Getting Home Affairs cup-ready

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 05 Nov 2007

GijimaAst faces a "tough delivery schedule" to deliver a complete IT overhaul to the Department of Home Affairs, one of the most technology-deficient and dysfunctional organs of the South African government.

The company late last month won what is said to be a R2 billion-plus tender to implement an integrated citizen-centric documentation system called "Who am I online (I am I said)", which gives the state a "single view of the citizen" and visitors.

"With both the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup coming to SA, it is estimated that over half a million people will enter the country for each of the events," says GijimaAst executive chairman Robert Gumede. "This is over and above the normal flow of people..."

Gumede says his company is "thrilled and humbled" to be working with Home Affairs and the State IT Agency (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".

Home Affairs director-general Mavuso Msimang says his department "will play a critical role in the smooth running of the FIFA World Cup 2010" and is "working to a tough delivery schedule".

The multibillion-rand project has been divided into two phases, as the department and SITA needed to accelerate its implementation since it is already more than 10 months behind schedule.

Citizen services

For citizens and residents, "Who am I online" is focused around population registration and the administration and management of life-events such as births, marriages and deaths. The GijimaAst-led consortium will also integrate birth, death and marriage certificates and identity documents (ID) with the existing Automated Fingerprint Identification System, part of the Home Affairs National Identification System.

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

GijimaAst beat companies including a Dimension Data-Ideco consortium, Unisys, Business Connexion, arivia.kom and others to the contract.

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.