A monument to inefficiency is getting a second chance at life, despite widespread criticism and ridicule. The department of communications & digital technologies has announced that it will revive the disastrous DigiTech platform, which was initially designed to support small and medium-sized businesses.
The platform, which has been plagued by operational deficiencies and was branded a “grade-8 IT project” by Communications Minister Solly Malatsi, will be taken over by a new service provider, according to a department statement.
The department is pinning its hopes on a redesigned platform that will allegedly deliver a high-quality experience for users. However, given the track record of incompetence, it’s hard to imagine this effort will be any more successful than its predecessors.
“We will ensure that the new provider fulfils their contractual obligations to ensure DigiTech fulfils its initial purpose and provides value for SMEs and the public,” said the department, naively optimistic that this time around, things will be different.
Malatsi, who was a vocal critic of the platform when it was first launched, is likely cringing at the thought of revisiting this mess. And yet, he’s now tasked with ensuring that the platform is revived and that it delivers on its promises. Good luck with that.
DA- appointed minister, Solly Malatsi, initially slammed the platform when he was still an opposition MP, calling it a failure and a waste of taxpayer funds. His words echoed the sentiment of many who felt the platform was a useless exercise in government waste and mismanagement.
The perfect example of bureaucratic inefficiency
“The department is finalising the process of appointing a new service provider to take over management of the DigiTech platform,” the department said, attempting to put a positive spin on this failed experiment. Unfortunately, it’s just another example of government’s tendency to throw good money after bad, hoping that a solution will magically appear.
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