{"id":51349,"date":"2013-03-04T13:28:43","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T11:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=51349"},"modified":"2013-03-04T16:38:06","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T14:38:06","slug":"sa-govt-drops-r140-million-on-wordpress-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/51349-sa-govt-drops-r140-million-on-wordpress-website","title":{"rendered":"SA govt. drops R140-million on WordPress website"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Free State provincial government spent R140 million on its website, it was reported on Monday, and a quick check reveals that the site is running on the open source WordPress platform.<\/p>\n

Free State director general Elzabe Rockman<\/a> signed a three-year contract to redesign the website in 2011, the Sowetan newspaper reported.<\/p>\n

She had reportedly disputed the amount, claiming it was actually R40m.<\/p>\n

The agreement was signed with businessman Tumi Ntsele, who reportedly holds tenders with several other provincial departments.<\/p>\n

The Sowetan reported that the company was awarded the tender even though two other companies submitted significantly lower bids.<\/p>\n

Etienne Bruwer<\/a>, owner of web development company Jam Factory, told the newspaper the amount charged for the website was \u201cridiculous\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company that is working on that site is probably making R3.5m profit a month,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bruwer said the most paid for a website was R12m, by financial institutions which needed to protect sensitive information.<\/p>\n

Ntsele told the newspaper opposition parties had an agenda against black businessmen and that the website\u2019s cost was fair.<\/p>\n

Update<\/strong>: The DA<\/a> has issued a statement calling for a probe into the scandal. The full statement follows below.<\/p>\n

The DA has asked the Auditor General to investigate Premier Ace Magashule\u2019s abuse of R140 million for a Free State government website.<\/p>\n

This follows a Sowetan expos\u00e9 that Premier Magashule awarded a contract to businessman Tumi Ntsele to build the most expensive website in the history of South Africa.<\/p>\n

The channelling of millions of public funds into propaganda projects is bigger than just this website, the DA recently revealed.<\/p>\n

Premier Magashule is running a campaign to buy media influence and enriching his comrades in business at the same time.<\/p>\n

The DA recently revealed how Premier Magashule spent R12 million on his own television channel in the last financial year.<\/p>\n

The contract for Hlasela TV was awarded to the same person as the website tender, Mr Ntsele, a politically-connected businessman.<\/p>\n

Mr Ntsele\u2019s Letlaka Group also runs The Weekly newspaper which has long been propped up by Free State government funding, just like the New Age.<\/p>\n

The DA previously revealed that the Premier\u2019s Office is planning to roll-out a further 3 new propaganda newspapers in the Free State using public funds.<\/p>\n

It is unacceptable that public funds are being used to prop up the image of a failing Premier while basic service delivery collapses in the Free State.<\/p>\n

The DA will continue to campaign for the cancellation of these propaganda projects and for all irregularities to be investigated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reporting with Sapa<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A three year contract to redesign the Free State website will reportedly cost R140-million, the Sowetan reported on Monday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":51163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[31,9139,9140,9141,9142,9143],"class_list":["post-51349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-active","tag-elzabe-rockman","tag-etionee-bruwer","tag-free-state-online","tag-tumi-ntsele","tag-wordpress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51350,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51349\/revisions\/51350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}