The City of Tshwane is one of the six biggest metropolitan cities in South Africa, with a population total of 2.2 million inhabitants and the highest level of education attainment in the country. The City of Tshwane is the administrative capital of South Africa and although government plays an important role in the city’s economy, there are many other sectors that are doing extremely well towards contributing to the economy. In fact, the City of Tshwane has adapted to globalisation remarkably well, and has all the elements of a “Smart City.” The city is a centre of government in South Africa with all the national government departments located in it. It also forms part of the Gauteng Global City Region - the wealthiest and fasted growing economic region on the African continent.

The City is a national centre of research and learning with four major universities (UNISA, University of Pretoria, Tshwane University of Technology & MEDUNSA) and seven of eight national Science Councils, i.e. CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, HSRC (Human Science Research Council), ARC (Agricultural Research Council), NRF (National Research Foundation), MRI (Medical Research Institute), VRI (Veterinary Research Institute), and SABS (South African Bureau of Standards). Furthermore, the City is also host to two of Blue IQ’s successful projects; The Innovation Hub and Automotive Supplier Park as well as the Eric Molobi Innovation Hub. This is a project by the Department of Housing which provides a platform for different developers to demonstrate new innovative building materials to compliment the use of bricks and mortar. The City also boasts of a fibre-optic network infrastructure – an important ingredient of a ‘Smart City’. This will undoubtedly, be conducive to rolling out broadband to citizens, businesses and government facilities.

The vision of the Tshwane Smart City project is “to continue sustained economic growth and a high quality of life for citizens” by aligning, integrating anddeveloping a common vision between industry, research institutes, universities and local government. Also, through innovation projects, the city wants to create an environment that grows high technology cluster based businesses, attracts creative people and deploy significant broadband connectivity to schools, residents, business, and government facilities.

A Smart City is, according to the Toronto, Canada, based Intelligent Communities Forum (http://www.intelligentcommunity.org), defined by a number of attributes: a knowledgeable workforce, broadband connectivity, innovation, and a marketing- and lobbying force. The Tshwane Smart City Project will bring about the following benefits to the City and its residents:

• Alignment and integration of the various research, educational institutions, industry, government and the city to achieve economic benefits for the city and its residents;
• Exploit the knowledge base in these institutions to create key economic clusters (i.e. ICT, Biotechnology, and aerospace);
• Enhancement of city’s operations through use of smart technologies to provide efficient service to the residents;  
• Increase in knowledge and capacity through its relationship with the City of Oulu in Finland;
• The regional innovation system will be a key stakeholder engagement forum for the city;
• Strengthen the collaboration between BEE companies in Tshwane & their Finnish counterpart;
• Job creation and alleviation of poverty through SMME development initiatives.

The City of Tshwane and the City of Oulu in Finland entered into a twinning agreement to help Tshwane become a “Smart City.” Funding has been sought from the Municipal Association in Finland through its North-South Local Government Cooperation Programme to support the partnership. A delegation including City of Tshwane Executive Major Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, municipal executives and representatives from private companies visited the City of Oulu in Finland during May 2007 to formalise this collaboration. The Innovation Hub has been appointed by the City of Tshwane as the implementing agency of the project. A project office has been established within The Innovation Hub precinct.

The City of Tshwane will be exhibiting as a  “Smart City” at the INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITION (INSITE) 2008 which will be held at The Sandton Convention Centre from 15 – 17 September 2008. INSITE08 will run concurrently with the International Association of Science Parks (IASP) XXV World Conference on Science and Technology Parks. The Executive Mayor of City of Tshwane, Dr Gwen Ramokgopa will host a conference Gala Dinner during the XXV IASP World Conference, at the LC de Villiers Stadium, University of Pretoria on Tuesday, 16 September 2008.
Further information can be obtained through contact with Jeanette Morwane from the Tshwane Smart City Project Office on (012) 844 0199.