Helping citizens make informed property choices

The free service delivery application (app) My Smart City has added a ‘Local insights’ feature to the platform, allowing users to compare the performance of different municipal wards. The tool aims to help users make informed decisions about investing in property by comparing and assessing service delivery and infrastructure maintenance in various municipalities.

My Smart City, the citizen’s platform developed by Acumen Software, has been rolled out across Johannesburg, Cape Town, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and eThekwini since its launch in 2020 and allows residents to log, track and monitor the resolution of reported service delivery issues.

The new ‘In the City’ functionality enables residents to view the performance metrics of different local municipalities across various categories such as state of the roads, power outages, water supply, waste management and general maintenance of their city.

"According to the latest Auditor General report, few South African municipalities and metros are being managed at a level that is confidence-building for citizens. An important part of the solution is providing citizens with clear information and data on municipalities' performance and where the faults lie. We developed My Smart City to give citizens a voice and to provide transparency on where the issues are. Now the My Smart City platform assists users in making value-based decisions like property investment," said Acumen Software CEO Joao Zoio.

My Smart City creates statistical information from citizen input into the platform. The more users partake, the deeper and more accurate data output will be. 

Service delivery in different cities can be compared by assessing logged service delivery issues and average resolution time. Citizens can view maps to see exactly where service delivery issues were reported. 

"With the local insights feature now available, citizens have transparency into the potential future performance of cities and neighbourhoods and if their property purchases are in jeopardy of declining over time. There is no other free platform that provides this level of detail and insight to citizens making important life decisions like investing in property," explains Acumen Software COO Kennedy Mogotsi.

The app can be used to access information on the status of local parks and other neighbourhood amenities and browse restaurants, events and local attractions in an area. In addition, users can book live events such as local entertainment and community initiatives.