[vc_row][vc_column][swlabscore_block_title_sc center_title_color="#4a964a" icon="icon-sw-star" icon_color="#4a964a" top_title="Smarter Cities Session" center_title="Smarter Cities – Action and policy"][/swlabscore_block_title_sc][vc_column_text]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2Aiqpd3-_Q&t=1s
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Smarter Cities – Action and policy
The smarter cities series was wrapped up with the Policy and Action session, which focused on how South Africa is taking on the “smart city” concept — looking at how practically — what a “Smart City South Africa” agenda entails. By the end of the session, the panellists all agreed that the creation of a smart city is a multifaceted journey, a journey that is entirely hinged on the developmental level of each city and the day-to-day challenges experienced by its citizens. The panellists who led this conversation were; Sithole Mbanga, CEO of the South African Cities Network (SACN), Avril Williamson, Director-General: Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and Angela Petzer from The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
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Avril Williamson
Director-General: Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA)
Ms. Williamson has been in the field of Human Resources for the past 27 years. Her experience emanates from working in diverse industries including Manufacturing, ICT, Telecommunications, Public and Higher Education Sectors, where she held Senior and Executive Director roles in large corporates such as DaimlerChrysler, SARS, BMW South Africa, Vodacom, DHA, and SRSA. These environments are highly demanding and complex. As a seasoned HR professional, she has a passion for people with interests in leadership, strategy, employee engagement, talent management and development, change management and transformation.
Her strength lies in developing HR Strategy that is aligned to the key business objectives. She empowers people to drive and execute the strategy. She has enabled HR Practitioners to deliver a value-added human capital service that is tailored to meet the clients’ expectations. This success has been informed by sound HR Communication and HR initiatives, together with interventions and programmes that have been implemented using project management principles.
Ms. Williamson has received several accolades, with the most recent one award to SRSA from the South African Board of People Practice, for the best overall award within the Private Sector for the period 2018.
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Engela Petzer
Senior researcher in Housing and Urban Studies at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
Engela Petzer is a senior researcher in Housing and Urban Studies at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa. A qualified and registered urban and regional planner, Engela’s areas of work and research include spatial planning, urban futures and policy development and analyses.
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Sithole Mbanga
CEO SA Cities Network
Sithole has been with the South African Cities Network (SACN) since 2002. He is arguably one of the most knowledgeable people in the country about the journey that our current system of local government has travelled, and particularly the evolution of our municipalities. He has been a consistent advocate and informant of the urban development agenda for over a decade
and has helped steadily grow the influence and contributions of the SACN to improving urban governance practice and analysis.
Sithole was previously the Local Government Coordinator at the National Business Initiative (NBI), was involved with conducting capacity building training in Municipal Service Partnership (MSP), and participated in the development of the then National Department of Local Government’s (DPLG) national policy on Integrated Development Planning (IDP).
Sithole’s contributions are well recognized in political and technical circles in South Africa. Reputed for a “no holds barred”, creative and dynamic approach to tackling issues, he has been continually sought after to advise municipal and party leadership, contribute to various Boards e.g. Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) and South African National Parks (SANPARKS), and speak at various engagements. He has contributed to strategic processes in various sectors (cooperative governance, human settlements, The Presidency), and is a clear thought leader in the urban sector. He was also part of the South African Local Government Transformation Programme (LGTP) that pioneered the new system of local government in democratic South Africa and is the nominated Deputy Secretary-General of the Pan African body of local governments, the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Africa.
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