The Kouga Local Municipality has been working hard to establish Kouga as a “Smart City”, which will see the region receive state-of-the-art technology and will ultimately preserve quality of life for residents.
According to Kouga Executive Mayor, Horatio Hendricks, a Smart City consists of state-of-the-art technology that is accessible to most residents – if not all – preparing for the concept of Industry 4.0.
He said the main reasons for the emergence of the Smart City initiative, were to create a sustainable model for the region and preserve quality of life for residents.
“It cannot be seen only as a technical discipline, but different economic and humanitarian aspects are involved as well,” said Hendricks.
With the national failure of Eskom to provide the region with a consistent supply of energy, Hendricks said they realised that to save power, the municipality would have to play its part to conserve energy, as well as combat climate change at the same time.
“We are busy replacing standard streetlights with energy-efficient LED lights. More than 1 000 street and floodlights across the region have been retrofitted with LED lights,” said Hendricks.
He said the programme was first rolled out in the 2019/20 financial year, after the municipality’s electrical services section secured R4 million from the national Department of Energy for energy efficiency demand side management (EEDSM).
Hendricks said the municipality had already secured further funding from its own budget to purchase another 1 000 LED lights, as part of their commitment towards service excellence and cutting down on carbon emissions, to help save the planet by supporting green energy.
To add to the municipality’s mission to establish Kouga as a Smart City, Hendricks said Kouga took a big step forward technologically when the Link service delivery app was introduced three years ago.
“The app, supported by the Kouga Call Centre, has proven to be an effective link between the municipalities and communities,” said Hendricks.
In addition, the call centre is now fully equipped to handle account balance enquiries and to register ratepayers online.
Hendricks said the call centre also allowed the municipality to harness the power of data on service delivery and to plan and respond effectively to breakdowns and preventative maintenance.
“Technology is a game-changer when it comes to opening economic opportunities for our communities and business sector,” said Hendricks.
Despite the numerous negative effects experienced throughout the country due to the national COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, Hendricks said Jeffreys Bay had become the perfect digital nomad destination since the start of the pandemic.
Since remote working has become the norm for many companies and individuals, he said Jeffreys Bay was perfectly positioned to take advantage of this new normal.
“Not only does the town offer top co-working hubs, but also boasts a major deployment of fibre with Telkom, Herotel, Metrofibre and Vodacom all rolling out fibre, with other companies like Frogfoot in the planning phase,” said Hendricks.
To date, MetroFibre Networx, the dominant fibre network operator (FNO) in the region, has installed fibre at over 5 000 homes and businesses in Kabeljous, Noorsekloof, Jeffreys Bay, C Place and Aston Bay since the roll-out kicked off on March 15, 2021, and is continuing in various suburbs across the Kouga municipality.
In addition to the digitalisation of homes in the region, Hendricks said the COVID-19 lockdown accelerated the digitalisation of the municipality as councillors and officials were trained in using virtual platforms for meetings.
Now, all meetings are done using media platforms, such as teleconferencing and videoconferencing.
“Councillors and officials had been trained in using the applications, to ensure that effective deliberation, decision-making and oversight could take place despite the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions,” said Hendricks.
To further drive their Smart City model, Hendricks said Kouga has become one of the first municipalities in the Eastern Cape to launch a virtual portal for the submissions of building plans.
He said since building plans could continue despite COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, over the past year alone, 325 building plans for Jeffreys Bay were approved and 36 for Humansdorp.
Furthermore, Hendricks said the municipality is also looking at rolling out their online Ovvio platform, which will form a hub for all their systems.
One of the many successful Smart City initiatives included the development of Africa’s first eco-friendly road, incorporating waste plastic which was officially opened in Jeffreys Bay in December 2019.
In addition, a 300m strip of Woltemade Street was retarred with a revolutionary bitumen mix, including about 700kg of plastic.
“This new approach to the tarring of roads has been widely hailed for its potential to increase the lifespan of roads and reduce maintenance costs while also combating plastic pollution and climate change,” said Hendricks.
Hendricks said the Smart City model for Kouga would result in economic growth and competitiveness, job creation and growth in tourism, as well as improving electrical supply and providing improved internet connectivity.
Furthermore, the model will increase wealth, reduce the environmental footprint, and decrease the dependence on non-renewable energy sources.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Razaan Plaatjies
Quelle/Source: Netwerk 24, 03.02.2022
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