South Africans will not benefit from 112 centres in the medium-term, as repeated delays have led to the project being binned for at least the next three years.
A National Treasury official, who cannot be named due to the department's policy, says the centres have been canned for the next three years as the bulk of unspent money is moved to digital television migration.
For the financial year that starts in April, R102 million was appropriated away from 112 centres - R82 million of which went into digital television - with the rest going to the Department of Communications' (DOC's) broadband project.
Last year, R58 million that was meant to be spent on the emergency 112 call centre was moved to other projects within the department, due to "delays" in getting the project going. Of that amount, the bulk - R38 million - will go to the South African Broadcasting Corporation so it can cover the elections.
Going nowhere
According to the National Budget Review, handed out this week to coincide with finance minister Pravin Gordhan's 2014 budget speech, he and communications minister Yunus Carrim needed to engage on the "the appropriate budget for the 112 Emergency Call Centre project, given the persistent shifting of funds away from the project".
After a bilateral meeting, the two ministers noted the consistent "underspending" on the project and agreed its funding should be reprioritised towards the digital migration strategy and broadband planning.
In the department's vote, it says the "implementation of the 112 emergency call centre has been put on hold, as the department has reprioritised the allocations towards the broadcasting digital migration process".
Unreliable
The 112 centre project has been on the cards for years, but has been cancelled and restarted several times. Last February, Themba Phiri, then acting deputy director-general of the Presidential National Commission on Information Society and Development at the DOC, said there was no clear timeframe for when the number will be implemented. This came after the DOC cancelled the project in October 2012.
Currently, the recognised public emergency numbers in SA are 10111, 10177 and 112 for mobile phones. Emergency medical services had called for the implementation of a centralised emergency number (112), because responses from the 10111 centres are delayed and not always reliable.
The 112 emergency pilot call centre reportedly cost R80 million, and was stuck in pilot mode for more than four years.
The DOC has not responded to a request for comment.
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