The outcome of the ANCs long-awaited KwaZulu-Natal conference was a win for the Thuma Mina crowd. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Ekurhuleni has set itself the ambitious goal of becoming a “Digital City”. The move in this direction has already been demonstrated by the implementation of the e-Siyakhokha online payments system, but is to be taken a step further.
MMC for Finance Moses Makwakwa announced in his budget speech that R322-million would be invested into the modernisation of the city to enable seamless business processes, utilising the right technology and systems.
A sum of R100-million has been allocated in the 2015/16 budget for the implementation of the first phase of an Enterprise Resource Planning system to enable this vision.
Residents will also benefit from an additional R89-million to establish 326 hotspot sites that will provide internet access.
Ekurhuleni has identified the development of broadband infrastructure as essential to meeting the needs of knowledge economies and information societies.
It states in its 2015/16 integrated development plan (IDP) that this will enable the economic and social inclusion required to improve global competitiveness.
“This is premised on the development not only of interlinked physical networks, but an entire connected ecosystem of services, applications and content that open up and create efficiency in information flows that improve productivity and stimulate innovation, resulting in diversity of services, increased demand and thus job creation, and all this in ways that enable greater participation, transparency and accountability,” the document reads.
This vision ties in with the provincial government’s goals of focusing on ICT and broadband infrastructure, and beyond that to the “Digital SADC by 2027” goal.
The Ekurhuleni IDP states that achieving this goal “will require rapid and concerted efforts by all. The plan is to consolidate regional telecommunications networks to ensure that the region is fully interconnected nationally, regionally, inter-regionally and globally, through reliable and affordable fibre optic links.
“Every capital city in the region is to be linked to all of its neighbours via at least two routes, and to at least two different cross‐continental submarine networks.
“Affordable satellite-based connectivity solutions are available for remote areas outside the near‐term reach of fibre [optic] infrastructure.”
Ekurhuleni’s goal is therefore far from self-serving, and may form an important component of the city’s future prospects.