Cape Town, South Africa’s ‘Mother City’, has been hailed Africa’s smartest cities, from its open data portal through which all data Cape Town registers from its citizens is made publicly available, to digital inclusion via free wifi enabled on city buses. Access to city data is just one small step in the external data revolution. The City’s public Wi-Fi service and other digital inclusion projects are part of a broader Digital City Strategy, which aims to make Cape Town the most digitally connected city in Africa. The municipality has to date installed fibre-optic cables with a combined length of over 800km and has provided accelerated internet access to over 1 million people through nearly 400 free Wi-Fi zones spread out across the metro. By 2021, the City’s broadband project will deliver a fully functional, municipal-owned fibre-optic network that will serve the entire metro area.
Other elements of the strategy include investment in digital infrastructure, digital business initiatives, and a focus on digital government. The city is already leveraging real time data efforts to improve emergency response, including fire and rescue, law enforcement and disaster risk management. The Cape Town Emergency Dispatch Centre was created to form one integrated public safety solution that facilitates operations and data sharing.
These strategies implemented in the city contributed to make Cape Town a Smart City:
- E-government, which provides better access to more efficient service delivery
- The provision of ICT skills, promoting social and economic development
- Public Wi-fi and improving the city’s broadband infrastructure, reducing the digital divide
- The use of CCTV cameras, making the city safer with 560 cameras situated in and around the city
- Cape Town’s open data portal is the first of its kind in Africa
- The use of smart-grid technologies at municipal levels, supporting the digital economy
Cape Town, South Africa’s second largest city by population, is the digitech hub of Africa and a leading location for technology startups and venture capital deals.
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SouthAfrica CapeTown City of Cape Town mother city turning SmartCity DigitalCity with inclusive, equitable, tech, opendata, portal, freewifi, Iot based trafficmanagement wastemanagement emergencyresponse, initiative part of African SmartCities 2060, named startup capital of Africa support by Invest Cape Town The Silicon Cape Initiative SiliconCape startup #ecosystem.
Sources
- https://www.capetownmagazine.com/cape-town-smartest-city-in-africa
- https://www.consultancy.co.za/news/1756/cape-town-is-leading-by-example-when-it-comes-to-investment-in-smart-cities
- https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/future-we-want-african-cities-future-cape-town/1146575/
- https://outsideinsight.com/insights/smart-cities-africa-cape-town-and-nairobi-take-the-lead/
- https://www.investcapetown.com/why-cape-town/digital-connectivity/
- https://www.investcapetown.com/why-cape-town/start-up-capital-of-africa/
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23322373.2016.1175266
