As a means to help government to efficiently and effectively manage service delivery issues faced by citizens, Vodacom in partnership with the Ekurhuleni Municipality is making use of technology to promote active citizenry communication.
In collaboration with the Ekurhuleni local government, Vodacom Business has developed a smart citizen app called My Ekurhuleni App. This in order to assist government with an interactive mobile solution that will allow citizens to communicate challenges related to service delivery in their communities.
The mobile solution will amongst other matters provide the municipality with a real-time two-way communication engagement platform with citizens to report and resolve service delivery issues from water to sanitation.
Nlhanhla Nciza, a member of the music group Mafikizolo and one of the app ambassadors, comments: “As the residents of Ekurhuleni, we’re very excited about this app. It’s an amazing app, it’s innovative and truly one-of-a-kind.
“To have the service delivered to you in the palm of your hand is something amazing. Especially because people always complain about this and that and nobody has gotten back to them. Now we’ve got the opportunity to launch a complaint on the app and get an immediate response. I believe that this is something that will really help to make service delivery quicker.”
Through the app citizens across municipality will now be able to use their mobile devices to report service delivery issues via a USSD (*134*674#) option for feature phones and through a mobile app for smart phones.
Dinah Kheswa, managing executive for Vodacom Business Public Sector, says: “Vodacom is using mobile technology to bring about administrative efficiency and enhance communication between government and citizens in an effort to support service delivery. We have successfully introduced the citizen app platform in the Eastern Cape where it is making a real difference in service delivery and we are confident that it will be similarly well received in Ekurhuleni.”
Through the initiative, Kheswa says: “We are essentially bringing government closer to the people and providing an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability in the process. As a corporate citizen, Vodacom is responsible for helping government deliver services as efficiently as possible and we are excited to see the positive change which the solutions will bring to communities.”