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Young Jozi start-ups address the unmapped

Lauren Kate Rawlins
By Lauren Kate Rawlins, ITWeb digital and innovation contributor.
Johannesburg, 17 Nov 2016
Thapelo Lebo Sekwena, 23, won R150 000 in the GeoJozi Developer Challenge for his app, Redeem Jozi.
Thapelo Lebo Sekwena, 23, won R150 000 in the GeoJozi Developer Challenge for his app, Redeem Jozi.

Mixing gamification and crowdsourcing into a single app was the winning solution for Thapelo Lebo Sekwena, whose app came first in the GeoJozi Developer Challenge.

The challenge was set up by the City of Johannesburg, in partnership with the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering and mapping software company Esri, to help improve the allocation, maintenance and visibility of street addresses across the city.

There are currently one million people and over 250 000 households in the municipality that do not have an address.

Developers under the age of 30 were encouraged to put forth their ideas on how they would solve the problem through the innovative use of Geographic Information System (GIS) data.

Sekwena, 23, finished his BSc degree last year and has since been working as a junior software developer at SAAB. He developed Redeem Jozi for the competition. The app logs the user's location when they log on and then gives them 10 different unmapped locations within their vicinity.

Users need to go to these locations and log them on the app. Once they have done all 10, and provided it was done within the same month, they will receive 100MB of data.

Marcelle Hattingh, director of corporate geo-informatics for the city, says Sekwena's idea was "stunning" and user-friendly.

"It definitely talks to the local problem. It was the combo of platforms he used - coding, gamification, user interface, mapping and augmented reality that made him the clear winner."

Where to from here?

There were over 80 entrants when the competition closed at the end of August. These were whittled down to the top nine, who all received training in GIS, business administration and other courses.

The top three will continue working on their solutions within the Wits Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in Braamfontein, where they will have access to facilities and mentoring for a year.

Hattingh says none of the ideas are at implementation stage yet, and the city will work closely with the young entrepreneurs to make sure they understand the challenge.

She says because it was a quick turnaround challenge, assumptions were made by contestants and those need to be righted. Hattingh also pointed out that different contestants addressed different parts of the problem and these solutions could possibly be combined.

The city says it will not necessarily buy the end result, but rather encourage the entrepreneurs to start a business the city will become a client of.

Sekwena received R150 000 for the winning app, which should be used towards business development. The two runners-up received R100 000 and R50 000.

Methembe Dlamini came second and developed FindMe, an app that puts households directly in touch with the city so they can cross-verify their address and have access to services.

Absalom Mpanze came third with his app called Blurry-J, which generates a unique code based on the user's position.

What's in an address?

Hattingh said there were three goals the city wanted to achieve through the challenge. These were to demonstrate the power of location-based technology, to develop GIS talent, and "we wanted to emphasise the importance of a street addresses to have a high functioning, inclusive society".

She explained a street address has more significance than many people realise.

"An address specifies a point of service delivery and makes the city function better for everyone. It is essential for electricity, water, refuse, sewage, emergency services, land ownership, parcel deliveries and countless other critical services and functions.

"Street addresses that are not clearly displayed or not displayed at all make it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to deliver essential services to residents of the city. In some informal settlements, we still have areas where street addresses don't exist at all."

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