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Digital Gauteng hackathon seeks innovation for local government

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 09 Dec 2020

Following the success of its first hackathon, non-profit Empire Partner Foundation Tech Hub will host a second hackathon focused on solving the complex challenges municipalities face today.

The Digital Gauteng City Region (GCR) hackathon will take place on 12 and 13 December in Illovo, Johannesburg. 

Developers will be given free reign to find solutions that can help local municipalities be more efficient and improve service delivery.

Akivan Kemraj, CEO of the Empire Partner Foundation Tech Hub says, “We want to explore how we can use tech to improve the communication between municipalities and residents, to ensure that residents participate in the development of their own municipalities and that municipalities provide a standardised level of service to residents across the country.”

The decision to focus on local government solutions follows a pledge of support by the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) towards the Digital GCR platform. In his keynote speech at the first hackathon, Xolile George, CEO of SALGA, talked about  the impact that technology can have in improving local government planning and service delivery.

Empowering tomorrow’s tech leaders

Hackathon participants will be given access to some of Gauteng City Region's data, such as how much water or electricity households consume daily.

The event is sponsored by BriteGaze, a new entrant in the tech start-up enabling arena, founded by former CEO of Liquid Telecoms SA Reshaad Sha.  BriteGaze’s Fund One aims to help emerging tech businesses secure funding and translate their services into commercial value.

The developers that come up with the most innovative solutions at the GCR hackathon can look forward to their share of the R20 000 cash prize as well as a masterclass on business models and monetisation.

For more information on this hackathon and future Empire Partner Foundation events, go to: www.empirepartnerfoundation.org/hackathon

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