After first punting the end of 2009 as the deadline for the implementation of a single national emergency number, the Department of Communications (DOC) now says it will be established by the first or second quarter of the next financial year.
However, Democratic Alliance (DA) members are not convinced the deadline will be met or that the use of this number will be more effective than existing numbers.
The department says it's working on implementing a single national emergency number soon. It adds that 112 is the public emergency communications number for SA in terms of the Electronic Communications Act.
Despite hopes to have the single number established by the first or second quarter of the next financial year, the department also says the implementation process has not yet begun.
“Currently, different options are being considered and once a decision is made by the executive, the project implementations will commence.” The DOC has not given any indication as to when the decision will be made.
Wrong number
“I think the whole IT system is in a bit of turmoil. I'm not getting the feeling that they're on top of things,” says DA shadow minister of police, Dianne Kohler Barnard.
“They [DOC] keep starting up projects and not following through and closing them down and then they start new ones. It's just not happening.”
She says the department has failed to give any good reason for the change from 10111 to 112. “What on earth are they thinking? What for? Why try out another number when the 10111 centre simply doesn't work? I find it very bizarre that they would just try another number.”
Kohler Barnard adds that it is unwise to put money into another number, when millions have already been put into the 10111 version that is failing.
“My thought is that whatever money was spent on this pilot should have been spent on upgrading the 10111 call centres, so that citizens who had emergencies could actually have their calls answered.”
“Only now has the nation gotten used to 10111 and now they want to change it. You're going to have thousands and thousands of people dialling the wrong number. It seems to me that they [DOC] know nothing about marketing.”
Missed deadlines
The 112 pilot centre in the Western Cape was closed down in May. The pilot centre was part of a DOC strategy to have provincial call centres ready and a more comprehensive system for emergency calls in place for the World Cup.
This is despite regulations in Government Gazette 31230, of 11 July 2008, stipulating that “within 18 months of the date of the establishment of the first public emergency communications centre, in terms of section 76(1) of the Act, the number 112 will become the exclusive national public emergency number”.
Dr Cleeve Robertson, director of the Metro Emergency Medical Services (EMS), in the Western Cape, says the pilot centre at the Strand was built and had been stuck in pilot mode for more than four years.
“All lessons learned and outcomes of the 112 pilot project are considered and being incorporated onto the project plan,” says the DOC.
Anybody there?
Robertson says the project is a decade-old one, starting with plans for 112 call centres in 1999.
“The Telecommunications Act had been amended to have 112 as the national emergency number. But then there has been a long delay in any kind of process to implement the number.”
He says the deal for rolling out the call centres nationally was never awarded, despite five consortia putting forward bids.
“Then there was just silence for the last year. Nobody has been saying anything.”
Financial doorstop
Robertson says the 112 pilot centre cost about R80 million. “It took about R40 million to build it and for the IT, and the other R40 million went into paying the staff over the last few years.
“I suspect the delay in getting a national emergency number implemented is finance-related. But what is that compared to the cost of a life?”
He adds that the high costs are due to the DOC's plan to build new centres, but Robertson feels there is no need for this. He blames the DOC's financial model and says there are existing centres that could have been used.
Millions went into the 10111 emergency centres as well. These centres overspent their budgets, according to police minister Nathi Mthethwa.
Late last year, Mthethwa revealed the majority of the centres had spent above their allocated budgets for two financial years.
In the 2006/7 financial year, the centres received budget allocations totalling R15.3 million, but spent a total of R18.9 million. In the following financial year, they underspent their R22 million budget.
In the 2008/9 financial year, the centres spent R34 million, having been allocated only R29 million.
Poor coordination
EMS had called for the implementation of a centralised emergency number (112), because responses from the 10111 centres were delayed and not always reliable.
“People feel safe in their homes, because they know they can call 10111, but when you do call the chances of actually getting through to an SAPS member are very slim,” says Kohler Barnard.
Parliament, the emergency services, the auditor-general and the public have also slammed the 10111 centres for being ineffective and rendering SAPS services futile. All commented that, despite using systems - which digitally track the response of each police vehicle and record all communication with the caller - the police have continuously failed to improve on service delivery.
In response to a DA parliamentary question last year, the minister of police revealed the nationwide average response time to calls made to these centres is 42 minutes.
"Services have delayed response times, which could result in people dying. There is poor co-ordination between services. Incidents get managed poorly and services over-respond, which is expensive," says EMS spokesperson Anzelle Smit.
According to the DOC, current recognised public emergency numbers are 10111, 10177, 107 and 112. At the moment 112 is the emergency number called from mobile phones, but the DOC says it will soon be accessible from fixed line phones as well.
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