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The Public Sector ICT Forum hosted its first event for 2019 at the trendy Protea Hotel, Fire and Ice in Pretoria, Menlyn. The event was themed “Building the smart cities of tomorrow”. We had an excellent lineup of speakers discussing key topics such as; future smart city projects, how we will meet the energy demands for smart cities and the impact smart city initiates have on citizens.
According to Cyril Baloyi, Group Chief Technology Officer for the City of Johannesburg, “A smart city will result in a self-sustaining ecosystem, where value and jobs will be created.
The MC for the forum was Fifi Peters, anchor on CNBC Africa’s flagship markets shows, ‘Power Lunch’ and ‘Closing Bell’. She did an excellent job on setting the scene for the event and encouraging audience participation.
The event was rounded off with a highly interactive panel discussion comprising all speakers and the Public Sector ICT Forum Chair person, Mandla Mkhwanazi, the Digital Business Leader of Transnet. During this open discussion Mr. Mkhwanazi mentioned the upcoming smart village and township initiative that the Public Sector ICT forum is planning in Polokwane. This means that the Public Sector ICT Forum is more than an idea sharing and discussion forum, but also one of action.
Topics discussed at the forum:
Contrasting and comparing the smart city initiatives of South Africa with other countries in the region, and assessing the key areas on which to focus
Mark Walker, associate VP, sub-Saharan Africa, IDC Middle East, Africa and Turkey
Johannesburg’s evolution as a smart city: Reviewing past projects and the future direction and initiatives the city is working on
Lawrence Boya, Director: Smart City Unit, City of Johannesburg
How to meet the energy demands of smart cities
Dr Xolani Khayelihle Ngobese, inter-governmental delivery contracting advisor in programme and project management, National Department of Human Settlements
Impact of Digitalization to Citizen Centricity
Cyril Baloyi, Group Chief Technology Officer, City of Johannesburg
A proud sponsor of the Public Sector ICT Forum, MTN Business is focused on growing partnerships with the public sector to help achieve growth and facilitate government's journey from being efficient to being effective.
MTN Business believes that economic growth and the furtherance of government policies to alleviate poverty are inextricably intertwined with digital technology. As such, digitisation is the only way South Africa will reach its objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals. By enabling a digital future for South Africa through state-of-the-art technology solutions, MTN Business provides the tools with which the public sector can achieve its goals and further South Africa's growth.
These solutions include a full portfolio of the technologies needed by public sector organisations to serve their communities, such as Managed Networks, Cloud , Unified Communications, Security and IoT.
For more information, please visit
www.mtnbusiness.com/za
Click here to express your interest in becoming a member of the Public Sector ICT Forum. Membership is free, with the only pre-requisite that you must be a senior-level public sector ICT decision-maker, so the CIO, GITO or DG/DDG focused on ICT strategy within your government department (national or provincial level) or at a parastatal. Acceptance of your membership is conditional on approval by the executive committee.