Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe was warned about South Africa’s chaotic new traffic information system, Beeld reported on Friday.
It said the minister and the Department of Transport were told in December last year that the electronic national traffic information system (eNaTIS) would be an “embarrassment” for the country unless Radebe took action — but even after a report containing shocking findings by the Auditor General was handed to the department in February, the system was still implemented in one fell swoop.
According to the report, obtained by Beeld, the Auditor General warned in December there would be an 80% chance of failure if the migration to the new, R408-million eNaTIS took place all at once. Neither Radebe nor his department made the report public or ever referred to it.
Licensing and testing stations across the country have been severely disrupted in the past month as eNaTIS has either broken down completely or led to very slow processing of transactions. Long queues outside such stations have angered members of the public and the motor industry (which has reportedly lost millions of rands) alike.
According to Beeld, the Auditor General found 19 of 24 aspects of eNaTIS to be “high risk”, including cost, risk management, the 18- to 20-month delay in implementing it, skills transfer, and a lack of human resources during its development.
Its report also warned that fraudulent or criminal activities could take place on the system without anyone realising it timeously.
One of the reasons for the delay in implementing eNaTIS was the failed court challenge to the award of the contract to technology consortium Tasima. The applicants in part queried Tasima’s strategy of abruptly implementing the new system without having the old system run concurrently for a short while.
Tasima has admitted that recent technical problems occurred because it could not fully test the new system nationally before shutting down the old one.
Minister ‘did not know’
Collen Msibi, spokesperson for the Department of Transport, on Friday refuted the allegations that Radebe had been aware of the potential problems with eNaTIS.
“I can confirm that that particular report [by the Auditor General] was not sent to the minister. It was addressed to the director general’s office; the ministry has not seen it,” he told the Mail & Guardian Online.
He said that Director General of Transport Mpumi Mpofu had been in meetings all of Friday morning, so there hadn’t been an opportunity to confirm whether she had seen the report. The department was still looking into it.
“The minister did not know about the report … I know he would be quite interested to read it,” Msibi said, adding that if Radebe had read it, “I’m sure the minister would have taken the advice of the Auditor General”.
“But it’s difficult to say [what would have been done] as we haven’t been able to study the report,” he said.
Problems continue
Despite assurances by the Department of Transport this week that eNaTIS was working at 95% of capacity and that it was satisfied with its operation thus far, the system was still “freezing” at Langlaagte testing and licensing station in Johannesburg. Some motorists queuing since dawn on Wednesday said they had been going to the station since last month. On Tuesday, some of those in the queue threatened to burn down the station.
An employee at the station who refused to give her name said it had a big problem as no one accepted responsibility for the constant “freezing” of the system. “Everyone is shifting the blaming. Telkom is blaming eNaTIS people and eNaTIS people are blaming Telkom,” said the employee. “That puts us in a very difficult position as people are becoming impatient.”
Station manager Tata Mabiya refused to comment and referred questions to Johannesburg metro police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar. Mabiya was overheard telling another man that the station had a “big problem”.
Minnaar also shifted the blame to the national Transport Department. “The system is still slow … the department deals with the technical side; we only deal with the issuing of licences and vehicle registration.”
Motorists will have to shell out R30 per licensing transaction from July, which will go towards maintenance and upgrading costs.