THE NEWLY APPOINTED  HOD OF DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT AND COMMUNITY SAFETY MR MASILO STEPHEN MATJENA

Mr. Stephen Matjena is a vibrant young and experienced government senior official who grew up within the ranks of Limpopo Provincial Government since 2005. He started as a Network Consultant for  State Information Technology Agency (SITA) in Limpopo 17 years ago.  Matjena is an Information Technology guru from University of Limpopo. He completed his BSc in Computer Science in 2001 and went further to obtain Honours Degree in Computer Sciences in the year 2002 majoring with Artificial Intelligence Software Development Computer Security.

As part of his grooming for his IT career, Matjena started to work as an IT personnel at the University of Limpopo from November 2001. He worked as a Helpdesk Technician responsible for amongst other duties; for user support on MS windows operating systems and applications, Installation of network and local printers, Connecting computers on the network and Installation of Hubs and Switches on the Network. In December 2002, he was appointed to a managerial position as Network Specialist and ICT Laboratories Manager at the same University.  In the new position at the University, Mr. Matjena was responsible for Maintenance of the Network Infrastructure of the Campus, the setup of temporary network infrastructure for students’ registration, Installation, and maintenance of ITS, Management of ICT budget for the labs and Management of Lab Managers and Supervisors.

After graduating and gaining more IT experience at the University of Limpopo, Mr. Steve Matjena then went to join the public service in the Limpopo Provincial Government under SITA. At that time, he was an already sharpened diamond to take over bigger responsibilities within the Provincial Government.

After serving at SITA, Mr. Matjena then moved to the Limpopo Office of the Premier in November 2005 as an Assistant Director for Network Controller. On his new position, Mr. Matjena was tasked with the following responsibilities amongst others;  to design and develop LAN and MAN for the department and its remote offices, Installation and configuration of Windows 2000/2003 servers, Anti-virus servers and desktop management software (Netwizard), Installation and maintenance of network devices such as switches, printers, and routers, Management of disaster recovery and backups, and Planning of the IT infrastructure for the Office of the Premier Head Office, District Offices, and Tribal Authorities.

In 2008, he moved up on the corporate ladder in the same field to occupy the position of Deputy Director for Information Technology. Mr. Steve Matjena continued to serve the people of Limpopo with his skills to ensure that better services are provided. He was tasked with responsibilities amongst others; to manage IT personnel and resources, to develop and implement the strategic and operational plans, to develop and manage IT SLAs with service providers, to manage the implement the DRP, and to coordinate and manage IT Security Policy Design and enforcement.

Matjena then continued with his career and joined the Senior Management Service (SMS) In April 2011 following his appointment as Director of Information and Communications Technology. He served in this position for seven years while ensuring that the provincial government doesn’t fail on matters of IT.  In this bigger role, he was tested and tasked with more challenging responsibilities but proved to be equal to the task. During his tenure on this post, Mr. Matjena was responsible for Provincial cross-cutting, cross-functional, cross-agency and cross-jurisdictional information management, information systems and information technology enabler policies and strategies, regulations, standards, norms, guidelines, frameworks, architectures, metrics, methodologies, best practices, to negotiate and manage Transversal vendor contracts or agreements and transversal service level agreements to leverage on economies of scale, to provide quality advice and support on ICT matters to provincial departments, to develop and implement strategic and operational plans, to develop and manage IT SLAs with service providers, to development of ICT strategic plans and monitoring of their implementation in 12 Provincial Departments, and also to development and implement the Corporate Governance of ICT Policy framework for the Limpopo Provincial Government.

In October 2014, Mr. Matjena was appointed as the Acting Chief Director: Provincial Government IT Officer where he was tasked with the responsibility of overseeing all matters relating to ICT in all government departments in Limpopo. This new post didn’t scare the ambitious young man who continued to work hard and achieve the set targets. As a young aspirant public servant, Matjena took the bulls by its horns and was given additional responsibilities than ever before, he was in charge of delivering the following; Provision of Quality advice and support on ICT and KRM matters to provincial departments, Management of PGITO budget, Performs the overall planning for the PGITO and managed planned targets for implementation, Management of ICT and Knowledge and records Management personnel and resources, Developing and implementing strategic and operational plans, Development of ICT strategic plans and monitoring of their implementation in 12 Provincial Departments, and Development and implementation of Corporate Governance of ICT Policy framework.

Stephen Masilo Matjena’s tenure at the Office of the Premier ended in the mid 2016 bringing it to a total of 17 years of uninterrupted service in the Information Technology sector.  From the Office of the Premier, he then moved to the Department of Transport and Community Safety in March 2017 when he was appointed as the Chief Director: GITO, Communications, Records and Facilities, Fleet and Strategic Management. Mr. Matjena took over this new responsibility at the new working environment and grabbed the opportunity with both hands. This was a huge task on his table because he had to oversee a quite number of various Directorates namely GITO, Communications, Records and Facilities, Fleet and Strategic Management. All these different Directorates were under his careful watch from March 2017. Mr. Matjena continued with his work and applied his skills and managerial experience on the new responsibility at hand. His Chief Directorate had a quite number of Directors and Deputy Directors and was not an easy task to pull given the work dynamics in the newly formed Department of Transport and Community Safety. Through the application of his managerial skills and through his vast work experience, Mr. Matjena was able to steer the ship to the right directions under difficult working conditions. In this post he was tasked with greater responsibility than ever before, he was quite aware that this was not going to be a walk in the park, but he was thoroughly prepared to face any work-related challenge.  On this new responsibility, he was tasked with the following duties and responsibilities:

  1. Provide leadership and strategic direction in the Chief Directorate
  • Establish strategic direction of the component to ensure alignment with departmental strategic objectives.
  • Monitor and ensure the implementation of the strategic and business plans.
  • Oversee the development of Operational Plans to give strategic direction to business components/units.
  • Align individual performance to the strategic business objectives
  • Implement and report on strategic frameworks in functional responsibility.
  • Monitor the attainability & sustainability of performance standards as per departmental objectives.
  • Identification and mitigation of ICT risks.
  1. Manage IT
  • Implementation of the Strategic Information Systems Plan (SISP)/ ICT Strategy
  • Implementation of the Corporate Governance of Information and Communication Technology (CGICT)
  • Manage ICT services (mail, internet, applications etc.)
  • Manage the development of IT applications
  • Oversee IT related contracts and SLAs
  • Manage the entire infrastructure for ICT and telecommunications and their accounts
  • Coordinate the implementation of POPI Act
  • Oversee the implementation of Cybersecurity within the organization
  • Manage IT Budget
  1. Manage Facilities and records services
  • Plan and implement Infrastructure projects
  • Coordination of Building lease
  • Manage information and physical security
  • Oversee records and knowledge management.
  1. Oversee the Strategic Management directorate
  • Coordinate the development and implementation of the departmental strategic plan.
  • Coordinate the development and implementation of Annual Performance Plans and Operational Plans.
  • Policy coordination.
  • Performance reporting coordination.
  1. Fleet management
  • Management of departmental fleet and government garages.
  • Manage the maintenance of the departmental Fleet.
  • Coordinate Provincial fleet related policies
  1. Manage communication services
  • Manage the development, implementation and maintenance of corporate identity and branding in the Department.
  • Manage the provision of events management services.
  • Manage the provision of internal communication services, information, and graphic design services.

Mr. Matjena was able to provide leadership on this quite demanding position and had managed to achieve the set targets together with his team of Directors and other supporting staff. He is the youngest member of the Executive Management of the Department and was able to breath fresh ideas for the Department to respond effectively and adequately to the new challenges facing the government. He served the Department in this high position for a period of six years. He brings with him to this position vast experience and management skills, financial management, PC engineering, project management, Risk governance and accountability amongst others.

The Limpopo Provincial Government is proud of the achievements of Steve Matjena, indeed hard work and determination pays.