A controversial R380 million biometric system at airports across the country is causing chaos, delays and frustration amongst passengers and airport staff.
"This system is not working. It keeps crashing and passengers are missing flights as they wait in long queues to get through our immigration check point. When we tried to raise this, we are told by the commander-in-chief that he doesn't want to lose his job because this system cost millions. So we have to look at passengers who think we are incompetent and don’t know how to use the system," an immigration worker at one of the airports told IOL.
The biometric system, awarded to French company, Idemia, is also being challenged by South African company, InfoVerge.
A wholly black-owned company, InfoVerge, claims it was unfairly used as a BEE partner by Idemia to secure the tender - and then left out once the tender was awarded to Idemia. It is now asking for a full review of the contract awarded to Idemia.
Additionally, the glitches and failure of the system to live up to its claim to offer a more seamless process for passengers has caused further embarrassment for Airports Company South Africa (ACSA).
An IOL investigation witnessed passengers waiting in long queues to get through passport control at King Shaka Airport. During this time, an airports official walked around, apologising for the delay, blaming staff for not understanding the new system.
"They are doing practical training and are not used to the system," whispered the official, as frustrated passengers tried hard to remain calm after arriving from long international flights.
Approached for comment, ACSA acknowledged there were problems with the system, but said it was preparing to roll out a new fool proof technology solution in November this year.
'The project has provided ACSA with extensive data analytics on immigration and emigration processes. ACSA will also be leveraging facial recognition technology as part of our biometric-based border control systems to streamline immigration processes, reduce transaction times, and enhance security. While the initial pilot project did not meet the expected throughput due to passenger anxiety and unfamiliarity, we are working on addressing this challenge through comprehensive passenger education and delivery of the new system,' added ACSA in its response.
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