Beyond smart metres: southern cities and area-based planning

For most urban residents in South Africa, the idea of the smart city finds it primary expression in the implementation of smart meters for electricity and water. Municipalities have been compelled by the National Treasury to implement these technologies to monitor wastage in municipal systems and to increase local revenue collection on services. The introduction of smart meters is one of the ways in which cities such as Buffalo City have tried to upgrade their billing and revenue collection systems. However, the introduction of smart meters generally entails bringing in the required technology and training from elsewhere. In other words, the municipality seeks to fix its measurement and billing problems from the top-down, imposing a new system of smart metering on residents and then teaching them to use the apps or devices which must be installed in their neighbourhoods and on their residential sites in order to operate the system.