Gauteng Online is still offline. A sample survey of schools around Gauteng has shown that the school computer project, which is costing taxpayers more than R3-billion, is beset by problems.
Launched eight years ago by then premier Mbhazima Shilowa, the project was meant to get Internet-run computer labs into every public school in the province.
At an estimated cost of R1-billion, the project failed dismally after five years, and the Gauteng Shared Service Centre (GSSC) tendered the project again in 2007.
The tender was awarded to a consortium, SMMT Online, which is run by one main member, Tebogo Mogashoa. The company was given R2bn over five years to get the failed project running.
Amid rumours of tender irregularities, the company made many promises, giving deadlines that have not yet been met.
The first deadline for the project to be in all schools was at the end of 2008. When that deadline came and went, the next date named was the end of February 2009. Again, the promise was not fulfilled.
The company's CEO, Mothibi Ramusi, promised the media that at least 50 schools a day would come online and SMMT would fulfil its deadlines of completing the project by the end of March.
Then, during a large summit held in Soweto at the beginning of April to explain delays, then GSSC CEO Mike Maile challenged the media to walk into any school and not see a computer lab.
"By the end of April I will challenge any media to walk into any school and not see a computer lab, except for schools that need a whole new lab built. The premier's mandate was that we finish this project by the end of the year, but we will complete it by April," Maile said.
The Star took up his challenge last week and polled more than 100 schools around Joburg. Eighty percent of them said they either had no Gauteng Online lab or had a lab that was not working.
The 20 percent that did have working labs reported frustration with the project, some saying they had no trained teacher to use the labs or that the labs have gone offline many times, and only repeated complaints got their labs working again.
At least 25 percent of the schools reported thefts after Gauteng Online labs had been installed, with many schools accusing the service providers of being behind the break-ins.
The department has never given consistent figures for the project.
- In February, during a media tour of its warehouse, SMMT Online said there were 1 200 existing labs and they were busy with the remaining 900.
- At the meeting in April, former premier Paul Mashatile said that by June every school would have a lab. "I am told that already 600 schools have been connected, and 1 000 in the past were connected and just need to be updated," he said.
- The GSSC said this week that 980 schools now had Gauteng Online labs, while 600 were currently online. Spokeswoman Khusela Sangoni said classrooms were being delivered on a daily basis.
Schools had a litany of complaints about the standard of the classrooms being built, with some complaining of electricity failures; walls falling down; doors locked and keys never handed over; failing air conditioners; and trenches dug but never filled.
One school told The Star that SMMT Online contractors came to their school a year ago and took over a classroom for the construction of a lab. They started by tearing up the tiles because they needed them to be grey.
"Except they ran out of grey tiles, so half the room had grey tiles and the other half had beige ones," said a teacher.
"Then they put up a dry wall and worked on the electricity. They messed that up, and two other classrooms were without power for months afterwards. They also wanted to put up a safe door. I asked them how they would do this, as it would collapse the dry wall. Besides, anyone could kick the wall in if they wanted to.
"Next, they said they needed to take out our air conditioners and put their own ones in. That was fine, except one man put his foot through the ceiling, and the whole thing fell down."
The teacher said they then decided to move the lab to a classroom upstairs, but didn't have a door for it. So, after hauling all the equipment upstairs, they had to bring it back down again until they could fit a door.
"They haven't been back in a month and we are all hoping that they will eventually go away... There was nobody project-managing the building. This is outsourced to different companies and nobody bothers to check on them."
Schools were so fed up with the project that many insisted they did not want it in their schools.
In May, Kathy Callaghan from the school governing body organisation Governors Alliance, which represents 384 schools in Gauteng, said they had told schools they did not have to accept the computers at their schools.
This comes just a month after Premier Nomvula Mokonyane promised in her inauguration speech that Gauteng Online would work.
Sangoni said there were project managers, and they were constantly assessing the project to see how quickly delivery was going.
Related - iWeek : Something fishy at the GSSC?
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