South Africa, which has already put in place some variants of Smart City Solutions, are planning to utilise these to build world class urban centres  in its biggest cities  ̶  Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban

Smart Cities are becoming a critical necessity because of increasing urbanization, greater pressure on the successful management of a city due to a rising population, and climate change.

“South Africa is the leader when it comes to Smart City technology in Africa,” says Reshaad Sha, Chief Strategy Officer for Dark Fibre Africa. DFA finances, builds, installs, manages, and maintains a world-class dark fibre network to transmit metro and long-haul telecommunications traffic in South Africa.

Sha said cities would benefit from pervasive high-speed connectivity, which is the catalyst of and foundation for the development of a Smart City. However,  formation of a Smart City requires a long-term urban plan, and a number of other challenges still stand in the way of achieving this aim.

This challenges the advancement of Smart Cities nationally, requiring well-trained, tech-savvy individuals who understand and can use IT systems when under pressure. Unfortunately, this development of human capital does not happen overnight.