R140 million Free State website: more revelations

So: What's the profit margin on a $40 theme then?
 
Just wondering - someone hands accounts dept an invoice for 140 or even 40 million and they just pay it ?

There's no process to check whether it's legit, or within the specified amount allowed for websites ?

How does that kind of expenditure not raise flags at national level ??
 
Searching for the telephone number of the CherryOnline.co Facebook page brings up another company, TheWeekly.co.za, after which numerous follow-up searches on Whois sites, Google and the use of Rapportive give one the names and cellphones of the owner.

Go get 'em, MyBB. We want a full report... ;)
 
The Weekly falls under Letlaka Media and Communications - and Letlaka Media and Communications doesn't have a website ....
 
Even 40 million is overkill for a provincial website. Stories like these make me so mad that people 'steal' so blatantly.
 
What did Durban pay for theirs a few years ago? Also some atrociously exorbitant figure for, well, nothing...
 
DJ... said:
What did Durban pay for theirs a few years ago? Also some atrociously exorbitant figure for, well, nothing...
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Hmmm... If it was a few years ago, maybe the tender is up again. :D
 
http://www.techcentral.co.za/r140m-website-new-revelations/38705/

According to the Sowetan, the companies tasked with building the site are Ikamva, Juggernaut and Cherry Online Designs. Cherry Online, registered in January 2007, is credited on the Free State government website as the developer, but the link points to a holding page from Internet service provider Afrihost.

Ntsele, a prominent Free State businessman, holds a controlling stake in Cherry Online. Born in the Free State town of Zastron, he studied at Vista University’s Bloemfontein campus. He is the executive chairman of the Letlaka Group, a media holding company that publishes a newspaper called The Weekly.

Letlaka Group also has a holding page in lieu of a website and last year Ntsele pledged R250 000 to a charitable foundation run by the Gupta family-controlled New Age newspaper.

The DA, which wants the website deal probed, says Magashule is “running a campaign to buy media influence and enriching his comrades in business at the same time”.

According to the party, the premier spent R12m on his own television channel last year. The contract for the channel, Hlasela TV, was also awarded to Ntsele.
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A facebook page with less than 20 likes and a non-existent website. These tenders are clearly awarded to comrades.
 
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140 million for a wordpress website.

A couple of skilled programmers could probably pull that off for a couple of grand and a case of beer.

Pretty wild how blatantly corrupt this is...its like someone just added three zeroes to the price....
 
even R4mil is too much for a website, nevermind 40mil. they can rather pay 4mil to somebody to beat the crap out of corrupt and munney hungry wastefull officials, at least we'll get some worth out of it
 
Also, I like how the background to the top section is a 250KB png image...wth.
 
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