What is a smart city and how can it improve the effectiveness of a municipality? Executive Mayor RW ‘Boffie’ Strydom describes why Weskus Distrik Municipality has committed to becoming smarter.
As far back as SONA 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed a dream of building a South African smart city. Weskus Distrik has taken a lead and, in partnership with the private sector, are mapping early applications and preparing for roll out.
“Performing municipalities are experiencing an influx of residents looking for regions which consistently prove exemplary governance, service delivery and the ability to act decisively when tackling challenges and opportunities. With this comes investment into a region. To overcome the challenges associated with rapid growth, municipalities need to become centres of creativity and innovation, and important enablers will be AI and Internet of Things, naturally augmented by 5G technology to provide low latency” says Boffie Strydom.
AI applications are extensive and can include increased effectiveness in areas such as public safety and law enforcement; traffic management and transportation; community communication and engagement; urban planning and development; healthcare and social services; emergency response and disaster management; financial management, and the growth and development of municipality employees, among others.
“Simplistically, ‘building’ a smart city is about having advanced technology which presents accurate and, often, real time data which not only encourages creativity and innovation but improves effectiveness and the ability to make smart decisions, whether this involves long-term planning or developing situations which need a more spontaneous response”.
