Original: 4 June 2001
Revised: 13 Feb 2004; 7 Jan 2005

The HEIST Agreement

The HEIST Agreement between South African Higher Education, represented by TENET, and TELKOM SA Limited was signed on 13 December 2000. It provides for TELKOM to provide connectivity to the Internet and between institutions on a much greater scale than has hitherto been affordable for South African technikons and universities. In terms of a separate agreement between the National Research Foundation and TENET, the TELKOM solution also replaces the role of UNINET with regard to academic networking.

By the end of May 2001 all member institutions of UNINET had signed the Agency Agreement with TENET and become participants in the HEIST.

[Note added on 13 Feb 2004: Copies of the HEIST agreement and its various amendments can be downloaded by anyone with authorised access to the IT Directors' Zone. Note that these documents are subject to confidentiality restrictions as set out in the HEIST Agreement itself.]

[Note added on 7 January 2005: The HEIST agreement terminated and was replaced by the GEN2 agreement (full name: Agreement for a Second Generation Inter-Networking Solution for Higher Education and Research Institutions) with effect from 1 January 2005.]

Support from US Donors

It is great pleasure to acknowledge the assistance of the Andrew W Mellon Foundation and of a private donor during the almost two-year gestation period of the HEIST Agreement. Financial support well in excess of R1 million, which was administered by the Adamastor Trust, enabled the "US Donors' Bandwidth Initiative for HE in SA" to secure human resources and professional legal assistance and so to conduct the negotiations with TELKOM, the NRF and the HE institutions which resulted in the formation of TENET and the concluding of the HEIST Agreement with TELKOM.

Two people made special contributions in this regard. Dr Stuart Saunders, was asked by the US Donors to act as patron on their behalf for this initiative, and carried out this duty with deep conviction of its importance and with powerful insight into the workings of the mind of man and of man's institutions. TENET is most fortunate in having secured the services of Dr Saunders as the Company's first Chairman.

Dr Jim Leatt, in his capacity as Executive Director of the Adamastor Trust, was directly accountable for the donated funds. He has been very closely involved in the dual projects of forming TENET and of negotiating the HEIST deal with TELKOM. There have been many occasions where his general business savvy and considerable negotiating skills saved those involved from folly and re-directed their attention to what really mattered. TENET is fortunate in having Dr Leatt as its Deputy Chairman.

The amazing contributions of Mike Lawrie and the NRF

During the latter stages of the HEIST negotiations with TELKOM, and especially during the implementation period, Mike Lawrie, in his capacity as Academic Consultant to the NRF and de-facto UNINET Manager, played an absolutely crucial role in ensuring a smooth and effective transition from UNINET's technology platform to that of the HEIST. Mike worked intensely with TELKOM engineers at all levels; especially as regards the re-design of the routing architecture and the transition, without service disruptions, to it.

Mike also ensured that UNINET sites had access to their customary "UNINET-style" traffic graphs and other status reports, and undetook the migration of these web-based reports to this web site. Mike's daily news bulletins, published on netnews, kept folks informed, pretty much blow-by-blow, about progress with the transition.

It is with the deepest respect and gratitude that TENET acknowledges this contribution to academic networking in Southern Africa from the man who had already been its greatest champion for a long time.

As Vice-President of the NRF with responsibility for UNINET, Dr Gerhard von Gruenewald greatly facilitated the transition process, especially as regards his constructive attention the contractual and day-to-day working relationships between the NRF and TENET.