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Joburg prioritises smart city initiative

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 27 May 2015
The City of Johannesburg will prioritise becoming a smart city.
The City of Johannesburg will prioritise becoming a smart city.

The City of Johannesburg will prioritise smart city initiatives this year, as it seeks to "bridge the digital divide".

This was announced yesterday during the R52.6 billion budget vote speech by member of the mayoral committee responsible for finance, Geoffrey Makhubo.

"The smart city initiatives will bridge the digital divide by providing basic levels of access to the Internet across the city. In today's world, universal access to communications is becoming as vital as access to water and electricity services. Access to technology and connectivity will assist entrepreneurs and businesses to thrive, thus increasing economic activity in the city."

Makhubo added some of the R1.3 billion allocated to the city's group functions department will be used to fund smart city projects. The city plans to become smart by 2040, with the City of Tshwane following 15 years later.

Johannesburg's initiative took what it called a "giant leap" forward in March with the launch of its Smart Citizen Programme, which includes free Internet and WiFi in libraries across the city.

Other flagship projects that fall under this unit include the city's Digital Ambassadors programme, broadband base stations, capacitation of the engineering centre of excellence, the infrastructure programme management office, and the youth jobs initiative, the Vulindlel' eJozi programme.

Some R1.2 billion was allocated to the city's group corporate shared services department to focus on software and ICT infrastructure modernisation, renewal of computer hardware citywide and WiFi hotspots, among others.

Mayor Parks Tau said in the state of the city address this month the Johannesburg Broadband Network Project, high-speed broadband access in Braamfontein, significant improvements to education access, and intelligent city security and traffic monitoring systems were all on the city's short-term agenda.

The Vulindlel' eJozi programme was set up to address youth unemployment. Participants in the initiative will receive literacy, numeracy and digital literacy training, and then opportunities, based on their aptitudes and capabilities, will be sought for them.

The Digital Ambassadors programme, launched in partnership with the University of Johannesburg, aims to train over 3 000 young people with more in-depth digital skills and then distribute them across the city to provide digital literacy training to other members of the community.

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