The eThekwini Municipality is South Africa’s second-largest economy after Johannesburg and is home to 3.5 million people. In this thriving city, data cost is a major factor affecting the proliferation of Internet access among the majority of residents. The eThekwini government has noticed this and recognized that free public Wi-Fi would bring many benefits to its residents.
As such, the eThekwini government launched a three-year public Wi-Fi construction plan to provide convenient and accessible Internet to the public, empowering more citizens to enjoy the beauty of the digital world. According to the plan, in the next three years, approximately 450 public Wi-Fi hotspots will be available in eThekwini, covering 96 public libraries and the landmark Moses Mabhida Stadium, as well as tourism and business centers, including aquariums, seafronts, and the uShaka Marine World.
Read more: ZA: eThekwini Pioneers a Smart City with Free Public Wi-Fi
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.
Read more: ZA: Lanseria: Smart cities promote best practice in urban sustainability
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.
According to Paragon Group director Henning Rasmuss, with South African cities and towns fast deteriorating at an infrastructure and service delivery level, the new Lanseria Smart City revealed by President Cyril Ramaphosa during this year's State of the Nation Address is just 'papering over the cracks'.
More important work needs to be done, across the country, says Rasmuss. In this regard, a positive outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic has been business and government having “to learn to work together, to build trust, and to get things done in a hurry. The common enemy in the form of the pandemic has brought an urgency to co-operation and co-existence”, he notes.
Read more: ZA: New Lanseria Smart City just 'papering over the cracks'
Addressing the 2021 State of the Nation Address (Sona), President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed that his administration is conceptualizing a number of post-apartheid smart cities in provinces around the country.
Ramaphosa said that these infrastructure projects form a key part of the government’s Covid-19 recovery plan.
Read more: ZA: Smart Cities, Infrastructure and Highway upgrades on the way