City of Tshwane downscales broadband project

The City of Tshwane has downscaled its broadband project from R3.66bn to R920m, saying this was due to a change in its finances.

The project, which was first announced in 2015, would have seen 400 of its customer service centres being connected to broadband internet over 18 years.

City spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the city had re-advertised the project, citing changes in the financial position of the city to ensure the projectwas affordable .

A report by the Auditor-General (AG) painted a picture of a chaotic state of financial affairs in the municipality .

The AG red-flagged it for the misrepresentation of its books, resulting in an adverse opinion.

The AG’s report said the city had lost about R10bn in irregular expenses and had not recorded all fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Mashigo said the city was now reprioritising its budget to focus on basic service delivery such as the provision of electricity, water, waste removal and repairing of potholes.

“The full scope of the project awarded in 2015 would have cost the city R3.66bn over 18 years . The revised scope will cost the city in the region of R920m over the same period. .

“There are other affordable means of connectivity besides broadband. Therefore the reduction in scope is a financial change that will ensure that the project is affordable while saving costs,” Mashigo said.

The project was awarded mainly to construct a 1,500km fibre network across the city.

The change in scope means the construction of fibre will now cover 850km, with four cores from which 200 buildings will be connected.

The core sites are in Centurion, Mamelodi, TDK – Rosslyn and Temba in Hammanskraal.

“The 200 sites will still be municipal buildings that attract a high volume of customers such as customer care centres, TMPD [Tshwane Metro Police Department] offices, social development amenities and so on . The broadband connectivity is also not the only form of connectivity. The city continues to expand the available spaces for cellular masts and new site installations for Wi-Fi... so this action only relates to the contract at hand and not a change in any policy or strategy .

“The city has prioritised all the regions and therefore, broadband infrastructure will have a footprint in all the regions. Certain buildings will be connected through this project while others will be connected through our corporate network. The 200 sites were chosen because of their proximity to the current broadband fibre backbone, which is about a kilometre away and mostly used by the public,” Mashigo said.

He said the vision to create a smart city remained and there were many other programmes that would continue to support it. .

“According to the MFMA [Municipal Finance Management Act], changes of this nature to a contract must be through a notice to communities of this intention before council authorises, this is the process being undertaken, ” Mashigo added.

sibiyan@sowetan.co.za