Warwick Bruce Chapman

In March 2010, a year and a half ago, Cllr Tex Collins and I were assured that the last major technical hurdle in the completion of the new Revenue Management System was the data migration from the old Coins system to the new LOGOsoft RMS system. We were at the time advised that this process was almost complete, and they indeed demonstrated by pulling my Metro Bill. We were assured that the next challenges related only to testing, training and rollout preparation.

Last week, ahead of this council meeting, I emailed, phoned and SMSed the department head responsible for this project and asked him to make time available for me to get an update on the status of the project. I have received no reply. This is a repeat of my experience in 2010 as I attempted to prepare for the last time RMS/COINS appeared on the agenda. Again, it would appear that a municipal official is actively avoiding speaking to a councillor about RMS.

We are now being asked, for the first time as long as I have been a councillor, to approve an amount for the maintenance of COINS, which until now I believed was maintained in-house. This amount is significant, around 15% of last tranche of R77m we were forced to approve for the completion of RMS, and would not be necessary had we completed our RMS project on budget and on schedule.

In October 2010, I tabled a Notice of Motion[1], which required that “a monthly report be tabled at each Council meeting henceforth on progress towards the completion of the development and implementation of the system.”

The Motion was passed unanimously but no such reports have appeared on the agenda of any council meeting since then. As such I will write to the Speaker after this meeting requiring that this matter be comprehensively reported on at the next council meeting failing which the matter will be escalated to the MEC: COGTA.

Given the critical nature of the system to the proper functioning of the municipality’s financial system, we are forced to support this vote, but we do it under protest. I shall motivate to my colleagues that we setup a task team to urgently investigate the specific details pertaining to the RMS project and its progress. It is time now, after nearly 8 years and almost R500m that we complete and implement this project and start realising a return on investment for our ratepayers.

[1] 20101014-motion-rms

NOTE: This statement is was written ahead of the Mayoral Debate in the Durban City Hall on Wednesday 20 April and published in the Mercury on 20 April.

“The DA will bring the promise of opportunity to the people of eThekwini through clean and efficient government.”

The dream which was laid before South Africa in 1994 by the father of our nation was founded on the opportunity which the new South Africa presented to its people. Opportunity would now become available to all South Africans to improve their lives and the lives of their families. Government’s role would be to expand opportunity and provide the poorest of the poor with the means to take advantage of that opportunity.

The eThekwini Metro provides a clear example of how poorly performing local governments rob people of opportunity. Corruption and the emphasis on political grandeur waste scarce public funds, cadre deployment reduces efficiency and the mismanagement of departments compromises the ability of the municipality to deliver. The bottom line is that less money is available to a less efficient council to roll out the services and infrastructure needed for opportunity to abound.

The AGSA reported that R500m of irregular expenditure occurred in the previous financial year. Remant Alton collapsed our bus service, taking millions of Rand of public funds with it. Treasury has spent R500m developing a Revenue Management System which is 5 years late and R400m over budget. In the 2010/11 financial year, council only built 8500 of the budgeted 16000 houses. The Durban Metro Police Service has a vacany rate of 48% with 1056 posts unfilled.

These are but a few of the failures of the government of the past 5 years to deliver opportunity to the people of eThekwini. A DA government in eThekwini will make the delivery of opportunity to all the cornerstone of its programme of delivery through capable leadership and a focus on the many developmental imperatives of our City.

Capable leadership is a requirement for all DA governments. The DA recognises the crucial role leadership plays in ensuring that transparency, accountability and efficiency are the foundation of effective local governments. The significant developmental challenges which face our City can only be overcome through tight and efficient expenditure of funds, developing a passion for delivery in the 22000 employees of the municipality and through an unwavering commitment to create jobs through economic growth while protecting the poorest of the poor.

A DA government in eThekwini will ensure total transparency of the council and tender process to eradicate corruption and increase the business done with emerging contractors. In the City of Cape Town, the DA introduced transparency. All Council meetings and Mayoral Committee meetings were opened to the public. So too were all meetings of the Bid Adjudication Tender Award Committee which decides all contracts between the City and outsider suppliers.

A DA government in eThekwini will ensure infrastructure and services are rolled out in an efficient and cost-effective fashion in order to provide the foundation for growing our metro economy and creating jobs. In the City of Cape Town, investment in infrastructure that benefits the public and supports the economy rose from R950m in 2004/05 to R3,1 billion in 2008 and 3,5bn in 2010/11, an increase of over 300%. The DA tripled spending on repairs and maintenance from R800m/year to R1,6bn/year.

A DA government in eThekwini will ensure that the system of housing is overhauled to rid it of corruption and dramatically increase the provision of housing. The post-2006 City of Cape Town government has built three times the number of houses its predecessor managed and rationalised the housing waiting lists to ensure the poorest benefit first and list corruption is eradicated.

A DA government in eThekwini will ensure maximum expenditure against capital budgets and infrastructure grants and ensure that debt collection is improved. From 2006, the DA increased the percentage of Cape Town’s capital budget spent from an average of 65% under the ANC to well over 80% and as high as 97% in 2008/09. The DA’s greater collection rate benefited the poor: By the end of 2007, 16% of the poorest households in Cape Town experienced an actual reduction to their municipal account.

A DA government in eThekwini will attend urgently to the desperate state of our Metro Police Service and ensure they are engaged in reducing crime and enforcing the laws of our City. In its first 100 days in Government in 2006, the DA in the City of Cape Town allocated R56.8 million to fund critical posts in the city, particularly for nurses, fire-fighters and police services.

The track record of DA governments across the country speaks for itself. Corruption has been virtually eradicated making more public funds available for developmental priorities. Well maintained and reliable infrastructure in a safer and more attractive environment along with the lower cost of doing business has meant economic growth is higher and unemployment is lower in DA-run municipalities.

The DA will bring the promise of opportunity to the people of eThekwini through clean and efficient government. The DA is the only party with a track record of delivering corruption-free governments that deliver economic growth, infrastructure and services, poverty relief and community safety. Voters can now compare this track record with that of other parties and make an informed choice who to lend their vote to for 5 years.

NOTE: This speech was not delivered at the 28 October eThekwini Council meeting because the Notice of Motion was agreed to by the council.

Willy Govender, multiple industry award winning CEO of Data World, well known backer of the ANC and head of the notorious eValuations ventured into a partnership in 2003 with Indian Enterprice Resource Planning company Ramco Systems. They jointly formed CityWorks in South Africa which went on to win the tender to provide the development platform and services for the Revenue Management System Project.

CityWorks then licensed an ERP development platform called Ramco VirtualWorks to build LOGOsoft, what we refer to as the RMS project.

Willy Govender’s client service motto is purported to be “make my customers look good”. eThekwini, and by extension his ANC, are not looking good.

The RMS development started in 2004 with an estimated cost to the ratepayer of R90-150m. At the time this council debated the issue, Cllr John Steenhuisen told our treasurer Krish Kumar that this development would hit R500m and still not go live. Mr Kumar dismissed the comments as sensational.

Look where we are now. In 2006, an additional R100.8m was provided to continue the project and the go-live date extended. In 2008, and an additional R157.2m was provided to continue the project and the go-live date extended. In 2010, we were asked to provide “up to” R77m more to ensure the completion of the project and the go-live date was extended to latest June 2011. That figure brings the total investment in this project by the City to R485m, just short of half a billion Rand.

During my last update in March this year, Cllr Tex Collins and I were assured the last major technical hurdle was the data migration from the old Coins system to the new LOGOsoft RMS system. We were at the time advised that this process was almost complete, and they indeed demonstrated by pulling my Metro Bill. We were assured that the next challenges related only to testing, training and rollout preparation.

On Monday, ahead of this council meeting, I phoned the department head responsible for this project, Bob Gangadaran and asked to to make time available for me to get an update on the status of the project. He said he would but I did not hear from him. This morning I phoned him at 07h30 and asked when it would be convenient to chat. He said after 8 and I called him at 8:24. A woman picked up the phone and then when I asked for Bob she cut the call. I called again and it rang off the hook. I sent Bob an SMS requesting that he call me urgently and he sent a reply protesting technical emergency. I draw this picture to illustrate the obvious: a municipal official is actively avoiding speaking to a councillor about RMS.

As a payer of eThekwini’s exhorbitant rates, as a councillor responsible for the proper governance of this City, I want to know where our R500m has gone and exactly what stage this development is at. This notice of motion seeks that Exco be provided an urgent and full update of the status of the project and that council be updated on a monthly basis of the progress of this development as it approaches the go-live date.

I would further call that a full forensic investigation be undertaken with the support of MPAC, to uncover any corruption, wasted expenditure and mismanagement involved in this project. Anonymous sources have provided several allegation of irregularities in this project and it is thus incumbent on the City to investigate.

In the interests of proper governance, I thus seek your approval thereof.

This speech was delivered at the sitting of the eThekwini Council on 29 April, 2010.

“The Democratic Alliance will support the final extension of funding for this ambitious Revenue Management System project, which, if successful and stable could be an excellent strategic investment for the City.

The potential this RMS project has to both provide an efficient and customised solution to the City is significant. Further, the possibility of realising an early return on investment if we are able to sell this product to other local governments in Africa and abroad is promising.

We must embrace every opportunity we can to develop and deliver locally, thus improving local skills and saving vital foreign exchange. If successful, the RMS project will be an example of one such opportunity.

The DA must stress, however, that with a software development project of this complexity and magnitude, none of the above can be celebrated until the proverbial fat lady sings. The development itself must be successfully completed and a well resourced maintenance and support team put in place to ensure the investment is sustained.

Lastly, due to the contentious nature and history of the project, we would like to request that between now and when the project is due to be rolled out, the full council or at least the Executive Committee, be formally updated on a monthly basis on the progress of the development as it approaches the go-live date.”