Widget not displaying in WMPU sites

I’m modifying a theme for a WPMU install, and I’ve hit a wall. In order to display a text widget in a specified area, I’m using:

$args = array(
    'before_widget' => '<ul class="widget-container"><li class="widget">',
    'after_widget' => '</li></ul>', 
    'before_title' => '<h3 class="widgettitle">',
    'after_title' => '</h3>'
);

the_widget('WP_Widget_Text', array('text' => "[si-contact-form form='1']"), $args);

The shortcode "[si-contact-form form='1']" get’s put into the widget and pulls in a Fast Secure Contact Form form.

It works on the main site, but is not displaying anything on the subdomain sites. Any ideas why?

I have checked, and the subdomains have the same form, with the same shortcode.

Not sure why, but this widget won’t display unless another widget (ie. Search) is set in the back office. It’s not a big deal, since I need the search widget in this instance anyways, but any help towards a solution to this would be appreciated.