The smart city of Johannesburg, South Africa

The city of Johannesburg has stepped-up strategic efforts aimed at rebranding itself as a smart city and overall competitive city at the center of innovation toward improved life experiences. Smart cities are conceptualized upon networked infrastructures, business-led urban development, spatial intelligence, and environmental and/or social sustainability. All the different initiatives in this regard are implemented based on the Johannesburg 2040 Growth and Development Strategy that aims to ensure that Johannesburg has the state-of-the-art socioeconomic infrastructure that will ultimately improve citizens’ experience. The chapter focuses on Johannesburg’s attainment of sustainable urban development and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) maturity and specifically intends to highlight the different initiatives and programs that are being pursued toward smart city realization especially at a strategic and technical level. Out of the realization for the need to develop smart city initiatives, many South African cities, such as Durban, Cape Town, and Port Elizabeth, have jumped onto the bandwagon for designing smart city projects driven by the local contextual setting. The direct implication of many smart city interventions and projects in South Africa is that there will be improved experience of the cities by the citizens and that information will be accessed ubiquitously to make intelligent decisions anywhere and anytime.