Malatsi attempting to undermine SA’s laws: Diko

The Communications and Digital Technologies Minister, Solly Malatsi delivers the keynote at the G20 Digital Economy Working Group on April 7, 2025.

2 minutes

The Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies has urged Minister Solly Malatsi to follow proper procedures if he intends to change any legislation.

This comes after the Minister announced plans to gazette regulations aimed at transferring powers from the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) to various government departments.

The committee’s Chairperson, Khusela Diko, has accused Malatsi of attempting to undermine the country’s laws on local ownership.

Diko says, “Now what Minister Malatsi has sought to do and that we argue, he has no standing to do in law is to issue policy directives that seek a deviation from law. Now we’ve raised this matter with him on SITA as well to say that you cannot change a substantive part of the law through regulation or policy directives.”

She says, “He needs to follow the correct processes. If he is unhappy with the 30% equity ownership then he must seek an amendment of the law and he’s going to have to explain why he would want to do such for a single company.”

Responding to Diko’s claims in a statement on X, Malatsi says the proposed SITA regulations and draft policy directives on Equity Equivalent Investment Programmes (EEIPs) are void of truth.