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The municipality of eThekwini has spent more than a quarter of a million rand to host five Zoom calls for council meetings since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The video conferencing facility was used for five meetings, which were held primarily from the main auditorium of Durban City Hall and connected to three other meeting venues, enabling the provision of video conferencing equipment at four meeting venues” said spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela.
“Total videoconferencing costs for the five meetings held, based on the configuration described, amounted to R300,648.30.”
When asked by TimesLIVE why the city appointed a service provider to facilitate virtual council meetings instead of using its in-house IT department, Mayisela said, “The IT department is not in possession of the Zoom license. They are also not in a position to purchase it because they have already licensed and run Microsoft Teams under their existing agreement with Microsoft. “
The city justified the expense, saying that at a meeting held via Microsoft Teams, some councilors were frustrated, while others dropped out of the meeting altogether, as the meeting could not continue smoothly due to a lack of features for the speaker will control the proceedings.
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