/ 21 October 2003

Accenture wins Coega IT tender

A consortium led by Accenture has been awarded the tender to set up the information and communication technology systems, valued at R3,7-million, of the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) in Port Elizabeth, the Coega Development Corporation (CDC) said on Tuesday.

Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, will set up the systems in partnership with Cornastone, a black-owned IT Services company and Nkonki, a business consultancy and advisory firm.

CDC project manager for ICT and e-Business, Monde Mawasha, said the corporation was proud to engage world-class companies with teams that reflected the ”diversity of South African society”.

”The consortium’s skill set reflects the kind of intellectual resources needed to make the Coega IDZ a success,” he said. The companies would work with the CDC to develop systems that would service the IDZ on a sustainable basis.

At least three companies owned by historically disadvantaged people have been made part of the project. ”They are being drawn in as part of the project for purposes of skills development and skills transfer in the ICT sector, and the kind of skills they will be exposed to are of a strategic nature, to which Eastern Cape

companies are not normally exposed,” said Mawasha.

The Eastern Cape companies, Ndzebhe Technology, Nkqubela Telecoms IT & Energy Solutions (Pty) Ltd and Jappie Family Investments CC, were selected through a public tender process.

The Coega IDZ is being developed alongside the new deepwater port of Ngqura near Port Elizabeth. – Sapa