Media advisory

Members of the media are invited to a seminar on smart cities, scheduled to take place in Pretoria on Tuesday, 17 March 2020. A range of experts will gather to discuss how South African local government should respond to the challenge of building smart cities in the country.

This gathering is organised by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), in partnership with the Natural Resources Stewardship Programme (NatuReS) South Africa of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).

The theme of the event is Towards inclusive smart cities in South Africa – How should local government respond to the challenge? The purpose of the seminar is to share ideas and discuss challenges, opportunities and pressures faced by municipalities related to smart city initiatives.

The event intends to provide participants with an opportunity to consider and debate the concept of a smart city within the South African context. The discussions will be structured around the following:

• Learning from a CSIR research project on the smart city concept, highlighting the importance of contextualising the South African interpretation of smart city initiatives;
• Findings of a study on smart cities and its link to natural resource stewardship in South Africa, conducted for GIZ NatuReS and SALGA; and
• Perspectives on smart cities from other key stakeholders
   

Media is invited as follows:

Date: Tuesday, 17 March 2020
Time: 08:30 – 13:15
Venue: CSIR Knowledge Commons, North Gate, Meiring Naude Road, Pretoria

RSVP: Contact Ms Kgauhelo Dioka on 073 398 8633 or email kdioka@csir.co.za

Enquiries:

David Mandaha: CSIR Media Relations Manager
Tel: 072 126 8910/012 841 3654
Email: dmandaha@csir.co.za