National social networking and civil action site Mobilitate has made significant headway in the ongoing struggle to spur municipalities into action via various functionalities.
Mobilitate is an online platform, available to the public at no cost, which enables South Africans to log and prioritise municipal service delivery issues in their communities, via their mobile phones and Web browsers. Users can pinpoint the exact location of the problem, from potholes to infrastructure and traffic quandaries, via Google Maps.
Mobilitate then forwards these issues to the relevant municipality and notifies the ward councillor. All communication and updates regarding respective issues can be followed online by citizens and government officials alike. “That way it is a transparent platform that helps keep government accountable,” says a Mobilitate spokesperson.
Since its inception a year ago, the site has seen 4 200 issues reported countrywide, with 1 973 of these being taken in hand and fixed.
Multimedia mouthpiece
The brainchild of South African businessmen Lionel Bisschoff and Arrie van der Dussen, Mobilitate has garnered a subscriber base of over 14 700 members since going live in September 2010. It continues to grow in view of local government issues cropping up on a regular basis.
Mobilitate has been active in the ongoing Johannesburg billing crisis and was used in February as the platform through which people could join the class action suit and file their billing complaints. At the time, Bisschoff said Mobilitate had the capability to significantly turn the issue on its head. “[Mobilitate has] the organisational and structural support to easily collect and sort the complaints of those wanting to join the class action suit.”
In light of the City of Johannesburg's (COJ's) three-phase billing plan, unveiled yesterday, the Mobilitate team says they are prepared to develop the platform further “in anyway necessary to help the COJ address billing issues”. A Mobilitate spokesperson says they are trying to set up a meeting with city manager Trevor Fowler “as we speak”.
Connected functionality
Mobilitate has created an online infrastructure for all 4 277 wards in the country, with each ward having its own page. Profiles on ward councillors, proportional councillors and ward committee members are available through linked portals. Councillors can post blogs, create calendar events and upload files such as minutes of meetings and budgets.
Van der Dussen says: “Citizens now have the opportunity to, firstly, find their councillors by typing in an address, and secondly, to communicate with their councillors. This is the only platform in SA that offers this on a national level.”
He says the infrastructure also exists for the 200-odd municipalities in SA. “Municipalities now have the capability of communicating to all of their citizens on one [virtual] platform.”
Currently, the Tshwane, Johannesburg and Cape Town municipalities are working in co-operation with the civil action site.
Van der Dussen says a “dashboard” functionality was recently added to the site, which enables municipalities to manage all relevant issues in one place. “They can acknowledge issues, action them and provide feedback and updates online. It also allows municipalities to extract statistics.”
The site also includes infrastructure whereby Community Policing Forums, as well as other crime and security networks, can act as the “eyes and ears of the community” and proliferate relevant information in the public space to “unite and fight crime in SA on a single platform”.
CrimeSpotter, endorsed by the Gauteng Provincial Community Police Board, includes free SMS crime alerts to members, bulk e-mailing of members, a patrol schedule with notifications, events calendars, and notifications of suspicious vehicle registries.
Bisschoff says the team has also developed a mobile application for Android and iPhone, and is developing an app for BlackBerry smartphones to facilitate logging of issues on the go.
To report a service delivery issue, visit http://www.mobilitate.co.za/pg/servicedelivery.
Share
