Our mouse costs R470 per month because it has insurance — Municipality defends R38 million call centre project

The Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality says the exorbitant monthly fees it pays for computer equipment at its controversial new “shack” call centre cover the full servicing and insurance costs of the items.
City Press reported on the R38-million call centre project on Sunday, 5 November 2023.
The publication said the North West municipality had spent the amount on a small prefabricated building in Vryburg despite having a working call centre on the same premises.
Several sources at the municipality have complained about the project, citing irregularities in the tender process.
City Press has also alleged that the owner of a company involved in the project is a family member of the municipal manager.
The tender’s entire cost, as reported by City Press, was R38.753 million.
The publication also got its hands on monthly invoiced amounts for the call centre equipment, which were as follows:
- R258,974 for eight Lenovo desktops;
- R524,435 for car radios in the emergency vehicles;
- R324,566 for handheld walkie-talkies;
- R3,758 for eight mice;
- R6,800 for eight keyboards;
- R36,952 for eight “Logic Pro” headphones;
- R16,253 for one Huawei Router; and
- R24,910 for fibre and Internet
In an interview with SAfm on 7 November 2023, municipal manager Itumeleng Jones hit back at the report, stating that the prefabricated building was only a temporary structure.
He said the contract’s total value to build, operate, and maintain the call centre over three years was R38 million. The construction cost of the final structure and the salaries of the call centre staff are included in that price.
However, it did not include the price of the temporary building, which Jones said had to be built quickly because there was not enough space for the contracted workers in the old call centre.
Jones said the municipality got the building for “free” from the service provider, but was itemised on the municipality’s books as worth R700,000 for accounting and insurance purposes.
Insurance and maintenance cover for PC peripherals
Jones also tried to justify the seemingly excessive equipment cost by saying it included the cost of the insurance of the assets.
“If the asset is broken down, they replace that asset for ‘free’ for the municipality,” Jones said.
City Press’s images showing the inside of the “call centre” provided more details on some of the equipment acquired.
At least one of the Lenovo desktops appeared to be a decade-old all-in-one computer called the ThinkCentre M71z.
This model is no longer on sale, and we could not find secondhand models online at the time of writing.
However, we did find a slightly newer M73z available from Computer Emporium for R4,995.
The municipality is paying about R32,372 for its machine, 1,827% more than the retailer price we found online.
An additional R27,377 for maintenance and insurance should immediately arouse suspicion.
Jones alleged that when the municipality checked the market price of the machine, it was R15,000 to R25,000.
Even a premium of R7,372 for maintenance and insurance, based on the upper end of that estimation, is high.

One of the Lenovo computers used in the call centre.
The headset in the image appears to be the Logitech H390, which sells for R599 on First Shop.
The municipality reportedly pays R4,619 per month for each of these headsets, enough to buy about eight units.
The wired mice and keyboards in the photos did not seem to be from any major brands.
Instead of paying R470 per month for the same wired mouse with servicing and insurance, the municipality could buy a new R429 wired Logitech G102 gaming mouse every month.
An office-focused Microsoft or Logitech wireless mouse would also cost a more modest R300.
The R6,800 spent on the wired keyboards works out to R850 per keyboard.
For that same price, the municipality could buy almost three Microsoft wired keyboards at R309 each — every month.
While business insurance rates will differ from household contents coverage, it is interesting to note that covering R50,000 worth of goods in a home is possible for less than R100 per month.