The dream of the smart city has long been held up as the pinnacle of urban evolution. The promise of seamlessly connected infrastructure, real-time data analytics, and AI-driven efficiency has hovered on the horizon for decades, but almost as a mirage in the distance.
Now, the first signs of a functional smart city In South Africa are emerging in a form that few expected. Instead of government-planned utopias like the proposed Greater Lanseria Smart City, the real strides are being made at the level of basic municipal services, driven not by state-led mega-projects, but by independent technology initiatives.
For example, My Smart City is a citizen-driven platform that allows residents to log municipal service issues, track progress, and hold local governments accountable. During the 2023–2024 period, the app logged over 186,000 issues in Johannesburg, and improved resolution rates by a claimed 150%. In Cape Town, over 70,000 issues were logged, with resolution rates increasing by 271%, according to Acumen Software, which developed the platform.
For many South Africans, this is the first tangible taste of what a smart city might look like: not a futuristic skyline, but an end to the frustration of unanswered calls to municipal service desks.
Joao Zoio, CEO and co-founder of Acumen Software, describes the platform as a “megaphone for the citizens.”
Unlike municipal services themselves, My Smart City does not fix issues directly, but acts as an intermediary, ensuring that complaints are logged and followed up in a way that individual citizens alone cannot achieve.
Zoio told Business Times: “We have clients like the City of Cape Town, which has a standard Application Programming Interface (a bridge that lets apps talk to each other) for us to connect to their systems, so feedback is integrated directly into our platform.”
In Johannesburg, My Smart City integrates with City Power and Johannesburg Water through Forcelink, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that acts as a backbone of the platform.
Municipalities that engage with the platform experience faster response times, and even those that refuse to formally collaborate often find themselves forced into action by the sheer volume of public pressure.
“We’ve actually caused change in these councils,” says Zoio. “Even in those that don’t officially work with us, our constant follow-ups have improved turnaround times.”
The contrast between My Smart City’s grassroots, citizen-focused approach and the grand vision of state-driven smart cities is stark. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s much-touted Greater Lanseria Smart City, intended as a high-tech urban showcase, remains little more than a concept, with infrastructure development failing to materialise. It is a cautionary tale of how grand visions falter under the weight of bureaucracy and political inertia.
Dean Wolson, general manager of Lenovo Africa’s infrastructure solutions group, sees this as a key failing of large-scale smart city projects.
“A truly smart city must be built on robust infrastructure capable of managing a variety of services,” he says. “Achieving this requires not just the technology but a unified vision that prioritises the real needs of citizens.”
The biggest obstacle, says Wolson, is that many city departments operate in silos. Effective implementation requires a seamless flow of data and cooperation across domains, from transportation, energy and water management to public safety.
“The potential for African cities to follow global examples is immense, but the real obstacle isn’t the technology itself – it’s aligning the cooperation and investment needed to bring these systems to life. We’ve seen how AI can integrate disconnected city services, streamlining operations and improving citizen engagement.”
Other technology firms have also stepped into the municipal efficiency void. Vodacom has introduced a Citizen Engagement app, allowing residents to log service requests and track progress in real-time. It also provides smart utilities management, where connected meters monitor water and electricity consumption, improving billing accuracy and municipal revenue collection. This approach focuses on efficiency in existing urban frameworks rather than starting from scratch.
Videsha Proothveerajh, head of Vodacom Business, says it is about empowering municipalities to meet the needs of citizens.
“We aim to use our experience and expertise in understanding government needs to achieve their smart city goals,” she says. “This includes digitalising utilities management, healthcare, education, and security, which streamline operations, enhance efficiencies, and improve the lives of citizens.”
Many municipalities remain slow to adopt new digital tools, and some refuse to engage at all. My Smart City has even offered a free version of Forcelink to smaller municipalities, but has yet to find a taker in South Africa.
“We have had some interest from Namibia,” says Zoio wryly, suggesting that smaller, more agile governments may be more willing to experiment than South Africa’s entrenched municipal structures.
The reluctance of municipalities to embrace technology underscores a deeper issue: smart cities are not just about hardware and software. They require political will, administrative reform, and a shift in mindset toward data-driven governance.
Wolson points to examples like Denmark’s AI-driven railway safety monitoring. “With the right investment in digital transformation, African cities can not only modernise but also create safer and more inclusive urban environments.”
That comes close to Vodacom’s solution: it has developed a variety of IoT security solutions, such as real-time firearm tracking and geo-fencing, which help create safer environments by allowing authorities to monitor and control the movement of firearms within designated areas.
Says Proothveerajh: “By enabling the growth of smart cities, we are turning public services into public successes and supporting the government to utilise the power of technology to better serve citizens.”
The vision of the smart city in South Africa is not dead, but it is evolving. It is not about ambitious, unfulfilled promises of futuristic metropolises but about the practical application of technology to make daily life more bearable. Instead of flying cars and AI-driven urban planning, the first tangible smart city experiences for South Africans are more mundane – but perhaps more meaningful: a logged pothole that gets fixed, a power outage resolved efficiently, or a water leak addressed before it drains municipal resources.
As Zoio puts it, “We’re not here to sell a dream – we’re here to make a difference.”
For citizens tired of waiting for government promises to materialise, that reality check may be the real smart move.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Arthur Goldstuck
Quelle/Source: Gadget, 24.02.2025
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