Infrastructure development is on the rise in Gauteng thanks to smart technologies. This is according to the province’s MEC for infrastructure development, Jacob Mamabolo.

Speaking at the inaugural United Nations Data Forum in Cape Town at the end of last week, Mamabolo highlighted that the province’s adoption of smart technologies has helped boost infrastructure delivery.

He said buildings of schools and hospitals were some of the results of this adoption.

“We have made remarkable progress in leveraging, harnessing and applying smart technologies and systems, with business intelligence capabilities to deliver and drive infrastructure development,” he said.

Lutsinga Infrastructure House

Lutsinga Infrastructure House (LIH) was launched in Gauteng last year. This is an example of how the province has adopted smart technologies.

This solution is comprised of systems that monitor project spending, whether deadlines are met, the quality of a job etc.

Mamabolo described LIH as “a room integrating five of our core data management systems generating critical business intelligence that allows for a data-centric, insight-driven, proactive approach to project management”.

“Centralised dashboards display critical data aggregated from all our operations and has automated our infrastructure delivery core process in the province,” he said.

Mamabolo also noted the importance of good management and said that this played a role in the quality of the final project as well as whether it was completed within the specified timeframe.

“We needed to ensure our managers change their reporting habits and that they are accountable,” he said. “We needed to bring transparency and visibility to the management environment and build our capacity to fight and root out corruption.”