Digital city project falls silent

Johannesburg, 24 Oct 2007

The wheels seem to have come off the R500 000 Joburg Broadband Network Project (JBNP).

At least one short-listed bidder for the project says it has been left in the dark as to what to do next. However, the City of Johannesburg says everything is still on track.

Regardt van der Vyver, CIO of Neology, says since JBNP project leader Douglas Cohen quit, he has had to read about the project`s progress in the media.

"The unit seems to be in turmoil," says Van der Vyver. "Douglas` [imminent] departure has definitely had a huge impact."

This week ITWeb reported that Cohen is to join consulting company Accenture as of November. Asked why he was leaving, Cohen said: "I was basically fighting the machine, I got really tired. I was not getting the support I needed and it was affecting my personal life." The JBNP is supposed to drive Johannesburg`s bid to become a "digital city"

Monique Griffith, director for sector support for the City of Joburg`s economic development unit, says "there are no delays in the project`s roll-out that can be directly linked to Douglas` departure.

"Douglas initiated and managed the project on behalf of the City of Johannesburg, but we have several other COJ partners and consultants who were part and parcel of the entire process. Therefore, there is continuity and we see no reason for any lapse in momentum.

"There has been some delay, but it has had nothing to do with Douglas` resignation."

Griffith did not want to say why there was a delay, maintaining "it does not really matter; it is simply an internal process issue and the process is unfolding".

She says the JBNP is meeting with its consultants and would communicate with bidders "in a matter of weeks" on the way forward.

The waiting game

However, Van der Vyver has yet to receive word on the planned demonstration phase of the project that Neology is supposed to be involved in.

"From what I understand, everyone will have a unique area to test in, but we don`t know where this will be yet, so we can`t do anything until we know what happens," says Van der Vyver.

He too estimates that some communication from the JBNP might take place in two to three weeks time, but warns: "This might be a bit optimistic.

"We have the funding, our plans are in place, but we can`t go ahead with anything right now," he adds.

Dot Field, chief communications officer of the Vodacom group, said this morning that Vodacom, another bidder, had also not heard from the JBNP on what to do next.

"To date, there has been no direct communication by the City of Joburg regarding the planned demonstration network since notice thereof in the media," says Field. "However, we expect the city to convene a meeting in the near future, as this has been done for the previous phases of this project."

ITWeb could not reach the other short-listed bidders at the time of publication. The other organisations selected to be part of the JBNP project are Altech Autopage, Dimension Data, Telkom, Transtel and Sentech.