The OR Tambo district municipality, in the Eastern Cape, rolled out a citizen engagement omnichannel digital platform, Thetha Nathi – which means ‘talk to us’ in isiXhosa – that enables citizens to engage directly with the municipality on service delivery issues, says telecommunication service provider Vodacom Business chief officer Vuyani Jarana.
The omnichannel solution designed and deployed by Vodacom enables citizens to access services and engage the municipal administration. For the first phase of deployment, the municipality has prioritised the management of water and sanitation.
Residents can use their cellphones to communicate through multiple channels, including voice, a mobile application (app), unstructured supplementary service data, or USSD, which converts short-message texts to data to support feature phones, and email.
The municipality will use the same platform to respond to any queries logged by residents to report dispatched water management technicians and ensure a speedy response to residents’ water management complaints.
The platform will be developed over two more phases to cover other service delivery areas and will later be integrated into the province’s service delivery centres, providing the municipality with visibility over the handling of citizens’ service delivery concerns.
“The OR Tambo district municipality is the first municipality to launch the solution, which is now available for use by local residents. Vodacom plans to introduce the solution to other municipalities across the country,” says Jarana.
The second app, called Link, is a free general community app that enables communities to report service delivery issues such as blocked drains, burst pipes, electricity outages, missing manhole covers and refuse issues.
Link also offers additional services, including the ability to connect to the Internet of Things (IoT) devices and follow community channels, which will enable users to report and view safety- and security-related incidents, as well as local job advertising and businesses.
The apps share the back-end system, which means that all reported information relevant to a particular geographic area is shared between the apps.
Link acts as a social media platform, with messaging and calling functionality and one view for all messages and notifications. The app has a free service for all residents’ associations and safety and community forums to report security issues and community information. It also provides a platform for businesses, merchants and brands to promote themselves, enabling them to establish private communication channels with customers,” he says.
“Thetha Nathi gives citizens a voice in holding elected government representatives to account. Citizens can view and report on service issues, rate local government, communicate with ward councillors, chat with customer service agents and track progress on reported incidents,” says OR Tambo district municipality executive mayor Nomakhosazana Meth.