When you read
something this optimistic you know it can't be true:
The eNaTIS, up and running since 12 April 2007, has surpassed a transaction rate of 12 transactions per second on the morning of 19 April 2007. The system's processing capacity was extensively increased during the night of 18 April by adding an additional powerful application server into the data centre located in Midrand.
The additional processing power almost doubles the processing capacity of the data centre. Further expansion will take place this afternoon when an additional database server will also be added.
Some 860 sites performed almost 890,000 transactions by 1 pm on Thursday 19 April 2007. At 10 am a transaction rate of 45,000 transactions per hour was measured, translating into a transaction rate of 12,5 transactions per second. It is expcted that the number of transactions during the first week of operation will surpass one million.
It's not true for two reasons: it doesn't mention the number of times the system has crashed, and it doesn't mention how many people have been turned away from licensing department offices.
On Thursday 19th April I went to renew a license and transfer ownership of a vehicle. I was told that the system was only capable of doing license renewals if I arrived with a pre-printed form, and transfer of ownership transactions weren't working at all.
Even so, the queue was out the door, and the hall inside was full. Today I returned half an hour before closing and they weren't letting any more people inside. The hall was still full. So who is lying? It's obvious.
Perhaps if they spent less money on propaganda at www.enatis.com and sponsorship of the 2010 World Cup, and spent more time making a system that actually worked, we would be making progress. But since this whole operation is being run by the WaBenzi class of bureaucrats, that's hardly likely.
One wonders why they didn't have all the processing capacity in place before they went live, instead of making citizens return day after day in the hopes that they could pay their vehicle licenses. A
press release by the Department of Transport explains what eNaTIS is, and promises minimum hassles, but then that what PR people always say. The system is run by
Tasima in Midrand, so you can congratulate them there. After all, they are only 3 years behind their announced "
live" date of the second quarter of 2004. I wonder how much more that the announced R311 million has been spent, and how much this is consting the economy in terms of delays and wasted time while people wait in queues.
5 comments:
At 1 million transactions per week, we can expect every man, woman and child in the country to own a car by the end of the year. NOT!
The R311 million excludes VAT, R354 million VAT inclusive. By adding CPI escalation of resources and exchange rate fluctuation differences, the total tender amount is R408 million VAT inclusive. This is the amount that has been paid to Tasima to develop the system and deploy 3000 desktops and 2000 printers inclusive of cabling and networking at some 1270 sites countrywide.
The informative web site www.enatis.com has not costed the department anything, it is run by Tasima as a value added service on open source platforms and is currently maintained free of charge to the Department.
Wouldn't it be great if the R400 milion actually made the queues FASTER instead of slower?
Did you notice the Grade 1 effort of the e-Natis logo on the site? It looks like it is painted on my screen with the ink not having dried yet. Not to mention the collage. Have they ever heard of web-safe colours?
What do they do with all the money that comes in? Have parties? Get drunk? Have sex? Then a shower? Enough said. This is not about colour (except the logo). It is about a government department that accepts a substandard interface as the frontend to their multi-million rand refurbishment (or apparent refurbishment).
Joomla is a cool CMS that has been horribly raped. But this is the future, I suppose. So I'd better get used to it.
Being a resident of Cape Town,the most beautiful city in the Southern Hemisphere (if not the world), we have the highest number of tourist visiting our city and as a result brings in huge amounts of money as far as tourist Rands go. If tour operators cannot get their vehicles licensed and their guides and drivers have to stand in queues of up to 4hrs at a time to renew their licences and "PDP's" we are going to loose out badly in the months that lie ahead.
While tour guides and operators waste their time at the traffic department tourists are forced to knock around by themselves like chickens with off heads.
To top things off the "New System" is not even available in Cape Town, we have to set a whole day aside to spend at the 'Tragic Department'. That's not only a days wages we're loosing out on, but a days productivity also.
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