Consultants are the norm
WITH reference to the article, “ethekwini splurges millions on consultants: DA reveals Indian developers to run multi-million rand billing system” (Sunday Tribune, June 10), it seems that the DA is anti-indian.
According to the report, city treasurer Krish Kumar said the council’s billing system was first mooted 11 years ago. At that time it would cost about R90 million, but this figure escalated to R620m.
Kumar stated that not everything could be done in-house and that consultants had to be appointed to handle certain things. This is the norm. The system is now functional. He said the costs to pay consultants was normal and happened at most municipalities.
My concern and the reason for writing this letter is: why has the DA brought race into this issue?
The racial tag of the experts who were to oversee the Revenue Management System may have been an insidious motive to racialise a purely business undertaking.
It would have been more prudent for the DA to name the entity that was engaged to troubleshoot any problems that might have arisen during the transition phase than to use a racial tag.
By using the racial tag there is a danger of false perceptions being created in the minds of people, especially because in South Africa reporting on incidents according to race is frowned on.
MORGAN REDDY
Verulam