PROFILE :

TSHWANE SMART CITY PROJECT

Background

The City of Tshwane is amongst the six biggest metropolitan cities in South Africa, with a population of 2.2 million inhabitants.  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. In fact the City of Tshwane has adapted to globalisation remarkably well, and has all the elements of a Smart City. It is:

• A centre of government in South Africa with all the national government departments located in it;
• It is part of Gauteng Global Region, the wealthiest and fasted growing economic region on the African continent;
• Its population of two million people has the highest level of education attainment in the country; and
• The City is a national centre of research and learning with four major universities 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).

In order for the City of Tshwane to build itself as a smart city, it needs to build the platform by:

• Engaging with universities, research organizations, private sector and government departments in a synergistic manner to encourage the spirit of collaboration.
• Harness collective intellectual know-how via joint projects with strategic stakeholders aimed at increasing citizen participation, equity, growth and development;
• Work towards building clusters to stimulate economic growth.

Vision

• To continue sustained economic growth and a high quality of life for citizens” by aligning, integrating and developing a common vision between industry, research institutes, universities, and local government.
• Through innovation the project 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.

Programme Benefits

The benefits of the Tshwane Smart City Project for the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and its residents include:

• Alignment and integration of the various research, educational institutions, industry, government and the city to achieve economic benefits for the city and 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.

Contact Details

Mr Butana Mboniswa : Project Director

Tel: +27 12 844 0198

Mr Gift Mphefu : ICT Project Manager

Tel: +27 12 844 0128

PRESS RELEASES :

City of Tshwane – “Creative minds working together for a Smart City”

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.

  Turning Tshwane's Smart City dream into reality [Leadership]

Going for growth, Tshwane looks to find a common purpose or its government, industry and research community
MOST CITIES, or the people who live in them and manage them at any rate, think they're special. But in the case of the City of Tshwane, formerly known as Pretoria, it may just have a point.

Tsietsi Maleho

And the city is now on a mission to transform itself into a Smart City. And what exactly might that be? The Intelligent Communities Forum, based in Toronto, Canada, says four things define smart cities, and they are: a knowledge workforce, broadband connectivity, innovation, and marketing and lobbying force.
Tsietsi Maleho, manager of corporate affairs at the Tshwane-based Innovation Hub, SA's only official science park, runs through this list as it applies to the city.
"We have a knowledge base, this includes four universities - the University of Pretoria, the Tshwane University of Technology, UNISA and the old Medunsa. The city hosts seven of the eight national science councils, such as the ARC, CSIR, Council for Geoscience, HSRC, MRC, NECSA and the SABS. We have a significant medical competence in the city, a strong defence cluster and two of the key Blue IQ projects housed here - the aforementioned Innovation Hub and the Automotive Supplier Park in Rosslyn. Tshwane also boasts one of the highest concentrations of science and technology graduates in the region."
"So, our argument is, we have such an impressive knowledge base, how can we bring it all together to improve the region's competitiveness? And the Smart City initiative is looking to do exactly that," he says.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Maleho driving the Smart City project springs from his firm belief in the role of science parks in catalysing regional economic development in successful cities worldwide. The Innovation Hub, from where this project is driven, has managed to garner the support of the Cooperation Framework on Innovation Systems, or COFISA, between Finland and South Africa. COFISA will use Finland's competence as a world leader in innovation to help South Africa improve its innovation systems, he explains.
Maleho has, on various occasions, visited Finland and met with Finnish experts to discuss their systems of innovation, including the role of government, industry, science parks and universities. On one occasion back in 2005, a team of experts from the City of Oulu, in northern Finland, visited the Innovation Hub, and a twinning agreement between the two cities was proposed, "and that is how we first considered the concept of turning Tshwane into a Smart City".
Oulu is a remarkable city, indicates Maleho, as it has managed to reinvent itself from a city relying on primary industries, such as fishing and forestry, into a high-tech region within the space of a few decades. In May the cities signed a twinning agreement and Oulu has, among other commitments, undertaken to contribute relevant expertise to the City of Tshwane in the coming year.
Maleho credits Tshwane mayor, Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, with being instrumental in driving the Smart City project.

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE SO FAR

What defines a Smart City?

1. A knowledge workforce 2. Broadband connectivity 3. Innovation 4. A marketing and lobbying force

"So far, a project office has been allocated at the Innovation Hub, a budget for the project is being discussed (funding will be a combination of city and donor funding), we have identified some key people to run the project, and in a month's time the City of Oulu's support kicks in and their experts will begin helping us to formulate an integrated plan," he explains.
Maleho indicates that the immediate role of the Smart City team is developing an integrated development plan, which will involve industry, research and academic institutions, and government. A baseline study will also be commissioned to develop a skills profile for the City of Tshwane's, define industry clusters, investigate the status of university research and investigate the feasibility of broadband roll-out to citizens, business and government facilities (the City of Tshwane's broadband unit will be integrated into the Smart City programme).
The integrated development plan will then determine what new areas of competence the city requires, and will map out how industry, government and the research and academic communities can cooperate and support with one another to boost the city's economic development.
The platform for interaction between this triple helix, as Maleho refers to it, is the creation of virtual industry clusters, representing industries such as ICT, biotech, defence, automotive and services, among others.
"With this programme, the city will work in an integrated fashion for the very first time," Maleho concludes.

This link is for TSC article that appeared on iWeek. Here it is below:

http://www.iweek.co.za/ViewStory.asp?StoryID=176345

Author:
Laura Franz-Kamissoko
Issued:
16 Aug 2007