Pretoria – The Road Traffic Management Cooperation (RTMC) is concerned that the case involving the transfer of the handling of the eNatis system from Tasima is taking too long.
The matter between the Department of Transport and Tasima was postponed in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday without a date granting an order in the matter.
Tasima is the company originally contracted to manage the Electronic National Administration Traffic Information System (eNatis), which processes transactions such as vehicle licencing and driver’s licences and stores the data.
This means that the status quo remains -- Tasima remains in charge of eNatis even though the department has stopped payments. The initial contract between the Department of Transport and Tasima ended in 2005 but it was extended on a monthly basis.
The matter is said to be heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal next month.
At issue is an earlier judgement made in June by Judge Wendy Hughes that the eNatis function be transferred to the RTMC effective May 1. Following the judgement, Tasima gave notice that it intended appealing the judgement.
An appeal in most matters suspends an order, pending the finalisation of the appeal process.
In her judgement, Judge Hughes also set aside the decision by then department’s Director General, George Mahlalela, to extend the contract of Tasima for five years in 2010.
Speaking to SAnews after the matter was postponed on Friday, RTMC Chief Executive Officer Advocate Makhosini Msibi explained that in May 2014, the company was given notice that they must transfer the system but they opted to bring the matter to court.
The then Director General Mpumi Mpofu had given Tasima notice that they must transfer the system to the RTMC.
“We are very disturbed about the matter. The matter is taking too long. We know that the [original] judgement was correct,” Msibi said.
He said RTMC was ready to take over the managing of the eNatis system and had already employed people to work on it.
“Tasima is costing the department a lot of money to run the system. We have employed 127 people to work on the system,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
