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South Africa's Y2K readiness programme is on track and by the end of this year, it is expected the country will be between 65-70 percent compliant, says Jay Naidoo, Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting.

"This is a conservative figure and assumes that all the sectors will at least maintain their current rate of progress. The country's level of readiness is very dependent on the extent to which all key players participate in the Y2K challenge," he says.

"There is concern reflected in the media about the country's readiness for Y2K. I must assure the public that there is no need for panic. There's a need for concerted action by companies, and a need to educate the general public about the issue, and motivate them to take responsible action on their part," he says.

However, Mission Critical Systems - those are control essential services - will be close to full compliance by the end of this year, meaning that the majority of people may only experience minor disruptions in essential services, Naidoo says.

Most major organisations are progressing well with their individual Y2K programmes.

Most organisations have not paid due regard to the incer-connected nature of their business and have ignored their dependence on other organisations.

BACKGROUND

Reviewing the centre's work thus far, Naidoo says the Cabinet took a decision in 1997 to create an agency responsible for monitoring Y2K. A management team was appointed in February 1998. This team submitted its first report to a ministerial committee, at which stage the country's readiness level stood at 18 percent. The current figure is 24,3 percent.

Since it's inception, the centre's principal objective has been to monitor the level of Y2K compliance, raise awareness of the issue to key stakeholders, especially the public.

In the case of monitoring compliance in government, the centre's work is focused on identifying mission critical systems, and addressing the problem in this area, even though we're aware we couldn't possibly address everything.

"We are now in the phase of contingency planning, on domestic, regional, international level. Some key areas that government is focusing on include local authorities, provincial governments, and regional international trade issues, especially financial transactions like (banks') balance of payments, experience no disruption. The same applies to important services supplied by utilities in water, electricity and telecommunications, as well as services handled by the government such as social services," Naidoo says.

At present,

PUBLIC SECTOR AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Government departments and local authorities are around 30% compliant, with the Departments of Correctional Services, Communications, Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Housing having completed their Y2K implementation programmes. The Department of Constitutional Development has completed compliance in its mission critical systems.

"There are a number of government departments that are of concern in terms of their compliance because they haven't even begun their Y2K programmes, some haven't even allocated budget to Y2K yet," Naidoo says.

"The metro rail system is on track though we have budgetary constraints. Most provinces and companies, which include Eskom, Transnet, Telkom, are 30 percent ready."

Among local authorities, the big metros in every province are on track with their programmes, but the small and rural councils are generally where there is slow implementation. However, there is only 50 of the 843 councils which are being considered a crisis at present because they have no programme, no plans and no budget allocated to Y2K.

SMME SECTOR

There are around 800 000 small business, the majority of which are not prone to Y2K problems. So the centre is focusing on supporting (testing, skills support) those SMMEs are most susceptible to Y2K like manufacturing, retail and construction companies.

"The main focus in this sector is on skills support and testing. The main constraint in performing all this work has been lack of money," Naidoo says.

FINANCE SECTOR

This is the leading sector, with close to 50% compliance. This is reflected the two Y2K Best Effort Awards which have been given to the SA Reserve Bank and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange by the Year 2000 National Decision Support Centre. The four major banking groups and all the industry associations in this sector are active participants in the Y2K Finance Sector Committee. "The majority of players in this sector are in the last phase of Y2K compliance, namely testing. South Africa's financial sector has received recognition for its efforts and South Africa will be hosting the World Bank Council for Africa on January 21st this year," Naidoo says.

ITC SECTOR

ITC (Information and Communication Technology sector) are doing their best to assist all other sectors to perform remediation work . "But the reality in South Africa is that software houses doing Y2K work are fully booked and as of now are only able to accept work for March 2000. This should be a wake-up call for corporations and for companies that's haven't begun their Y2K projects yet," Naidoo says.

ACTION PLANS FOR 1999 :

According to international benchmarks and guidelines, all major applications and mission critical systems should have been repaired and tested by the end of 1998. In this respect, overall progress is lacking, Naidoo says.

The priorities for South Africa's Y2K programme this year, therefore, will be a considered drive to get government departments and local authorities Y2K ready . "In this regard, the Y2K Centre is beefing up its Public Sector and Local Authorities committees. We have an agreement with the Auditor General to verify the state of readiness of government department. Over the next four weeks, staff from the Y2K Centre will have meetings with Director-Generals , IT directors and Y2K managers in government to identify problems and to offer assistance," he says..

Focus on risk management and contingency planning. "We are planning to increase monitoring on key infrastructure areas such as electricity, telecommunications, transport and water. A special project team - comprising Y2K risk management committee and the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Disaster Management headed up by Minister Valli Moosa - will be drawing up national contingency plans for the whole country, and the first meeting of this committee is schedule to take place in mid-January," Naidoo says.

Disclosure is important to the success of South Africa's Y2K programme, he says. "We want to encourage increased disclosure so that contingency planning will be based on actual situations rather than projected situations."

Interdependencies are the unknown factor in Y2K planning. "We have already begun scenario planning with regard to interdependencies in terms of local, regional and international links," Naidoo says. In this regard, South Africa is playing a leading role in SADC and in Africa. The Y2K Centre has also been drafted to work on international committees such as the International Telecommunications Union Y2K Task Force, SADC Y2K Regional Conference, the UN Y2K Global Summit.

Communications will play a vital role in the year ahead, he says. "We appeal to the media to highlight the Y2K issue as part if a national campaign. We need to see more in-depth coverage on the subject in order to communicate effectively with the general public, and to instil an understanding wherein individuals start to ask questions about the issue in a responsible manner."

Issued by: Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting

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