Government Printers could produce the smart cards because I do not think this was considered when the matter was given to SITA for tender processes. We are now looking
at this possibility.”
The minister’s comments follow the opposition Independent Democrats questioning the delay in the Home Affairs Department’s issuing of the State Information Technology card, also called the smart card.
Joe Mcgluwa, the ID Spokesperson for Home Affairs, submitted a question, for written reply to Dlamini-Zuma, asking why her Department had still not issued the smart cards, despite a commitment to start doing so from December 2008 and a R114 million budget.
He wanted to know whether the cards will be issued soon. “The State Information Technology Agent (SITA) has been dragging its feet for almost 14 months, after a tender was allocated in June 2008,” Mcgluwa said.
By Mthulisi Sibanda
