Digital citizen services platform My Smart City says citizens logging service delivery issues with the platform have seen a three- to four-fold improvement in turnaround times in resolving service delivery issues like water outages, broken traffic lights, potholes and power outages in major metropolitans across the country.

Improved resolution of service delivery issues is partly owing to the free, privately funded platform investing in a dedicated dispatch centre. The dispatch team ensures logged issues on the My Smart City platform go through the correct channels and makes follow-ups on behalf of citizens.

“These statistics prove that My Smart City is making great strides in tackling service delivery issues that citizens are wrestling with,” says software development company Acumen Software CEO Joao Zoio.

My Smart City believes the private sector and citizens have a role to play in the economic recovery and maintenance of South Africa's cities.

The platform allows citizens to engage all service providers directly from their mobile device and log, manage and track reported issues in real time. Citizens receive feedback and prioritisation of tickets with access to details about the faults logged.

The platform has created an environment where citizens stand together and effect change in their cities through crowd pushing. More than 27 000 citizens are tracking their logged issues in real-time from the platform. This crowd pushing effect generates real action and meaningful change. The goal is to relieve service delivery frustrations for citizens by streamlining workflows through innovative and user-friendly technology, Zoio notes.

“Many historical systems are voids and pacifiers where service delivery complaints and issues get lost, buried and forgotten. My Smart City escalates and pushes for the resolution of service delivery challenges through our dispatch centre,” he states.

“We have developed a free-to-use platform using private equity funding to give all of us a voice in the repair and maintenance of our cities. The easy-to-use and transparent platform promotes accountability through technology,” says Acumen Software COO Kennedy Mogotsi.

These systems have proven there is common ground and vision to be found when technology, which is impartial, unemotional and independent, is used to get projects that promote positive change moving forward. These technologies assist city officials by automating stagnant processes and minimising human error, he adds.

“My Smart City is a powerful administrative tool used to resolve asset management issues within cities. It is a tool that builds trust and accountability and mends relationships between all stakeholders,” says Mogotsi.