Abstract
With the rate of urbanisation in today’s world, billions of people are anticipated to live in cities worldwide by the year 2030. The future provision of all services to inhabitants will be problematic due to resource limitations. Smart cities must be created to continue serving the expanding population and raising their standard of living.
While maintaining an optimum balance between social, environmental, and economic costs, the smart city attempts to utilise all resources as efficiently and sustainably as possible. With a focus on conserving energy, water, land, and other natural resources, the smart city fully uses of information and communication technologies to enhance the operation, management, and oversight of various systems and services.
Over the years, while different continents have adopted the idea of smart cities, Africa also took an interest in the vision; regardless of the level of readiness that the continent is ranked on. It was also crucial that as the Global North embarks on the smart city, journey, the Global South countries should also follow suit so that they are not left too far behind.
The global smart city development plans also produced national plans and local government plans in South Africa, where different municipalities have drafted their plans based on their overall development plans; however, for smart cities to be developed and for the programmes to be implemented, the city needs to meet a certain criterion to embark on its development plans.
This dissertation evaluated the Benoni city council office’s current urban infrastructure preparation for smart city development as a case study to determine readiness. The study aimed to determine whether the existing infrastructure can support the framework, plans, and team responsible for this development.
The research methodology applied a thorough investigation and evaluation of pertinent and applicable laws, policies, literature, and frameworks as part of the research technique. In-depth interviews with a selection of officials were also conducted as part of the fieldwork.
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The findings from the study highlighted that the City of Ekurhuleni’s Benoni city council office needs to be prepared to facilitate the execution of smart city developments. Regarding the infrastructural support needed to carry out their daily tasks, the officials interviewed showed a degree of unhappiness. However, the officials needed to gain knowledge about the ambitions of the City of Ekurhuleni to execute improvements for a smart city.