John Ndlovu
Information and Technology Reporter
Smart Cities are sprouting all over the globe as Technological Advancement continues to unabated due to availability of technological components and the internet.
Zimbabwe has joined other nations towards planning developing a cyber cities in a bid not to be left, a move which was confirmed by the President Emmerson Mnangagwa last year.
However the economic, social and technological prowess of the country is a major drawback towards the success of this initiative.
Zim GBC News spoke to technology experts from Bulawayo on the matter.
Luckson Mnsaka a computer expert based in Nkulumane told Zim GBC News that development of smart cities in the country requires high investment in terms of technological gadgets, internet and power supply something which is utopian in the Southern African country.
“In Zimbabwe it’s very difficult to establish a smart city due to scarcity of resources and ability to computerise our institutions such as government health departments, education, mining and the law enforcement agents. So scarcity of resources are a major disadvantage that hampers establishing a cyber city as it requires many resources.”Mnsaka Said.
Thabang Moyo another technology expert in the Bulawayo Central Business District (CBD) concurred that development of smart cities in Zimbabwe is an impossible mission as the country mostly depends on importing resources from abroad.
“Zimbabwe is always lagging behind technologically as we don’t have adequate resources at our disposal and thus forces us to resort to importing resources from countries such as China something that compromises our privacy as those countries will have access and ways of infiltrating our cyber-information. So therefore developing a smart city in Zimbabwe will be a long walk in the park for us.”Moyo said
Moyo also stated that development of smart cities will be hindered by sporadic power outages which are prevalent in the country as it requires a lot of power. So therefore scarcity of power in the country will be a major challenge for a cyber city.
“Development of a cyber city requires a lot of power so as to enhance smooth running of the city as it’s components such as bio-metrics that require availability of electricity 24/7, power has been lagging in our country which has led to spontaneous power outages. So it will be very difficult to establish a cyber city in the country. Zimbabwe is also far much behind in terms of technology development as most of it’s sectors are manualised so we are still far away from having capabilities of developing a smart city.” Moyo added.
Establishment of a cyber cities in Zimbabwe comes after the President Emmerson Mnangagwa made revelations that the country wishes to computerise through establishing a smart city in Mt Hampden where the new parliament was officially opened recently. The new development is sponsored by a United Arab Emirates based company in a move to develop Zimbabwe’s technological prowess.
A smart city is a technologically modern urban area that uses different types of electronic methods and sensors to collect data. Cyber cities around the world can be found in Singapore, Helsinki, Zurich, Auckland, Oslo, Copenhagen, Geneva and Taipei City