The Department of Communications (DOC) has requested proposals from service providers for the 112 public emergency centres.
The implementation of 112 as a single national emergency number has been on the cards for several years, but the project has been cancelled and restarted several times.
On its Web site, the department now says it is looking for a suitable service provider to render the emergency entities. This comes after the pilot call centre reportedly cost R80 million, and was stuck in pilot mode for more than four years.
The due date for the proposals is 18 May, and the DOC says all prospective bidders are encouraged to collect the bid document prior to the briefing session as no documents will be issued on the day. The compulsory briefing will take place on 20 April, at the DOC, at 10am.
Presidency link
In February, Themba Phiri, 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 is after the DOC in October said the project was cancelled by former director-general Mamodupi Mohlala. At the time, it added that current DG Rosey Sekese wanted to revive the project as a matter of urgency.
Phiri said the project was going ahead. He explained that the department had the funding, but technology had advanced and needed to be incorporated into the call centre. Among other things, he mentioned that the call centre should be able to handle data voice services.
The acting DDG also said there are plans to link the 112 centre with the presidential hotline, which can be reached on 17737. It went live in September 2009, and deals with complaints related to employment, housing, law, citizenship, potable water, social benefits, corruption, electricity, education, roads and health.
Personal replacement
The DOC didn't spend R711.5 million last year and of this amount R117 million was not spent, because the 112 emergency call centre project was terminated.
Parliamentary portfolio committee members raised concerns about the cancellation of the project, which also meant the loss of a number of jobs.
Currently, the recognised public emergency numbers in SA are 10111, 10177 and 112 for mobile phones.
In the meantime, the call centre response has been acknowledged as being so poor that the ministry of police took to handing out cellphone numbers of police officials last year. Officers were asked by national police commissioner Bheki Cele to give out their cellphone numbers, and the department is in the process of printing out a national directory so all citizens will have access to the numbers of generals and other officials.
Millions overspent
Millions of rands went into the 10111 emergency centres as well. These centres overspent their budgets, according to police minister Nathi Mthethwa.
In the 2008/9 financial year, the centres spent R34 million, having been allocated only R29 million.
Emergency Medical Services had called for the implementation of a centralised emergency number (112), because responses from the 10111 centres were delayed and not always reliable.
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