The senior staff of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport were temporarily grounded on Wednesday and Thursday after MTN suspended their cellphone and data SIM cards over unpaid debts.
The decision by MTN to cut off the service came after the department led by ANC’s Siboniso Duma failed to settle outstanding debts believed to be worth millions of rands.
The exact value of the amount owed is not known. However, Sunday World was able to obtain information from a WhatsApp group of senior officials, where they confirmed that the service has been stopped due to a debt to MTN.
Staff had no access to calls, emails
That was after one of them asked in the group why their cellphones were not working. The other one replied by saying that MTN has suspended the service due to unpaid invoices.
The staff was not able to make calls and receive emails for the entire day on Wednesday. And the service was only restored after a payment was made to MTN.
An employee who spoke to Sunday World attributed the failure to pay MTN to the fact that they are broke.
“There is no money in the department. The MEC for finance (Francois Rodgers) was not lying when he said the department has been run into the ground,” the employee said.
Spokesperson for the department, Ndabezinhle Sibiya, said the services have been restored after they made the payment.
“There is no dispute between us and MTN. By lunchtime, payments had been processed and the service was restored. We have enough cash in our reserves to settle invoices for services we budgeted for and for services rendered. It is important to point out that the delays in processing of invoices are linked to the transition from SCOA 5 to SCOA 6, as managed by National Treasury.
“In addition, there is migration of government banking services from one financial institution to another. This has unfortunately disrupted our payment system. But we are managing this transition with national and provincial treasury departments,” Sibiya said.
Municipality denies any crisis
Sibiya added that critically, it should also be remembered that they re-channelled some of their funds to augment the KZN Department of Education’s Norms and Standard Funding.
“We did that with a clear understanding that the provision of quality education should be a collective responsibility. As the department, we took a conscious decision to be a catalyst for the creation of a prosperous province.
“Where possible, we stand ready to assist all other government departments where necessary. We want to be a leading catalyst for the growth of all sectors of local and provincial economies. We pay tribute to all categories of staff for their dedication and selflessness,” said Sibiya.
