SAPS to pay R644m to FDA for services

LONG BATTLE

- ZELDA VENTER

A PROTRACTED legal dispute concerning the South African Police Service (SAPS) defaulting on a payment agreement with Forensic Data Analysts (FDA) has ended with a court order compelling SAPS to pay R644 million.

The payment was due for the use of the FDA's software programmes, which are essential for core services like the tracking and tracing of evidence.

This is for the purchase price for the intellectual property in the computer programmes, Gauteng High Court Judge Sulet Potterill ordered in a judgment delivered earlier this month.

This followed a civil lawsuit by IT services provider FDA and Investigative Software Solutions (plaintiffs), which have been embroiled in protracted legal proceedings with the National Commissioner of SAPS over the use of the software.

Despite promises over the years and numerous court orders, the SAPS did not honour its contract.

In the opening to her judgment, Judge Potterill commented: "Upon hearing the evidence in this matter, the idiom 'playing cat and mouse' involuntarily comes to mind; the one party repeatedly attaining a certain outcome with the other party repeatedly evading the outcome by cunning, or deception through contrived action."