The City of Johannesburg has suspended a R46 million traffic IT contract with 2Big Mobile, amid acrimony and accusations regarding an apparent failure to implement the system.
"Services remain suspended while the City of Johannesburg is engaged in negotiations with 2Big Mobile," says city manager Mavela Dlamini.
Under discussion is the future of the contract that was meant to see 2Big Mobile deliver "specific IT services" to the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD).
Asked when the matter would be resolved, Dlamini said: "The city would like to believe that all parties involved would like to see this matter resolved sooner rather than later. Having said this, the city is unable to pre-determine any deadline unilaterally."
The Star newspaper reported this week that the JMPD paid R46 million to the company for a computer system which was supposed to revolutionise traffic policing. "The department now claims they got very little for their money, and terminated their services," the paper said. "2Big, in turn, claimed that because of personal conflicts with senior JMPD members, they were refused access to implement some services."
Looking elsewhere
The city council, last week, refused to comment, referring the matter for comment to the JMPD. The department said it was committed to rendering a good service to the public, and that was why it had been forced to move to other companies offering more advanced technology.
2Big Mobile, a black economic empowerment company, won the five-year contract in 2005. At the time, it was reported the system would allow the JMPD to check for outstanding fines by entering a car's registration number on a cellphone, monitor and track JMPD vehicles, and print fines and warrants on site at roadblocks.
Four JMPD-branded trailers, each containing a laptop, fax machine and printer, were connected to an information database using general packet radio service. Two later phases would have been a mobile fine payment system and the launch of a portal for online fine payments.
2Big Mobile director Mokgatle Maesela said at the time that he hoped to have the full system in place by the end of 2006.
Maesela could not be reached for comment this morning.
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