It's three months into the investigation that saw Verizon documents seized, and the reasons for competitor Internet Solutions (IS) getting a court order to have the Verizon offices raided are beginning to emerge.
On Wednesday, ITWeb reported that sensitive tender information was at the heart of the controversy, with an IS employee allegedly moving to Verizon with pricing information. Though there is still no official word from the investigation team, the process seems to be dragging on for longer than it should.
Though any lawyer would say that one needs to present a strong initial case in order to be awarded an Anton Piller (search and seizure) order, I am beginning to wonder if it is taking so long because IS simply can not find any incriminating data. If this turns out to be the case, prepare for some kind of counter-suit.
IT scandal hits president's office
It was also confirmed yesterday that president Thabo Mbeki's political advisor, Titus Mafolo, does indeed own shares in Sondolo IT - a company that was awarded a government contract in March worth about a quarter of a billion rand.
At an event this week, Matsepe-Casaburri expressed what she could only describe as "deep regret" for taking so long to consider digital migration.
Dave Glazier, journalist, ITWeb
The company is facing allegations that the tender was awarded in a corrupt manner, and that it assisted in the design of the tender document, which was awarded by the Department of Correctional Services.
However, another of the directors put a different slant on it, saying that while the deal might look a little underhand, it is actually logical for Sondolo to have won the contract, since its parent company Bosasa has built many of the facilities in which the ICT infrastructure is required, helping Sondolo to better understand the requirements - a plausible argument.
High performance computing
Africa's largest, fastest and greatest high-performance computing centre will be built, in Cape Town, by the South African Centre for High Performance Computing. The Department of Science and Technology initiative aims to make high-level computing power available to the local scientific community by next March.
A useful R150 million budget has been given to the centre, to evolve the national grid of high-performance computing centres over the next few years.
MS commits to CT ICT
More good news for Cape Town this week was the city's .Net Competency Centre being awarded the SA Bureau of Standards' ISO 9001 certification. Microsoft committed to a $300 000 (R2.1 million) sponsorship to enhance the city's intellectual property.
Microsoft SA's developer and platform group director, Danny Naidoo, believes this is the first municipality in the world with such certification.
Telkom wins dial-up modem
Telkom was presented with a 33.6Kbps modem as a prize last Friday afternoon for being the "loser of the year", a cheeky gesture by MyADSL at its broadband conference, made even more so by the fact that the conference was held at Vodaworld. Broadband users voted Telkom the organisation that was the biggest hindrance to development in the local broadband arena over the last year.
More technology on the roads
ITWeb also reported that the KwaZulu-Natal Road Traffic Inspectorate will put its experimental Average Speed Determination (ASD) system into effect on Tuesday. ASD measures average speed based on a pair of licence plate recognition units (spread out hundreds of kilometres apart), and issues a ticket if the driver has been consistently travelling over the speed limit.
Ivy regrets not going digital earlier
Though many of us moan about communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, to be fair, she's a big enough woman to admit when she makes mistakes.
At an event this week she expressed what she could only describe as "deep regret" for taking so long to consider digital migration. I should have thought about this back in 1996, she said.
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