IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

For Southern African Development Community (SADC) economic integration to be realised, the region will need to be transformed into an information and knowledge-based economy, Minister of Communications Ayanda Dlodlo said on Thursday.

The Minister was addressing delegates from 15 SADC countries who have been meeting in Durban since Monday to discuss the region's ICT infrastructure.

Jobs, service delivery and crime were issues brought forward by residents of eThekwini after the municipality announced that it was rolling out free wi-fi in the inner city.

The eThekwini Municipality has also started putting up boards alerting residents where the wi-fi spots are.

On Thursday morning, the municipality said that it had installed free wi-fi hotspots in Warwick Junction, Florida Road and the beachfront in keeping with plans to promote Durban as a smart city with access to the digital world.

The eThekwini Municipality is accelerating the digitisation of its Human Resources (HR) systems, a strategic shift aimed at improving accountability, enhancing workforce performance and enabling faster and more reliable services for residents.

This was highlighted during an oversight visit by the Governance and Human Resources Portfolio Committee to employee training sessions on the new digital HR platform.

The City manager promises that the app will be a faster, more efficient and transparent way of receiving complaints and or requests from citizens.

In a bid to achieve the ambition of being a smart city, eThekwini Municipality launched its brand new mobile app.

The municipality unveiled the new app yesterday afternoon, July 13, and City manager Musa Mbhele said the app will make life much easier for residents.

The City has launched a new mobile app that will, according to eThekwini Municipality, make life easier for residents.

City manager Musa Mbhele says the application was introduced as a preferred first point of contact for customers to enquire about any services rendered by eThekwini.

City Manager of eThekwini Municipality, Musa Mbhele, has outlined a bold new approach to boost service delivery that hinges on real-time accountability, regional management, and technology-driven innovation, while acknowledging systemic weaknesses that continue to frustrate residents.

Speaking during the 2025 Customer Services Symposium at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli ICC in Durban and in an exclusive follow-up interview this week, Mbhele said a combination of unannounced site visits, artificial intelligence tools, and decentralised management will form the backbone of the municipality’s renewed push for service excellence.

The eThekwini municipality has set itself a target of equipping one million young people with critical IT skills within the next three years.

This was the word from eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality executive mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, speaking at the State IT Agency’s (SITA’s) annual ICT conference GovTech 2023 this week.

The My Smart City service delivery platform has expanded to Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, after seeing a steady increase in the number of users who log their service delivery issues on the app.

Introduced bylocal software solutions company Acumen Softwarein July, the web and mobile app has garnered almost 22 000 active users on the platform, and grew by 11% month-on-month in January.

Developers of an R30 billion green smart city in outer west Durban say the first phase of construction is progressing well.

The 2 000 hectare project is called Westown, with officials saying it will be the most sustainable development in the country.

The first phase includes residential apartments, the retail high street of Westown Square and a hospital.

At least R3bn has been committed towards plans to developing the first phase of an integrated smart city in Ntshongweni, west of Durban, which is expected to come to life by the end of 2024.

This is according to Fundamentum Property Group CEO Carlos Correia, who was speaking during an oversight visit by Deputy President Paul Mashatile on Thursday.

Correia said this development came years after the purchase of a substantial portion of land through Tongaat Hulett.

According to Carshif Talip, expertise leader, Urban Planning and Land Infrastructure at Zutari, a 'smart city' is much more than a city that is digitally enabled and brimming with technology. It is a city that leverages innovation to achieve its desired outcomes, Talip says, and here innovation does not necessarily mean only technology.

“A smart city is a city where opportunity, amenity, safety, resilience, inclusivity and prosperity are imperatives, and innovation across financing, design, construction, operations and governance is embraced by all stakeholders to achieve these imperatives,” says Talip.

As the 4IR becomes a reality, telecommunications is coming to the fore as a chief economic growth enabler for South Africa. The impact goes beyond the economic opportunities that the sector can create for citizens. We are moving into a future that will be enabled by telecommunications, and more specifically, Internet connectivity.

Connecting South Africa

Government has acknowledged it has a responsibility towards the country's citizens to ensure digital inclusivity for all. This is the basis for SA Connect, the country's national broadband policy, which highlights the need for an "enabling platform for economic enterprise, active citizenship, and social engagement innovation" that a telecommunications-supported digital ecosystem will make possible.

Huawei officials underlined the benefits of a smart connected city at the 2019 Shenzhen Smart City Forum, with rapid progress being made in how cities collect and use bid data.

The forum aims to promote communication and cooperation in building smart, digital cities, with MMC for economic development at City of Johannesburg, Leah Knott, attending the event, held at the Shangri-La Hotel Shenzhen on Tuesday.

The queue to renew your motor vehicle or driver’s licence at the licensing department in Fish Hoek was six hours long earlier this year. And that was if you got there with your coffee and chair before 6am. This created business opportunities for those willing to stand in the queue for you – for a fee. But creating small business opportunities out of government inefficiency is a hideous idea, let’s face it.

Why is the government taking so long to become fully digitalised? What is so hard about this? I’m not only talking about e-government, which makes citizens’ lives easier and removes the indignity of queues, but full-blown digitalisation, which happens when we use digitised content and data to change the way we interact or work. This could promote coordination between government departments and loosen the red tape that ties business in knots.

Lower than expected economic growth and resultant fiscal constraints in South Africa have emphasised the need for government to markedly improve efficiency with which it conducts business and delivers services.

Smart use of technology can yield productivity and efficiency gains. Unfortunately government is not well poised to harness the potential that eGovernment technology can offer. At the heart of this problem is the existence of a policy framework that fails to recognise the multidimensional nature of the country’s three-sphere system of government.

Polokwane's Vision 2030 was launched to guide the city's long-term development with the vision aiming to transform Polokwane into a modern smart city.

Members of the mayoral committee of the Polokwane Municipality gathered in Mookgophong last Monday for a two-day Mayco strategic session where municipal manager Thuso Nemugumoni presented a clear vision for the future of Polokwane.

The presentation highlighted both the city’s opportunities and challenges as it moves toward its ambitious Vision 2030 goals.

The information and communications technology (ICT) industry is urging the government to increase its promotion of locally developed software applications as this will also help in "digitising" the government.

The government is about to embark on a comprehensive review of its ICT policies.

In response to the overwhelming demand for contemporary, fit-for-purpose digital and IT education offerings, MANCOSA (a proud member of the Honoris United Universities network) launched the School of Information and Digital Technology (SIDT) on September 1.

The rapid growth of information and digital technologies, perpetuated through the emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), has the ability to bring about widespread change for the better.

Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said the Greater Lanseria master plan has been developed by a multidisciplinary team as the first phase of the smart city President Cyril Ramaphosa envisioned five years ago.

Kubayi said significant investment was still required for bulk infrastructure in the area.

She also said the City of Joburg has invested about R29 million of the Urban Settlements Development Grant towards the Lanseria wastewater treatment works and the Lanseria sewer outfall.

Chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and other recurring conditions top the list of health threats that impact the greatest number of people and contribute to high healthcare expenses worldwide.

The cost of treating chronic conditions accounts for an estimated two-thirds of global healthcare spending.