Joburg being transformed into technological economic hub

04 May 2016 - 16:40 By Neo Goba

The executive mayor of Johannesburg‚ Parks Tau‚ is fast-tracking the transformation of the city of gold into a technological economic hub. Delivering his last state of the city address in Johannesburg on Wednesday‚ Tau said the city's new economic democracy was rising because Joburg was bridging the digital divide. "This began with investments we have made to transform Joburg into a smart city‚ with over 1‚100km of broadband and fibre-optic cable in place. "This is becoming the backbone of the MOOV (internet navigation) system‚ of high-speed internet access in local libraries‚ our e-health systems and of the command centres which use information from CCTV cameras to make the streets of Joburg safer‚" said Tau.According to the mayor‚ out of 87 local libraries‚ 66 have been connected with high-speed internet in areas such as Orange Farm‚ Lenasia‚ Diepsloot‚ Randburg‚ Emmarentia‚ Cosmo City‚ Westbury‚ Ennerdale‚ Florida‚ Roodepoort and all areas of Soweto.Tau also boasted that the city has just over 400 free wi-fi hotspots which through the Maru a Jozi - meaning Clouds of Joburg - the city has been able to assist residences which are deprived of the internet.Since the beginning of this 2015/2016 financial year‚ 1.3 million users have made use of these hot spots...

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