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2009-02-12
Tshwane / Pretoria wants smart city status


BY SIYABONGA AFRICA , ITWEB JUNIOR JOURNALIST

[ Johannesburg, 10 February 2009 ] - The City of Tshwane ( Pretoria ) hopes to provide residents, schools and hospitals with cheap Internet connectivity by the end of the year, as part of its smart city programme.

James Masonganye, head of operational system management for the City of Tshwane ( Pretoria ), says broadband Internet is key to providing e-government services for the community and needs to be implemented before the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

The broadband roll-out programme is part of a larger initiative, which Masonganye hopes will give residents access to e-government services before 2010. Masonganye says the biggest challenge to providing these services is the issuance of WiMax licences, which is yet to be concluded.

He says his department has already set up a fibre-optic network for the municipal offices that fall under the City of Tshwane ( Pretoria ). “With this network, we have provided Internet connectivity to all our buildings and we are not dependent on the incumbent telecoms provider, being Telkom.”

The city signed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Oulu, Finland, with the aim of helping Tshwane become a smart city. Funding has been sought from the Municipal Association, in Finland, through its North-South local government cooperation programme, to support the partnership.

A statement from Tshwane says, through innovation projects, the city wants to create an environment that grows high-technology cluster-based businesses, attracts creative people and deploys significant broadband connectivity to schools, residents, businesses and government facilities.

Are they for real?

Masonganye will be one of the key speakers at ITWeb's eGovernment Conference, on 18 and 19 March, in Kempton Park. As a part of his presentation, he will discuss the assessment of the municipal broadband deployment and social services development, among other topics.

However, an analyst says e-government services are non-existent in SA. World Wide Worx director Arthur Goldstuck is adamant the key question for the e-government conference should be the status of e-government services and the way they are implemented.

“There are a lot of questions which concern e-government in SA over the past five years and, at this stage, what is needed is a clear vision and strategy for their execution in the future.”

Goldstuck says a prime example of the inadequate deployment of e-government services is the Department of Home Affairs' efforts to migrate citizens' information onto smart cards as opposed to identity documents.

“What happened to that project and where did it end up?” he asks.

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