No 112 response

Johannesburg, 16 Mar 2009

The Department of Communications (DOC) remains silent on any progress of its Public Emergency Communications Centres (PECC).

While the department claims some progress has been made on the project, it has failed to provide any details, despite numerous requests for information.

The DOC last year expressed hope of having a more comprehensive emergency response system in place by June 2010, in time for the Fifa Soccer World Cup.

In September 2008, ITWeb reported the Department of Communications (DOC) was yet to begin evaluations of proposals from the industry regarding the construction and running of two centres.

The DOC initially stated evaluations would begin in August 2008 - but this process was delayed. The department explained the delay was caused by former director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole, saying the process was waiting for her to "sign-off on the evaluation committee".

The department stated that once built, the centres would allow South Africans to access a range of emergency services by dialling 112 toll-free, from any telecommunication device.

The DOC was mandated by Section 76 of the Electronic Communications Act, on the books since 2005, to set up the centres. The same section authorises the Independent Communications Authority of SA to issue regulations on aspects related to the centres.

Long wait

The DOC has been considering the establishment of the centres since 2002. A pilot contact centre was built at the Strand, near Somerset West, in 2004. That centre handles ambulance calls for the Cape metropole.

Interested parties were requested to respond to a request for qualification (RFQ) to construct "one or more" PECCs for the DOC. Vendors who responded to the RFQ process were then invited to tender for the design, maintenance and management and operational services of the centres.

The RFQ phase closed on 29 February 2008, with the tender process opening soon afterwards.

On 6 March 2008, ITWeb reported that nearly all of SA`s big-name ICT companies had requested qualification to tender for the construction and running of two of the centres. These included Saab Grintek, Continuity SA, Ericsson, Oracle, Dimension Data and GijimaAst - among others. However, most of these companies claim to be in the dark about the conclusion of the tender process.