Celebrating 100 years of inept colonial bureaucracy

(Click for a larger image)

On 31st May 1910 the Union of South Africa was born. The former colony of the British Empire because a semi-independent colony. On 31st May 1961 the Republic of South Africa was declared, and we were no longer a colony but an independent racist state. In 1994 we got rid of legalised racism, but retained our glorious history of bungling government bureaucratic inefficiency.
In 2007 one aspect of this bureaucratic nightmare got a new name (eNatis) and two years later it's still eBroken. The queue above takes about an hour or so to process. There are big signs saying that the credit card machines don't work, and that they don't accept R200 notes either. Notice the TV in the top left of the picture. It used to display adverts to its captive audience, but that's broken too. There is a much shorter queue on the right for windows 11-13, where they will accept payment of traffic fines, but nothing else. I got the traffic fine because of the length of the other queue. Because I paid the fine first I couldn't pay the license fee. Go figure.
I tried to enter this door to get my Driver's License renewed, but they wouldn't let me in. I think they have more security guards than employees. Apparently their fancy new eNatis system isn't working and they are only processing 100 people per day. Doors open at 7.30 but get there early. The sign on the door says they closed yesterday at midday, but by 11am today they were turning people away. never mind the economic impact of denying people a valid driver's license. After all, the fine for an invalid one is a mere R1200. I will try to go back tomorrow.
One of the "benefits" of the eNatis system is that you can go to the Post Office to renew the license. The queue was a little shorter, but still took about an hour. The difference was that there was only 1 terminal instead of 5 or 6 (out of 10 counters) at the Licensing Department, and the Post Office employee complained that if she typed too fast the system bombed out. Now for a Post Office person to complain about a slow system speaks volumes, since they aren't that fast themselves.

eNaTIS response to hackers is really sad

Yesterday the eNaTIS web site was hacked twice. This morning a defiant message has been posted on the eNaTIS web site. Unfortunately the message is not in the least bit reassuring, and is clearly on the defensive. It reads:

eNaTIS "Hackers" on wrong track
Some media hype has suggested that the eNaTIS system was hacked recently[most of the reports specified the web site]. This was apparently due to someone leaving a comment on a page of a section of the eNaTIS public web site (this site)[So that's how they did it]. The suggestion that eNaTIS was hacked is actually laughable. The eNaTIS public web site is in no way connected at all to the eNaTIS system. [Not yet, but on-line transactions will be possible "later this year"] This choice was a deliberate design choice.
The eNaTIS system and database is still secure and cannot be accessed via this web site.
The truth is that the eNaTIS web site is running on a public hosting area on a public hosting service. The hosting service is not inside the eNaTIS data centre at all. There is also no connection of any kind between this web site and the eNaTIS system.[Not yet] The Department of Transport deliberately decided to host the web site on a completely different server than the eNaTIS system servers to ensure that any hacking attempts would be fruitless.
Any attempt to hack this web site (www.enatis.com) is totally fruitless in respect of the eNaTIS system. The eNaTIS system can only be accessed by work stations that are authorised to access the system and all communication with the eNaTIS system is encrypted. In addition, a pre-defined user name and password is needed to connect to the eNaTIS system. [I wonder how often these passwords are changed?] An eNaTIS user will only be given access to the system after signing a confidentiality agreement regulating the security of passwords. The South African public can rest assured that the eNaTIS system is not open to the public and hackers of the web site will not get one millimeter closer to the eNaTIS database by doing this.

Now for the hard truth about eNaTIS: the web site was hacked twice because the people responsible for the web site are incompetent.
It's reassuring that access to the eNaTIS database cannot be gained via the web site yet, but the facility for on-line transactions has been promised "later this year" according to the same web site.
Hopefully this security wake-up call will be correctly interpreted as such, but judging by the tone of the statement posted they have completely missed the point: the security of the web site is as important as the security of the rest of the system. Judging by the reports in Beeld, the rest of the system is not secure either.

Bad, Worse, eNaTIS | News article in the Times | MyADSL story | More bad news on the eNatis traffic system | ITWeb: Arivia sale pushed back to next year

eNaTIS website hacked twice

At 3.30pm today the following story appeared on the News24 web site:

Cape Town - A part of the eNatis website appears to have been hacked, raising fresh fears over the security of the national system.
News24 received several tip-offs from the public on Wednesday that a section of the eNatis.com website had been breached by a hacker. When the "how do I" link on the eNatis.com website is clicked, the message "Sorry bro..anda terlambat. Patch By Tao. OK?!!." appears on a blank screen.
The words "!- Hacked by Tao -!" appear on the top of the screen.
No other parts of the website appear to have been affected by the hacker.

By 11pm the site had been hacked a second time. This time the front page was completely vandalised (as shown above).
Its ironic that the original page (see Google cached page) proudly states "New look for eNaTIS Website" and goes on to explain how they are using Joomla, an open source content management system. Obviously there are security holes on their server, which the first polite hacker pointed out.
I guess they had all gone home by 4pm and decided to fix it in the morning, leaving the system vulnerable to a more obvious hack. They clearly don't have a clue.

eNaTIS Inherits Security Breach | Sorry, bro ... eNaTIS hacked

Scopa Probes eNaTIS

Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has launched a probe into the awarding of a R408- million tender for the controversial eNatis project.
The Sunday Times has established that Scopa has sent several questions to Mpumi Mpofu, the Director-General in the Department of Transport, asking her to provide a list of companies which tendered for the project and the respective values of their bids.
The probe was triggered by the fiasco which greeted the introduction of the new electronic National Traffic Information System.
The system’s crash has resulted in huge delays in vehicle licence registrations around the country.
Scopa’s preliminary questions have solicited responses that show the eNatis tender was allocated to the most expensive bidder.
Scopa chairman Themba Godi said the watchdog body was “anxious” about the performance of eNatis and “needed clarity” as public funds were involved. The glitches in the system raised suspicion that due diligence and risk analysis were not properly performed, before it was introduced, he said.
The tender was awarded in 2001 to the Tasima consortium at an initial value of R354 731 000. It was subsequently increased to R408-million.
Tasima, also known as Masiye Phambili, beat nine companies who bid at prices below R354.7-million.
Another two companies bid below the final R408-million the system has cost. AST Group lost with a R372-million bid and another company, Natcon, lost with a R395-million bid. This brings the companies that bid lower than the ultimate winner to 11, if the adjustment to R408-million is taken into account.
Strangely, Mpofu’s response to Scopa lists two other separate bid amounts under the name Natcon, at R467-million and R457-million, respectively.
The office of the Auditor-General is also conducting a procurement audit on the eNatis project as part of the regularity audit conducted on public entities.

Sunday Times article by Mpumelelo Mkhabela | Transport Minister Confirms eNaTIS Incompetence | eNaTIS developer forced to eat hos own dog food

Transport Minister Confirms eNaTIS Incompetence

Transport Minister Jeff Radebe should be commended for his "unreserved" apology for the inconvenience caused by the changeover from the NaTIS to eNaTIS system, but he hasn't explained the incompetence and bad planning that has led to a 6 week crisis at the licensing departments.

• Why was the changeover done during the busiest month of the year, i.e shortly after year end in the month with the lowest number of working days, and therefore the longest queues?
• Why was no provision made for offices to stay open longer and/or open on Saturdays? The offices were turning people away long before the office hours closed.
  
• Why was it necessary for the old system to be switched off for an entire week, causing inconvenince and generating an immediate backlog?
• What kind of bad program and database design has forced FOUR server upgrades in 4 weeks?
• Why was it not possible to revert to the old system when the wheels fell off?
• What procedures were in place to deal with the paperwork manually while the system was off-line? There appears to have been none.
• Why has the Dept of Transport been lying to the public about the true status of the system for the last 6 weeks?
• When will the Minister explain why the system is almost R100 million over budget (R408 million instead of R311 million) and three years late?
• Why did the license renewal letters sent out in March not mention the planned shutdown of the entire system for the period 5th April to 13th April?
• The fourth upgrade was announced on Friday, but only completed on Tuesday morning. Does it really take from 6pm on Friday to 8am on Tuesday to set up another server? That's 86 hours, or didn't they work on the weekend?
  

According to the SAPA report, "Motorists issued with traffic fines because the country's new electronic national traffic information system (eNaTIS) was offline may [possibly] have them cancelled, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Tuesday.
Radebe apologised “unreservedly” for the inconvenience the implementation of eNaTIS had caused.
“Motorists already issued with traffic fines due to no fault of their own will have their fines reviewed on merit and considered for cancellation by the relevant traffic authorities,” Radebe said at a press conference on Pretoria.
Over the past few days a new server with bigger capacity had been installed. This and other work had led to the system 'operating in a stable manner' since it was brought back online on Tuesday. [We believe you, but how long are the queues?]
Radebe said more work would be done and the system should be running with stability on almost full capacity by next week.
However, he said, people who wanted to renew their licences could go to testing centres. Arrangements were [only now] being made for centres to operate on extended hours to reduce backlogs. [That's about 6 weeks too late, Mr Radebe!]
Backlogs, technical glitches and shaky, slow systems have been reported at testing stations around the country since the eNaTIS system was introduced last month."

iafrica.com: Traffic fines might be cancelled

eNatis developer forced to eat his own dog food

ITWeb Johannesburg, 4 May 2007 - Yesterday was another record day for eNatis, its developer says, with 500 000 transactions completed – 68 000 between 2pm and 4pm alone. [That's the time I was standing in a 2.5 hour queue]
However, police had to be called to some licensing stations, such as the Johannesburg Metro Police's facility in Loveday Street, to deal with increasingly restive crowds.
The Department of Transport and the Presidency are now calling on the public to be patient, rather than denying anything is wrong. [They have been denying it from the outset. How about accepting responsibility?]
Commenting on yesterday's statistics, Tasima CE and eNatis project director Johan Vorster says: “This is still not good enough, we need to increase capacity.” [Nice of them to say so, but when do they apologise on their web site?]
He says technicians have overnight started installing a fourth database server to speed up transactions generally and allow eNatis to cope with demand spikes.
The system began operating on 13 April with two database servers. [Actually it was one, and they added a second on 19th April] Demand caused Tasima to add a third server last week and now the fourth should be online by Monday. “This fourth database server roughly has the same capacity as the other three together,” Vorster says.
“eNatis is handling volumes well, but is getting occasional spikes. We realised that on the database side we were marginal, and sometimes, when large requests come through, we get overload, with 100% CPU utilisation on one of the servers. They should be load-balancing, but it seems they get too busy that they don't share, causing the system to slow down.” The fourth server should help in that regard, he adds.
The Tasima consortium, lead by arivia.kom, is also looking at the system's transaction flow and has “appointed data consultants to see where it can be optimised”. [That's about 3 years too late, but better late than never. Any system that needs to shut down for 1 week to make a changeover and convert data is clearly not properly planned or implemented]
Vorster adds he, too, has had a run-in with the system while attempting to renew a vehicle licence.
The Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI), which represents about 7 800 dealers, wrote a scathing letter to transport minister Jeff Radebe about the problems it encountered with eNatis.
In the letter, dated last week, RMI CE Jeff Osborne told the minister transactions “of vehicles and equipment totalling more than R1.5 billion cannot be completed, as no vehicle licensing documents can be obtained for submission to financial institutions… Many businesses are at a standstill and unable to trade."
Cabinet spokesman Themba Maseko yesterday told a post-Cabinet media briefing that the country's political leadership has “noted the frustration experienced and calls on the public to exercise patience during this period as the new system will bring great benefits, both to the public and the authorities in the long term".

ITWeb stories: eNatis ‘no bed of roses' | eNatis pulls through | eNatis beefed up | Govt, developer defend eNatis | Technical hiccups hit eNatis | Govt upgrades Natis | Original Announcement 28 July 2003

National Productivity Week

What costs R400 million, is three years late, and makes no damn difference? eNaTIS, that's what. It's just as slow (if not slower) and just as broken as the old system, and it is a convenient excuse to waste everyone's time. Today it wasted 3 hours of my time at the Vehicle Licensing Department in Randburg.
I arrived at 12:05pm, and the queue was out of the building door. I stopped a man leaving the building with a registration paper in his hand, and he told me he'd arrived at 9am, so I hunkered down for a 3 hour wait. By 12:30 the queue had reached the doors and I was able to hand in the change of ownership forms. They were stamped, and I was given number 37 and told to wait for the number to be called. I paid a traffic fine at another counter, and then joined the license renewal queue at 12:37pm. We all stood and waited until 1:40pm, when the game of musical chairs began. They provide 20 seats and you move from one to the next as the queue advances. It took nearly an hour for this queue to advance, partly because only 3 of the 4 windows earmarked for renewals were actually being used.
Once I had handed my form to the operator and waited a few minutes while they backdated the payment date, I was able to pay for the renewal and get the certificate after 2 hours and 30 minutes. So much for 12 transactions per second.
But wait, there's more! I still had the matter of the change of ownership papers, which had been languishing in the back of the office as batch number 37. Finally the number was called and I left at 2.50pm. Why does it take 2 hours and 13 minutes to change the ownership of a vehicle? The mind boggles.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After all, this is what I wryly refer to as National Productivity Week, being the week during which we have 2 public holidays optimally positioned 4 days apart to create the maximum disruption to the economy and waste everybody's time.

Naional Productivity Week | Bumpy Start for new eNaTIS Licensing System | New Electronic Licensing System gets Help