An app to ‘stop’ delivery service protests page 9
Product will monitor community needs and help prevent protests
A group of students from three universities have developed a new monitoring system to aid government’s response to service delivery failures. Zinzi Villo, 33, Maria de Wet, 32, and Thembela Dapula, 22, are the brains behind an online dashboard that helps to predict where service delivery is failing.
These students with skills ranging from information systems, chemical engineering and data science have developed the monitor to assist communities that are greatly affected by a lack of delivery. Their online dashboard uses data to provide the performance indicators of a government department or municipality.
“We hope it will contribute to society and help the government to make informed decisions,” Villo said.
The students are part of a group that was recruited by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the department of science and technology.
They were asked to create technological systems that use data to help the government improve their decision making.
Their system was developed during an intensive training programme that aims to solve real-life problems using multiple technical disciplines.
“If there is an issue of housing in the Northern Cape, then the relevant authorities can intervene to stop the issue before a protest breaks out by using this dashboard,” Villo said. She said the team of three used data provided by Statistics SA, the presidential hotline, the South African Social Services Agency, the department of health and the SAPS to establish an early warning system for possible complaints by citizens.
She said the idea is to ensure that each and every government department can stay on top of their weaknesses by providing the area with the resource that is lacking, whether it is staff, electricity or water. “We only had data for three provinces. This was a huge issue for us because it is impossible to paint a larger picture of the entire country without all the information,” she said. Villo said they would be able to create a more accurate system if they had access to real time data and not only historical data.
“We want to create an option where the department can use social media to pick up on what services people are complaining about and where,” she said. Research manager at the CSIR’s Meraka Institute, Quentin Williams, said since the programme started four years ago, a total of 150 out of 212 students had obtained employment at institutions like the South African Revenue Service, Statistics SA, the Reserve Bank and Investec.