GijimaAst to sign Home Affairs deal

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 15 Jan 2008

The Department of Home Affairs and GijimaAst are still finalising the contract for a R2 billion business process management implementation awarded to the JSE Securities Exchange-listed black empowerment company.

Company spokesperson Thoko Mnyango says they are still finalising the work schedule and the deal's partners. She does, however, expect ink on paper by February.

Home Affairs director-general Mavuso Msimang has said his department will play a critical role in the smooth running of next year's Confederations Cup and the FIFA World Cup 2010 and is "working to a tough delivery schedule" - the more so since the project is already running late.

The State IT Agency (SITA) awarded GijimaAst the tender in late October in the face of fierce competition from a Dimension Data-Ideco consortium, Unisys, Business Connexion, arivia.kom and others.

GijimaAst executive chairman Robert Gumede, at the time, said the deal put the company in charge of delivering to Home Affairs an integrated citizen-centric documentation system, "Who am I online (I am I said)", which gives the state a "single view of the citizen" and visitors.

Gumede said his company is "thrilled and humbled" to be working with Home Affairs and SITA to deliver to the state "a technologically advanced system that provides immigration officials, the SA Police Service, national health and emergency services, transportation and revenue services, to name just a few, with a single view of information for each and every person who enters and leaves the country".

"Who am I online" will eradicate red tape, ending the slow manual processing in the issuance of visas and other permits, "and is, therefore, a crucial component in the drive for organising the best FIFA World Cup ever held".

The company notes it won the deal after a laborious tender process that started in March 2006.

"In September 2006, after a gruelling transparent tender evaluation process and oral presentations by the short-listed companies to the various tender committees, the SITA Tender Board - Supplier Selection Authority (Recommendation Committee) finally recommended GijimaAst as the successful bidder for the R2 billion-plus contract to the then director-general of the Department of Home Affairs."

The final award was delayed for a year by the departure of Home Affairs' then-director general, as well as the department's chief information officer, and minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula's appointment of a multi-party task team to review the department's IT projects and operations.

The technology GijimaAst and its partners will implement will also pave the way for future chip-based solutions. These include the electronic passport, smart ID cards - currently on trial - an electronic health card and an upgraded smart driver licence.