The My Smart City platform continues to expand, innovate, and empower citizens to be a voice in their city!
Johannesburg, South Africa (21 February 2022) – My Smart City is a free App that is changing service delivery in South Africa… and putting the power of positive change back in the hands of citizens!
The platform enables citizens to log their service delivery issues on the mobile app or website and is the first digital offering of its kind in the country.
South African residents who have logged service delivery issues on My Smart City have seen a three to fourfold improvement in turnaround times. The improved resolution times are due to My Smart City’s dedicated dispatch centre that ensures issues are being directed to the correct municipal channel. The dispatch centre also follows up on behalf of residents, as well as with City officials responding to focused calls being logged by My Smart City.
“For the first time, South African citizens have open visibility of service delivery issues that have been reported. As registration numbers on the platform grow, so the citizens’ voices will become more powerful. The unity of citizens through one channel has a direct impact on the upliftment and repair of their city’s infrastructure and public spaces,” says Kennedy Mogotsi, COO of Acumen Software.
My Smart City has seen its support grow in the cities where it has launched. The platform is available in the cities of Johannesburg, Cape Town, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and now eThekwini. The City of Cape Town and City Power have integrated My Smart City into their systems. The team intends to connect to all municipal systems to enable the automation of information flow from citizens.
“As call volumes have increased through our platform and with the day-to-day interactions between our dispatch centre and the various municipal call centres, municipalities have expressed their realisation that we are not a threat to them, but rather a channel through which citizens are able to log issues in a simple and effective manner,” said Joao Zoio.
Residents can now log issues such as:
- Interrupted water supply
- Electricity outages or problems with electricity supply
- Street light repairs and outages
- Intersection repairs
- Waste and garbage removal
- Maintenance of roads and repairs of potholes
- Requests to clean streets and public spaces; and more…
Citizens can now also rally together through the new My Smart City social feed. The powerful, personalised social feed has a ‘Newsfeed’ and an ‘Alerts’ feed:
- View, engage with and share neighbourhood announcements
- Gain insights into scheduled and unplanned community outages and alerts
- The “Alerts” section is for information sharing about load shedding, water outages, power outages, natural disasters, and roadworks.
- The “News Feed” section allows users to view, create, share, and engage with posts created by those within their areas. This could include a ward councillor, a neighbourhood watch group, or a concerned neighbour. It is a channel where people can raise concerns and receive real-time feedback not only from your concerned neighbours but active community groups as well.
My Smart City, free to citizens and the cities it operates in, aims to change the way citizens, businesses, community groups, and public sector service providers communicate and collaborate. To give citizens a voice and be the bridge that builds relationships between all stakeholders, My Smart City hopes to assist in the repair of city infrastructure, build citizen morale and ease some of the burdens on local municipalities. Bringing citizens and public service providers together through technology creates efficiency and accountability.
My Smart City is available on Android, iOS, and on the web at www.mysmart.city. After registering on the platform, users can immediately log and monitor service delivery issues.
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