The Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training has called on the State Information Technology Agency to prioritise the issue of certification backlogs for the (vocational) National Certificate in order to allow young South Africans an opportunity to be on the job market.
SITA came to brief the Committee on the progress it has made since it last visited Parliament in August 2015 where it committed to clearing the backlog in six months. The 31 of January deadline was missed and the entity asked for an extension to June of this year.
The Chairperson of the Committee Ms Yvonne Phosa said failure to deliver on this area of service delivery affected many young lives and their employability.
“The Committee is adopting a zero-tolerance approach on this issue. This is about the lives of those students who are affected. These are people who are suffering as a result of poor performance by the entity despite all the efforts government is making to increase access to education,” Ms Phosa said.
“The failure of clearing the backlogs talks to lack of responsiveness to the needs of young South Africans and reflects badly on the entity,” Ms Phosa said.
She asked SITA to outline the kind of support it required in order to meet the June deadline, and said the Committee would in the meantime elevate the issue of SITA’s capacity, which seemed to be a challenge, with counterparts in the Telecommunications and Postal Services Portfolio Committee.
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact:
Sibongile Maputi
Tel: 021 403 8041
Cell: 081 052 6060
Email: smaputi@parliament.gov.za
