Transforming local government with
an IT enabled strategy
- Cape Town’s ‘smart city’ strategy
Nirvesh Sooful
Interim Manager: Information Technology
City of Cape Town

On December 5th a single
Unicity Council which
amalgamated the seven separate
councils that currently make-up
local government in the Cape
Metropolitan Area was created.
Population: +/- 3 million
Budget: +/- R 9 Billion
Staff: +/- 27 000
Size: +/- 215 900 ha
Share of national GDP:
10.5% (1998)
Share of provincial GDP:
75% (1998)

Agenda/ Key issues
• Challenges facing cities
– Globally
– Nationally
– Cape Town
• What these challenges imply for local government
and IT?
• The emerging agenda for local government and
the role of IT within that
• What does Cape Town’s smart city strategy
encompass?

Global challenges facing cities
• Cities and towns are growing (size and influence)
(The world is becoming more urban)
• Devolution of functions to lower levels of
government (Governments are decentralizing)
• Globalisation (Cities are becoming more global)
• Major programmes modernise/ re-invent
government (Government is being reformed)
• Additionally, technological developments and e-
commerce are having a profound effect on society
and speeding up change…..

Global challenges continued…
“Sub-saharan Africa runs the risk of being virtually deleted from a
world economy that increasingly is being driven and shaped by
informational and globally networked capitalism…..
…. Countries can operate effectively in the new global economy only if
they meet two conditions: they must command adequate information
and communication technology infrastructure and they must generate
the human resources to operate it”
Manuel Castells
Spanish sociologist and author of “The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture”
Quoted in the Sunday Independent 16/07/2000
“The ability to maximise the use of knowledge is now considered to be the
single most important factor in deciding the competitiveness of countries
as well as their ability to empower their citizens through enhanced access
to information”
Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology
White paper on Science and Technology, 1996

National Challenges
• Increasing pressure to consider alternate service delivery -
i.e. find creative methods through which municipalities can
mobilise energy, capacity and resources outside the
municipality for the development of the area
• Increasing pressure to become service and customer
oriented e.g. Batho Pele ('People First') White Paper
• Increasing pressure to involve the community in the work of
the municipality
• Increasing pressure to provide all relevant information to
other levels of government, communities & other stakeholder
• More and more functions being devolved to local government
(partly due to fiscal and budgetary constraints at a national
and provincial level, which leads to 'unfunded mandates')

Internal Local Government Challenges
• Employee disillusionment/ uncertainty
• Organisational decay
• Lack of common service delivery standards across
areas under our control
• Lack of integration between Departments and
Directorates
• Increasing bureaucracy - huge reliance on manual
processes and people based processes
• IT Systems focused mainly on cost reporting not
business enablement

Cape Town challenges - our city has
many strengths...
• Diversified and growing economy
• High concentration of tertiary educational institutions
• Beautiful and unique natural and built environment
• Vibrant cultural mix that can serve as bridges between communities
and people and lead to novel fusions
• Great potential in the new knowledge economy growth sectors
• Widespread civil society membership, activism and volunteerism
• Resilience in the face of persistent hardship
• Good infrastructure and manageable backlogs in terms of basic
needs
• Widespread and significant levels of managerial skills in both the
public sector and private sector
• Modern technological infrastructure (hardware and software)

However it also has many challenges -
Salient Trends shaping the city
• Unemployment likely to increase in medium term (3-10 years) as
regional economy repositions
• Poverty will deepen and spread amongst a larger section of the
population as economic restructuring kicks in (note: 53% of
Coloured community just above PDL)
• Income inequality likely to increase as job growth is restricted to
highly skilled areas
• Aids/HIV infection rate to increase in tenfold in just 8 years affecting
largely poor households and especially black women
• Limited prospects for job creation and social integration amongst
the youth will reinforce and further entrench vicious cycles of
violence and criminality
• Spatial divisions will continue to undermine optimal economic
productivity and prospects for social integration
Exacerbates social division & community disintegration

These challenges imply that local
government has to change!!
nd er
De
Fo a
m International
cu m ow
for and
so e
D rL trends, National
n En
f o os t
Ch han legislation,
an Ser
vic ced r C
ge Financial
es fo
nd ed ty
Pressures,
S oc
as Ine ial
i Community
em r ea un t i o qua
Dc ma Extdisintegration,
lity
p ern
In om ici al F
C ar t orc
es
P
n Technological
Innovations, etc.

A vision for the City of Cape Town
• The city government of Cape Town will build a partnership with all
its people to make Cape Town a world-class city in which the
quality of every citizen’s life steadily improves.
• Mindful of that which gives our city its unique character, we commit
ourselves to nurturing Cape Town’s spectacular natural beauty, to
preserving its rich heritage and to enriching its exciting mix of
dynamic cultures.
• In partnership with all our people we commit ourselves to fight
crime, combat HIV/AIDS, promote job creation through a special
focus on tourism, provide every Cape Townian with free basic
services.
• Our vision is of a safe city that is clean, attractive to investors,
welcoming to visitors and underpinned by a vibrant, growing
economy.
• Our vision is of a well-run, democratic city that is accountable to the
people of Cape Town, corruption free, transparent in all its activities
and prudent in the management of its finances.

A vision for the City of Cape Town
• Our vision is of a city in which no one is left behind, where everyone
has access to opportunity and everyone is guaranteed basic life-line
services.
• Our vision is of an open, tolerant city in which every resident feels at
home.
• Our vision is of a smart city populated by informed people,
connected to the world and each other by the technology of the
information age.
• Our vision is of a city filled with concerned citizens, in which every
person takes responsibility for the good order, high standards and
upkeep of the city and its environment.
• We commit ourselves to a focus on the citizen as customer, to be
responsive to the needs of the people and to efficiently deliver
affordable services to all.
• Together with the people of Cape Town, we will strive to make our
city the best place to live, to work, to invest and to visit in all of
South Africa.

The emerging agenda for the city
The role of IT within
• Is about the social and
this agenda:
economic development
needs of the city • IT enabled Social
and Economic
• Is about creating a
Development
competitive city
• IT enabled
• Good governance and good Administration/
Government Service Delivery
• Customer/ user/ citizen driven • IT enabled
Governance
• Partnership oriented
Leadership + Policy and Regulations

A smart city strategy is a transformation strategy
that encompasses these 5 questions
1. What leadership is necessary to establish competitive advantage in
a digital economy and society (smart city leadership)?
2. What must be done to ensure that our policy and regulatory
environment supports the development of a smart city?
3. How will information technology lay the foundation for the building
of a new flexible and responsive organization and enable the
organisation to continually improve in its efficiency and
effectiveness in delivering its programmes and services?
(administrative/ e-government strategy)?
4. How do we use IT as an instrument to foster the economic and
social development of the city (development strategy)?
5. How can IT be used to ensure/ enhance good governance (digital
democracy)?

A smart city strategy is a transformation strategy
that encompasses these 56 questions
1. What leadership is necessary to establish competitive advantage in
a digital economy and society (smart city leadership)?
2. What must be done to ensure that our policy and regulatory
environment supports the development of a smart city?
3. How will information technology lay the foundation for the building
of a new flexible and responsive organization and enable the
organisation to continually improve in its efficiency and
effectiveness in delivering its programmes and services?
(administrative/ e-government strategy)?
4. How do we use IT as an instrument to foster the economic and
social development of the city (development strategy)?
5. How can IT be used to ensure/ enhance good governance (digital
democracy)?h
6. How can we create a world class IT organisation that supports the
achievement of the smart city strategy objectives

Agenda/ Key issues
• Challenges facing cities
– Globally
– Nationally
– Cape Town
• What these challenges imply for local government
and IT?
• The emerging agenda for local government and
the role of IT within that
• What does Cape Town’s smart city strategy
encompass?

1. Smart City Leadership
• Leadership in technology policy and strategy
should ideally be found at the most senior levels in
the organisation – both at a political and an
administrative level
• A “center of gravity” for technology policy and
strategy is a fundamental critical success factor
(Kennedy School of Government )
• Other leadership ingredients for an e-government
include smart businesses, smart citizens, smart
non-profit organisations, and collaboration.

Recommended Actions: Smart City
Leadership
1. A Smart City strategy must be a key strategy for the city
2. Leadership in technology policy and strategy should ideally be
found at the level of the CEO, mayor and from elected politicians
3. Embark upon a programme to build the capacity and understanding
of senior politicians and the officials with respect to technology
policy and strategy
4. Equip and train all councillors with PCs and internet connectivity in
their homes.
5. Appoint a Chief Information Officer (CIO) or a Technology and
Policy Advisor to the CEO to create a ‘centre of gravity’ for
technology policy and strategy
6. Create a special governance body, aimed at actively engaging the
multiple public and private stakeholders in the planning and
execution of strategies, public policies, initiatives and pilot projects
7. Actively market the city as a as a ‘smart city’

2. Policy and Regulatory Environment

Recommended Actions: Policy and
Regulatory Environment
• A programme must be instituted to review all the
city’s current legislation for digital age
appropriateness (Request to national Government
relating to E-commerce Greenpaper initiative)
• All new legislation passed by the city must be
designed to ensure digital age appropriateness
• The city must ensure representation and
participation in relevant legislative and policy
processes at a provincial and national level to
ensure that such legislation does not negatively
impact on the cities strategy

3. Administrative/ E-Government Strategy
• Doing more with less!!!
• IT should not be used to automate existing processes but as
a strategic tool to re-engineer local government to:
– Create a highly efficient and effective local government
services
– Reduce transaction costs
– Allow anywhere, anytime service to citizens
– Allow citizens to deal with local government services in an
integrated manner (eg. via one-stop shops)
– Make local government more customer friendly and citizen
oriented
– Improving decision making by providing easy and timeous
access to relevant and accurate information (thereby reducing
discretion and arbitrariness)

Administrative/ E-Government Strategy
State of Arizona:
Banking implodes
HR Resume system, Medical
($ cost per banking transaction)
complaints, Sex offender registry,
1.2
car registration, license renewal
1.07
7
1
$6.75
6
0.8
5
0.6 0.52 4
Counter
Online
0.4 3
0.27
2
0.2
$1.60
0.015 1
0.01
0
0
Branch Phone ATM PC Internet $ Cost
Source: Booz-Allen & Hamilton Source: Forrester Research

Recommended Actions: Administrative/
E-Government Strategy
• Clear principles to guide the new city's IT investments need
to be developed and adopted.
• Systems that give the organisation its basic capabilities
(including single budget formulation, financial management
and HR management) must be in place by July 2002.
• New systems implemented must also give the organisation
the ability to ring fence services units.
• Standardisation and rationalisation of the existing IT
environment must be explored immediately to effect cost
savings and/ or increased IT service levels.
• E-procurement should be explored as a possible fast-track
project to realise administrative and developmental
objectives.

Examples of emergent principles
• Pursuing a buy Vs build philosophy with regards to
application software.
• Focus on customer and network-based solutions, making
data and applications available from anywhere in the city.
• Data should be captured once and as close to the source as
possible.
• Focus on integrated enterprise-wide solutions to facilitate
communications and data sharing across the new city.
• Focus on centralised administration with decentralised
service delivery.
• Streamline the administration and delivery (operations) of IT
services to increase efficiency and effectiveness while
reducing costs.
• Leverage economies of scale.

Example initiatives
• Implementation of an Integrated Enterprise Application
System – core modules by June 2002
• Internal Corporate Comms (Intranet, email, etc.)
• External communications
• Electronic Agendas and Electronic Registry
• Consolidated management information (especially with
regards to Finance and HR)
• Standardisation (s/w, h/w, OSs, DBs, Networks, etc)
• Councilor Portal
• Consolidating service agreements and external service
providers
• Unlocking money and staff to resource priority projects
• Development of an interim architecture framework
• Retention of staff

E-procurement network
Project needs to be done for Administrative and Development reasons
Administrative reasons
• E-procurement has the potential for reducing costs (industry
benchmarks show that up to 20% of annual spend can be saved
- i.e. potentially R 700 million on a R3.5 Billion purchasing
budget in the CMA)
• E-procurement ensures transparency
• E-procurement facilitates compliance with agreed procedures
and policies through improved measurement and control tools,
and a robust management information system. This will ensure
that Councillors can get real information to see that their policies
are being implemented in the way desired.
• Reduces cost through aggregating spend, improving processes,
cycle times and delivery, and improved inventory practice. It
also reduces the need for many products to be held in central
stores and allows for just-in-time procurement.

E-procurement network
Development Reasons
• Increasing the Internet connectivity of businesses in Cape Town is
desirable and adds to the competitiveness of the city in the knowledge
economy. However, businesses have no compelling reason to be
connected.
• Council's e-procurement drive will be the catalyst for organisations to
get connected. Councils annual spend is substantial enough for it to act
as a catalyst.
• As the e-procurement network grows, companies would have access to
other regional, national and possibly international markets.
• Council's business startup support initiatives can be geared around the
e-procurement network and giving companies the skills to enable them
to participate in the information economy.
• Small businesses would have instant access to a large marketplace.
• Data on the transactions that are occurring on the e-procurement
network would be a very useful source of economic data

4. City Development
Using IT as an instrument to foster the economic and social development of the city.
This translates into specific action in the following areas:
• IT as a growth industry • IT for social development
• Growth and retention of the • Providing public access to
IT industry in the city IT Infrastructure and
• Attracting more participants internet
into the IT industry
• Promoting IT education
• Attracting investments from and IT enabled training
outside the city
• Promoting local language
• Providing high quality
interfaces and
services in all spheres
• Gathering a wide range of
social and economic data
• IT as a skill from all local government
• Creation of employment activities that are electronic
potential to ensure better, more co-
• Promoting knowledge as the ordinated planning and
key resource for economic targeted interventions
progress of individuals and
institutions.

Recommended Actions: City
Development
• Increasing connection and access (Community and Business)
– Levy payers online inquiry and transactional system
– Providing Public access (libraries, Local govt. facitities, schools, etc)
• Community based IT training (at libraries and schools) - link these
with co-operative training/ bursary schemes/ volunteerism at
universities and technicons
• Providing relevant local content – government and via partnerships
• Jobs network (CVs, opportunities, advice) geared more at the
unskilled/ semi-skilled sector of the population
• Business incubation and stimulation of innovation - by partnerships
with external organisations like CITI (Cape Information Technology
Initiative) – example Bandwidth Barn
• Venture capital sourcing and business plan development - support
and enhance initiatives that exist eg. CITI
• Cape Online (Joint initiative with Province to create an information
portal for easy access to government and other information)

The effort relating to connection needs to
be focussed on …...
Potential/ Value
This is the
area that local
government
needs to focus
on - the area
that will give
us maximum
value
Councilors Business Community Households
Connected Connected access points/ connected
public access

Recommended Actions: City
Development
• Increasing connection and access (Community and Business)
– Levy payers online inquiry and transactional system
– Providing Public access (libraries, Local govt. facitities, schools, etc)
• Community based IT training (at libraries and schools) - link these
with co-operative training/ bursary schemes/ volunteerism at
universities and technicons
• Providing relevant local content – government and via partnerships
• Jobs network (CVs, opportunities, advice) geared more at the
unskilled/ semi-skilled sector of the population
• Business incubation and stimulation of innovation - by partnerships
with external organisations like CITI (Cape Information Technology
Initiative) – example Bandwidth Barn
• Venture capital sourcing and business plan development - support
and enhance initiatives that exist eg. CITI
• Cape Online (Joint initiative with Province to create an information
portal for easy access to government and other information)

5. Governance/ Digital Democracy
• IT can significantly impact on good governance by
making local government, the politicians and the
officials more accessible.
• It can also be used to make the processes of local
government and related performance information
more transparent. In this way it can build
accountability.
• Areas where IT can improve governance include:
• Elected politician - Citizen interface
• Government Administration/ service - Citizen interface
• Government - Business Interface
• Intra-Governmental processes

Recommended Actions: Governance/
Digital Democracy
• Council agenda's and reports be available online.
• ‘IT-enabling” the new Council chambers and Councilor
support function
• Information categorised on a ward basis as a minimum.
• Performance information (including reporting on a ward/ area
basis using GIS) made available and be easily accessible.
• Mechanisms that allow easy IT enabled communication
between public and councillors/administration to be
developed.
• Conducting online opinion polls and discussions on topical
issues

Agenda/ Key issues
• Challenges facing cities
– Globally
– Nationally
– Cape Town
• What these challenges imply for local government
and IT?
• The emerging agenda for local government and
the role of IT within that
• What does Cape Town’s smart city strategy
encompass?

Video - think big
Note that the video clip has been
excluded from the distribution version of
presentation due to file size.

In Summary...
• A smart city strategy is a key component of the
City Development Strategy (CDS) for Cape Town
• The CDS is owned by all the stakeholders in the
city - not just local government
• The five areas that we have to tackle is:
– Leadership
– Policy and regulatory environment
– IT enabled administrative and service delivery (e-govt.)
– IT enabled development
– IT enabled governance
• The critical mass to achieve this exists in the city

Questions?