An impromptu peer comparison by the country's main metropoles found all seeking to leverage synergy from their ICT networks in order to improve service delivery and bring low-cost telecommunications to residents.
Almost all adopted aggressive ICT roll-out strategies just after the turn of the millennium - well ahead of SA being awarded the 2010 Soccer World Cup - which all see as a catalyst to turn vision into reality.
"We took a decision to aggressively pursue a digital city independent of World Cup 2010, but it is good to have," Ethekwini (Durban) head of geographic policy and information Jacquie Subban told delegates at the Connect IT: Joburg 2010 conference, in Sandton this week.
"We are aware what connectivity can do for business. We have a focus on SMEs, but it is not about the rhetoric, but about creating jobs," she added. "We have quite an extensive [ICT] network. We must now make it work for ourselves and the city. Our objective is to make telecoms - voice and data - available to all from R150 per month."
Ekurhuleni is unique among the metros for not being a 2010 host, but it too is beavering away at digitisation, if only because the East Rand is also home to the country's main port of entry for 2010 - OR Tambo International Airport, said Nilesh Singh, Ekurhuleni's executive director for ICT.
The metro already has over 1 500km of fibre in the ground, said Singh. He added that the metro is now optimising and consolidating its infrastructure.
Singh said he did not regard broadband provision to residents, schools, clinics and hospitals a local authority core function. However, "as a municipality we have first contact with citizens and we have to enable these things," he said.
City of Cape Town CIO Nirvesh Sooful said he sees ICT as a way of driving service delivery costs down, which in turn frees more funds for actual services. Sooful said the city comprises what until as recently as 1995 was 37 separate local authorities.
Considering the city's size and population, ICT is vital in deepening democracy by promoting citizen participation in decision-making, he added. Residents have free access to e-mail and the Internet at 100 city libraries, and case studies show this has already stimulated job growth. "In one case, an unemployed welder from Delft handed out pamphlets and used e-mail to receive orders. He now employs seven people," said Sooful.
Brian Kelly, CTO of communications at City Power, Johannesburg's electricity utility, said the Joburg metro will, from the middle of next year, roll-out 4MB of broadband through the power grid to every one of its 350 000 households, "guaranteed". Kelly explained a pilot scheme involving 1 000 homes will kick off in the second quarter of the year. Full roll-out will follow after evaluation. "We expect an avalanche," added Kelly.
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