{
  "id": 1278344,
  "title": "SIU investigation launched into Justice Department's R49.8 million digitisation project disruptions",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/16/siu-investigation-launched-into-justice-departments-r49-8-million",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-16T13:43:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "IOL",
    "slug": "iol",
    "url": "https://iol.co.za/capetimes/news/2026-08-16-siu-investigation-launched-into-justice-departments-r498-million-digitisation-project-disruptions/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "The Justice Department's R49.8 million digitisation project has been referred to the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) and Hawks following allegations of disruptions caused by denied access to state records held by a private service provider. The referral was made by Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi after an unannounced inspection of the Master of the High Court in Pretoria, where officials were reportedly unable to access information on the system used to retrieve digitised records. The digitisation and off-site storage project was introduced to address growing volumes of records, limited storage capacity, and inefficient retrieval processes. The department stated that the service arrangement has an approved ceiling of R49,807,681.05 and that several outstanding invoices are being verified and reconciled.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}