GautengOnline budget doubled

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist

Johannesburg, 22 Jun 2006

The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has doubled the budget for the multimillion rand GautengOnline project.

In her budget speech this week, Gauteng education MEC Angie Motshekga said the budget had been increased from R100 million in 2005/6, to R200 million in 2006/7 financial year.

The project, initially allocated R500 million over a three-year period when it was launched in 2001, had a R200 million allocation for 2005/6. However, that year's budget was later slashed to R100 million, while the project's deadline was extended by two years to 2008.

The budget speech also revealed plans to "re-conceptualise" the project to address issues of sustainability and cost-effectiveness, which have "resulted in new ideas around technology and vendor models, governance frameworks and institutional requirements".

Furthermore, following accusations that the venture has been bungled and mishandled, with fingers pointed at project management leaders and broadband and Internet access provider Sentech, the GDE confirmed it would issue a new tender for the project next month.

In the dark

Sentech has not yet met with the GDE, and says it does not know what is happening with its contract to provide the project's Internet connectivity, which ends in a year's time.

However, a long-term change in Internet technology would not be ruled out, GautengOnline project manager Dick Raynor said, as the cities of Johannesburg and Tshwane are looking at the possibility of Internet self-provisioning.

A change would, however, impact negatively on the school-lab model. "The labs are exactly the same, allowing us to download applications by satellite to all the schools at the same time and service them remotely," he said.