Warwick Bruce Chapman

PLEASE NOTE: The R6.5 million referred to below is the amount budgeted for the entire 3 phases of the site to be completed.  Currently, after over R1 million, the site is in phase 2.  For details on the City’s plans for the site, refer to this duban.gov.za press statement (envelope).

UPDATE (21 July, 2009): ITWeb called me this morning and quizzed me on this issue afterwhich they wrote this: “Durban 2010 backlash intensifies”

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The Speaker – eThekwini Council
Councillor James Nxumalo
City Hall
DURBAN

12th July 2009

Dear Mr Speaker

QUESTION IN TERMS OF SECTION 17 OF THE RULES OF ORDER

Recently the fifaworldcup.durban.gov.za information portal was launched. The launch was accompanied by much media coverage and subsequent alarm expressed at the R6.5 million spent by the City for this website.

In defense of the expenditure, the 2010 ICT Programme Manager stated “The 2010 website will form part of other legacy projects. It will evolve into an information portal which will incorporate the current www.durban.gov.za website and the use of the functionalities (Silverlight, Photosynth and Sharepoint) and content from the 2010 website.”

The “Policy on Free and Open Source Software Use for South African Government“, approved by Cabinet in 2007 requires arms of Government to make use of Open Source and Open Standards compliant software where it exists as a capable alternative to expensive commercial proprietary software.

Additionally, at least, but not limited to paragraphs 2.5.21, 2.9.3 and 2.5.31 of the “Minimum Interoperability Standards (MIOS) for Information Systems in Government v4.1” signed by the Minister of Public Service and Administration brings into question the implementation of Microsoft Sharepoint based products as they are often not standards complaint.

It is contended that the existing www.durban.gov.za website already provides both a technically capable and policy compliant platform upon which to have developed the new Durban FIFA 2010 website and that the expenditure on the new site which intends to replace it is thus wasted.

Against this background I pose the following questions:

1. Was there a tender process entered into for the preparation of the new website?
2. From which budget allocation was the funding for the new website sourced?
3. Was the cost of R6.5 million made known to the relevant council committees prior to the launch and the resultant media exposure?
4. How much money has been invested in the existing www.durban.gov.za website and platform since it was deployed on the open source Plone system?
5. Why did the City decide to develop the new website using expensive Microsoft technologies instead of sticking with the existing open source, standards compliant platform?

Yours faithfully,
Councillor Warwick Chapman