[lusr]

Let's dig into these numbers. Assuming the R40m value is correct over 3 years, then:

- since there are 248 working days in a South African year on average, the average daily cost ran to ~R53,763 or ~R6,720 per hour

- at the banks I've worked at, that'll buy you 10 intermediate on-site contract developers, or 6 senior developers, from an average consulting house which factors in all of these overhead expenses (including travel, etc.) you mention... and that's doing skilled development; this is WordPress work, but let's be generous and say they bill the same

It's hard to believe they required anywhere near that many developers (designers are much cheaper and I can't imagine they hired more than 1 or 2), or that hardware/service contracts would have cost much more.