SALDANHA BAY MUNICIPALITY ENABLES THE DIGITAL CITIZEN IN SOUTH AFRICA
The Saldanha Bay Municipality has accepted the challenge to prepare its municipality for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and, in so doing, to enable its residents to benefit from opportunities and improvements.
The municipality has commenced with the process of establishing an optical fibre network that will provide all its residents with open access to data networks. At this stage, the Saldanha Bay Municipality is the only municipality in South Africa addressing the problem of accessibility to a data network in the community.
The Boabab Fibre project has now formally started and substantial progress has been made with the establishment of the open access fibre infrastructure (already installed in Langebaan, Saldanha, Vredenburg, Jacobsbaai, Hopefield and Paternoster).
In July 2022, the Saldanha Bay Municipality introduced its Digital Citizen app, which is integrated with the open access network in order to digitally provide its utility services to prospective users and residents. The app has received a lot of attention to date and is used by more than 1 071 residents.
The SBM Digital Citizen was conceptualised by Amoeba TSC to integrate seamlessly with Saldanha Bay’s municipal systems, with the focus on connecting every household in the municipal area.
The app is a comprehensive platform for liaison between residents, the municipality and service providers and includes the following functions: communication between residents and the municipality, a helpdesk, an emergency button, service purchases, repository for documents, facility management, utility management and a digital wallet. Homeowners can also connect their properties to the app. Furthermore, the app contains many more functions to make the lives of our residents hassle-free.
The SBM Digital Citizen can be downloaded from Google Play Store, Apple App Store and Huawei App Gallery. Residents are welcome to visit www.sbmsmartcity.co.za or www.sbm.gov.za for further information.
