Question NW1402 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
30 July 2020 - NW1402
King, Ms C to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
(a) On what date did the MojaPay system crash and (b) which provinces have been affected by the crash of the MojaPay system; (2) what number of child maintenance beneficiaries have not received their funds since 1 March 2020; (3) whether the database of maintenance beneficiaries on the MojaPay system is accurate; if not, why not; (4) by what date does he envisage the MojaPay system will be completely operational?
Reply:
1 (a) The MojaPay system crashed on the evening of 4 May 2020. It unfortunately crashed during the Alert Level 4 lockdown, and as a result, several maintenance beneficiaries did not receive their maintenance benefits.
(b) All provinces were affected by the crash. However, the Eastern Cape (EC) and KwaZulu Natal (KZN) provinces were severely affected by the crash as the disruption was further exacerbated by the migration from the old payment system known as Justice Department of Accounting System (JDAS) to the new MojaPay system.
2. Approximately 1 500 beneficiaries were affected from 1 April 2020, and this resulted in several maintenance beneficiaries not receiving their monthly payments. The reasons for non-receipt of payments are two-fold:
(a) The closure of legacy JDAS system on 31 March 2020 interrupted the processing of payments for some courts primarily in the EC and KZN. In EC, the crash affected 622 maintenance beneficiaries, whereas in KZN only 47 beneficiaries were affected as at the end of June 2020. The closure of the JDAS system was due to the decision taken by the Department that all the beneficiaries who are not on Direct Payment, will have been migrated to MojaPay by 31 March 2020. However, it transpired that there were some courts that had not been able to migrate the beneficiaries’ data to MojaPay by 31 March 2020. The old JDAS system was closed in respect of the EC and KZN despite the fact that not all courts in the two (2) provinces had been successfully migrated to the MojaPay system.
(b) However, it must be noted that beneficiaries are still being migrated from the legacy system JDAS to MojaPay on daily basis. The total number of beneficiaries still to be migrated is approximately 6 500, mainly Eastern Cape and Western Cape compared to 245 000 beneficiaries migrated when the new system (MojaPay) started.
3. Yes, the database on MojaPay is accurate insofar as it reflects the data captured by end users as part of migration to the new system.
4. The MojaPay application has been restored incrementally from 12 May 2020 and is fully functional from 28 May 2020.
In conclusion, it is important to note that the migration from the old JDAS to the new MojaPay system is part of the Department’s endeavour to prevent possible duplicated payments and potential risks to the department’s financial accountability. The decision to nonetheless close the old system has severely affected the livelihoods of the maintenance beneficiaries. It is for this reason that I have directed the Acting Director-General to investigate this matter further. The investigation will include the cause of the crash and its wider impact, besides the maintenance payments. The investigation is with a view of ensuring that an appropriate corrective action is taken to avoid recurrence in the future.