The Road Traffic Management Corporation and eNatis service provider, Tasima, are locked in legal disputes over responsibility for the shambles. They will appear in the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday.
Telkom has threatened to cut off services to eNatis because of nonpayment of its bill. Doing so would have caused the collapse of the vehicle registration and licensing system in the country.
The road traffic corporation said on Monday Tasima had paid Telkom R8m for the provision of services to allow the traffic information system to continue running uninterrupted.
Tasima is at the centre of a corruption, money laundering and bribery storm implicating former transport minister Sbu Ndebele. He is facing criminal charges before the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Pretoria, also on Thursday.
Ndebele is accused of accepting a R10m bribe to extend a contract awarded to Tasima irregularly, allowing the company to continue running the eNatis system when he was the minister in 2010.
The road traffic corporation applied to the High Court in Pretoria last week to force Tasima to comply with a Constitutional Court order to hand over the management of the information system to it.
The portfolio committee on transport said it wanted to question transport deputy director-general Gilbert Thwala on the matter. The committee members fear the saga could lead to a collapse of the traffic information system if left unchecked.
Chairwoman of the committee, Dikeledi Magadzi, said they wanted to meet the department officials on Thursday.
"We agree that we will meet the department on Thursday for a briefing from them". We want the [deputy director-general] on transport to brief the committee on Thursday and the committee also wants a briefing on Tasima," Magadzi said.
ANC committee member Mkhacani Maswanganyi said the department had to reassure the committee it was in control of the situation, fearing the traffic information system could fall victim to the same ills that plagued the South African Social Security Agency grant provision contract. "The Tasima scandal has the potential to blow up in our faces. It is another Sassa disaster waiting to happen.
"It is like Tasima is playing with our country and its economy and we need to address this," said Maswanganyi.
ANC committee member Mtikeni Sibande said the committee should consider visiting Tasima's offices as part of its fact-finding mission.
But DA committee members Christian Hunsinger and Manny de Freitas said their party opposed the visit as the committee should only carry it out after engaging with the department.
Source: Business Day
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