Govt gags eNatis developer

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 08 May 2007

Transport minister Jeff Radebe will this afternoon brief the country on his department's troubled electronic National Traffic Information System (eNatis). Transport spokesman, Collen Msibi, this morning called on motorists to stay away from testing stations to give technicians a chance to test the system.

eNatis was down for a delayed upgrade yesterday. Msibi early in the day promised the system would be up by 2pm yesterday, but the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMIO) says this did not happen.

The Department of Transport has also seemingly gagged Tasima, the consortium responsible for eNatis, from speaking to the media. Up to Friday, Tasima MD, Johan Vorster, freely spoke to the media. This morning he is referring all calls to Msibi.

"The system is up and running today," Msibi said this morning. "But the technicians want to check the stress level of the system, so the public is urged to stay away from testing stations today. I know there are already people at some and they will probably try to help them, but service is not certain," Msibi added.

RMIO CE Jeff Osborne is scathing in his criticism of eNatis: "The system is a shambles. Every day it is down is costing dealers, businesses, everyone money. Who is going to compensate us for our losses?" He adds the organisation is still awaiting a response to a letter written to Radebe two weeks ago. Another will be sent to him today.

Osborne says eNatis has significantly affected car dealers, although in most instances, banks have understood the position the fiasco has placed on dealers. Speaking about cash-flow problems in the industry, he says the "banks are being reasonable... but not all dealers have that relationship with their financial institutions". He also condemned the "absolute incompetence of the people who did the system", saying it appears no due diligence or proper testing was done before the system was operationalised on 13 April.

Fury Toyota Darrenwood sales manager, Carlos Matos, says his dealership, which used to register a car on the same day it was bought, now struggles for two to three weeks to do the same. "It has been a nightmare for us. We are even battling to get permits," he says, adding that it recently took him three hours to get 10 permits. Matos says it appears that eNatis has complicated, rather than simplified car registrations. Cancelling a permit now takes nine screens; it used to be two.

Matos recalls that when the country migrated onto Natis, both it and the predecessor systems were run in parallel for a while. "When we went from 'TJ' to 'GP' [from local to national registration systems], they kept both systems open. This time, they shut down the old one completely. That makes no sense, they did not think this through."

Transport officials claim eNatis will be available to the public tomorrow.

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