Abstract
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4rth IR) has immensely challenged cities across the world to review, adjust, and recalibrate their strategies, systems, and processes to adapt to new ways of interfacing and engaging with their citizens/stakeholders. Many cities are currently implementing smart cities programs. Yet, very few are successful in doing that in ways that not only suit their prevailing local conditions but also ensure that the principles of social justice are not compromised. For instance, the City of Barcelona, in Spain, has crafted its smart city concept around citizen involvement and participation. In addition, New York City has managed to frame its smart cities model by using open platforms to involve residents in service delivery. In Scotland, the local authority in Glasgow successfully conceived and executes its smart city programs on improving safety in urban spaces. However, cities in developing countries seem to be battling to design smart city solutions which can relate to and assimilate with their local contextual circumstances, and challenges such as illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, and inequalities. Consequently, the use of smart city applications in developing economies arguably tends to benefit the rich, educated, middle class, technology-savvy residents and stakeholders as well as smart city technology vendors, and the business communities rather than the city residents themselves. At most, the majority of the poor people tend not to benefit from these initiatives. In this regard, this study investigated this problem statement in the context of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM). Whereas the CTMM has embraced the notion of a smart city, this study was triggered by the fact that it is not clear if the implementation is enhancing the principles of social justice. To this end, this study adopted a qualitative approach and used a purposive sampling method to interview functionaries within the CTMM to understand their perspectives on the smart city concept and whether the CTMM is implementing smart digital technologies in ways that promote the principles of social justice, and the right to the city.
Keywords: City of Tshwane Metropolitan Council, Smart cities, Social justice, Tshwane Free Wi-Fi, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Internet of Things (IoT).