Issued by: Ministry for Posts and Telecommunications
June 25, 1998
Cabinet yesterday approved an action plan drawn up by the National Year 2000 Decision Support Centre to ensure South Africa's readiness for the Year 2000 millennium bug.
Jay Naidoo, Minister for Post, Telecommunications and Broadcasting who has responsibility for the National Y2K Centre, said Cabinet approved:
The introduction of anti-dumping legislation for non-Y2K compliant equipment and software;
Declaration of a National Y2K Awareness Day on August 19 this year, 500 days before January 1, 2000; and
A meeting of all national and provincial Directors-Generals to be convened by the Deputy President's Office to ensure implementation.
"Government will urgently examine statutes and regulations that will ensure dumping in this particular area does not happen. If necessary, new legislation against dumping of non-compliant equipment and software will be introduced," Naidoo said.
In all, 68 "mission critical" systems within government have been identified. These include systems such as pensions, examinations, housing subsidies, transport, PAYE, UIF, population register and machine readable passport system, and the drought disaster system, which government cannot afford to have fail.
"A six-phase action plan to ensure total readiness by the Year 2000 has been drawn up for each of these "mission critical" systems. The phases cover activities such as assessment and analysis planning to integration and testing and implementation under the guidance of the National Y2K Centre will begin immediately," he said.
A nationwide survey by the National Y2K Centre showed that 70% of government departments and 90% of large organisations anticipated completing their conversions on time. Based on current information, 80% of local authorities will be ready. This figure however excludes embedded systems within local authorities.
"The projected national compliance would be between 50% and 60%, with 40% of project work expected to be completed in the last two quarters of 1999 for those departments that have already begun their conversion programmes," Naidoo said.
However, the Cabinet expressed concern at the low-level of readiness among government departments. There are just 554 days left before the turn of the century. The National Y2K Centre survey showed that:
40% of government departments and 53 % of local authorities have inadequately skilled projects teams compared to 20% of large organisations;
36% of government departments and 40% of local authorities have inadequate action plans compared to 24% of large organisations:
42% of government departments and 39% of local authorities have disaster recovery processes in place compared to 78% of large organisations; and
42% of government departments and 37% of local authorities have contingency plans compared to 60% of large organisations.
Naidoo said the National Y2K Centre had received strong private sector co-operation and support. "The JSE has adopted Y2K disclosure requirements for listed companies as the National Y2K Centre recommended. The compliance definition drawn up by the Center is also being used more frequently as a benchmark."
A toll free number which was set up earlier this year is recording a significant increase in the number of calls made by SMME's, indicating a growing awareness of the Y2K problem."
It was noteworthy that international experts from the Gartner Group and the British Action 2000 Task Team rated the National Y2K Decision Support Center among the top five Y2K government bodies in the world, Naidoo said.
The toll-free number of the National Year 2000 Decision Support Centre is 0800-00-2000.