Cape Town appoints new CIO

By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent

Cape Town, 28 Jan 2009

The City of Cape Town has appointed Andre Stelzner as its chief information officer, a post that was vacated by Nirvesh Sooful in the middle of last year.

Stelzner, 43, was in charge of the SAP competency centre and, along with Mehboob Foflonker, who headed the contractor side of the project, was responsible for the implementation of the ERP system under Sooful's strategic leadership.

The City of Cape Town received several awards and garnered international recognition for the project.

A civil engineer by training, Stelzner was formerly the area engineer for what is now the northern Cape Town suburb of Tygerburg, before its incorporation into the greater Cape Town Municipality and, in 2002, began to work on the SAP project.

Stelzner takes over at a time when the City of Cape Town is about to embark on its next major ICT project, the laying of a fibre optic network that will connect almost all of its buildings, which is expected to cost an eventual R400 million.

In the current financial year, some R94 million out of a total capital expenditure of R133 million has been earmarked for the broadband network, which received final council approval last year. Tenders over the design of the network are currently been adjudicated and Stelzner expects the project to start within the next three to four months.

Cape Town's IT operating budget totals R350 million, of which R91 million is allocated for salaries.

Stelzner says Cape Town's ICT plan is one of consolidation.

“We are looking at building on our solid ICT foundation and this includes making available online transactions and building a strong network throughout the city,” he says.