As the world becomes digital, South Africa’s major metropolises have followed suit in the quest to become smart cities.
The national ICT spend has been increasing annually as the metros strive to become more technologically-advanced and compete with each other for the title of “the smartest city in South Africa”, writes BMI-TechKnowledge’s public sector and telecommunications senior analyst, Tertia Smit.
In the 2014/15 financial year, for example, the City of Cape Town allocated R814-million, while the City of Johannesburg assigned a mammoth R1,6-billion to ICT endeavours.
BMI-T’s recent “ICT in Metros and Municipalities” report shows: 65% of all ICT spend is spread across the nine main metros, even though they only account for 39% of the population.
Logically, this facilitates these metros’ ability to
deliver better infrastructure and technology to its citizens, while the other 275 local municipalities will lag behind. However, when you look at the simple fact that these metros are responsible for 59% of the GDP, the drive for ICT spend becomes more evident. Where there is more activity and revenue, there will always be more investment to ensure its sustainability and growth.
The metros have recognised that broadband is a major economic enabler and rolled out key broadband projects that have delivered connectivity to cities. In the 2014/2015 budget cycle, metros have earmarked R 1,3-billion on broadband, with the lion’s share of R1,06-billion being budgeted by City of Johannesburg. This, however, may not be spent as the current contract is under review and the money may be reallocated internally.
The Western Cape has budgeted about R200-million annually, over the next three years, with SITA and Neotel to provide broadband services to approximately 200 government sites – including schools, libraries and health services.
While in the City of Johannesburg, more than 900 km of the new fibre-optic network has been laid, with nine WiFi hotspots already providing completely free access to the Internet.
The City of Tshwane, in partnership with “Project
Isiswe”, has also taken action, launching more than 200 free Internet zones in the city.
Metros are driven to become digitally smart cities for key reasons: e-learning, safety and security, metering, traffic control and other smart services.
Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, recently declared that ICT in education is a priority for government; as a result, there is a need to enable and facilitate the e-learning process. In terms of smart safety, technology can assist with traffic control measures, early warnings, geographic information systems (GIS), smart metering and even CCTV cameras in an attempt to curb crime.
Smart services empower municipalities to use technology and systems to improve service efficiencies and optimise management of scarce resources.
While the metros invest in ICT, there are still particular areas of concern that metros need to address. The slow response by the political leadership to address the root causes of poor audit outcomes, the overreliance on consultants, and the lack of consequences for poor performance and transgressions are just a few with which to begin.
The auditor general’s findings show that there has been little overall improvement in the audit outcomes since 2008/09. On a positive note, the previous issue of key positions being vacant, or key officials lacking appropriate competencies, has improved over the past two years.
Overall, the state of ICT in South Africa is looking promising, as long as the metros continue to develop their infrastructure to stimulate the local economy and deliver first-class technology to its citizens. It’s is however vital that the leadership strives to improve and address its areas of concern.
