On Thursday, 02 June 2022, the Saldanha Bay Municipality in its continued commitment to be innovative and at the forefront of technology, has launched its Digital Citizen App and effectively put the Municipality in the palms of its residents.
The Digital Citizen App forms part of the Baobab Fibre project, which is focused on connecting every single household in the municipal area.
The App is a comprehensive engagement platform between the citizens, the Municipality and service providers with communication, an emergency button, help desk, utility management, services shopping, digital wallet and payments, document repository, events, photo gallery and facility management functionality.
“Technology is not the solution on its own but is rather an enabler and catalyst to be utilised in innovative ways to achieve socio-economic development in and for our communities,” says Executive Mayor Andrè Truter.
The Digital Citizen App is one of two key building blocks for the Saldanha Bay Municipality, the first of which is the installation of a single Open Access Network.
“This open access network provides a digital highway to our Municipality that unlocks access to a multitude of Internet Service Providers and provides the access medium, to enable the rest of the building blocks”, adds Councillor Truter.
The Baobab Fibre Project is embedded in the overarching framework of Saldanha Bay Municipality’s open access infrastructure, focusing on solving the provision of Fibre-to-the-X for all in the community.
This creates an open, equitable and transparent platform for the private sector and Municipality to provide value-added services on the back of the fibre network and platforms,” says Executive Mayor, Councillor Truter.
As interest in smart cities continues to grow, driven by a range of social, economic, and technological developments that are impacting cities around the world, more are committing to programmes for sustainability, innovation and economic development that depend on technological investments.
“Choosing the correct partners and providers to deliver these programmes is of critical importance for the future of Saldanha Bay Municipality. An effective telecommunications network and related services is one of the essential enablers of such a smart Municipality vision,” concludes the Executive Mayor, Councillor Truter.
The Digital Citizen App will be available to download from the App Store and Google Play Store on 01 July 2022.