UPDATE: The Development of First Smart Township in Africa

A view of Kayamandi and the greater Stellenbosch town.

During the first week of October I opened up my heart and shared what lies beneath me. I shared my deep desire to make a difference in a community that shaped my youth. I outlined my thoughts about what it would be like to use technology in a township environment and develop the first smart township in Africa. Some were excited to learn about this dream and were quick to offer some support. Some were skeptical and started asking around about who is behind this initiative. Some went so far as to try to create an impression that they were working on something similar. The reaction to my writeup about the Smart Township in Khayamandi has taught me a lot about Stellenbosch and what is standing in the way of progress for the marginalised communities.

During the first week of October I opened up my heart and shared what lies beneath me. 

I shared my deep desire to make a difference in a community that shaped my youth. I outlined my thoughts about what it would be like to use technology in a township environment and develop the first smart township in Africa. Some were excited to learn about this dream and were quick to offer some support. Some were skeptical and started asking around about who is behind this initiative. Some went so far as to try to create an impression that they were working on something similar. The reaction to my writeup about the Smart Township in Khayamandi has taught me a lot about Stellenbosch and what is standing in the way of progress for the marginalised communities.

Throughout October I spent my weekends working with people who care deeply about others, developing an action plan and implementing some of my plans. I worked with a small team to create a community platform, Lunttu. I designed a skills development plan that will enable young people from Khayamandi to learn and build the township of the future.

We used the basic version of the platform to gather thoughts from the community about their dream Khayamandi. I was deeply inspired by the kind of future they would like to see in the next 10 years. The process of gathering community insights will continue for the next few months.

In view of the challenge in our community, we have limited time to wait for everyone to share their dream and not act to address some of the pressing issues. There’s a need now to act and at least tackle some of the lower hanging fruits.

One of those is the technology skills challenge. This is not just a challenge for young people in Khayamandi. It’s a challenge across South Africa (SA). There’s now a greater need for young people to have technology skills. The SA economy needs more people with tech skills.

To address this challenge, I’m reaching out to a couple of people from Khayamandi and elsewhere to start a social enterprise that will focus on technology skills development.

This entity will be known as the Lunttu Labs. This entity will play a crucial role in nurturing young people who will build the Khayamandi of the future. They will have to be involved in the process of developing technology tools that will make up the first smart township.

As from this coming weekend on Saturday (05 November 2022), we will start with the first session. These sessions will continue every weekend and online.

During the first few weeks, sessions will focus on inculcating the love of technology. These sessions will focus on enabling young people to understand technology career options.

It is my hope that by the end of this year we will have turned a sizable chunk of Khayamandi youth to be 50% enthusiastic about technology. One hopes that whether they stay or move over to pursue studies or work elsewhere the seed of technology will have been planted and one day they will contribute towards building other smart townships. 

Startup Act

South African-born Elon Musk is one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs however his business has brought nothing to his country of birth. In his defence many have argued that had Elon Musk built his business in South Africa he would not have reached the billionaire status and his level of success. Sadly South Africa is likely to see more SA-born entrepreneurs building their businesses in the US.

Elon Musk had different reasons (one of them being to avoid participating in the military) for migrating to the US when he was younger. Today SA born tech founders are registering their businesses in Delaware, the US to access international investments. This scenario has prompted a group of concerned technology entrepreneurs to propose a startup act to stop the intellectual property leak from SA to the US.

According to the Startup Act position paper, its purpose is to outline ways in which to accelerate the success and contribution of start-ups and high-growth firms to the national economy, by removing and/or reducing those burdens that are keeping such firms from playing a larger role and having a greater impact in the national economy.

According to the Startup Act position paper “South African Exchange Control impacts start-ups mainly on two fronts, being the repatriation of offshore movement of South African intellectual property, and secondly, limitations placed on the amounts of money moved offshore”.

The Startup Act movement is calling for automatic approvals, and amnesty from current and future ExCon regulatory actions or pursuits against the start-up that may impact negatively on the legal status of the assets in question; and

through granting amnesty, maximise the portability, commercialisation and investment into South African intellectual property.

In addition, the Startup Act movement is also calling for the extension of permissible loop structures for start-ups and high-growth firms to allow them to raise international capital by creating a non-cash-settled share swap at market value that would not require pre-approval from the South African Reserve Bank, but rather reporting after the transaction.

In simple terms, the Startup Act movement is trying to ensure that international investors can easily move in their investments and get returns when necessary. Currently, this is a complicated process in South Africa as a result some international investors view other countries in the continent as ideal environments for investment.

South Africa is not only losing out from international investors to other countries, local tech startups with potential are choosing to register their businesses in the US to access international investors.

The Startup Act proposal is not perfect, it needs to review its position on B-BBEE and employment in the startup ecosystem. Currently, it makes the following call

“Small enterprises must be allowed fair access to markets including through removing barriers to entry at wholesale and retail levels”. The Start-up Act proposes automatic relaxation in the extent of BBBEE scrutiny

for procurement and supply chain grading, enabling quicker access to the supply chains of Corporate South Africa and the public sector. This will directly benefit qualifying start-ups by (i) radically increasing the opportunities for market access, (ii) without the restraints and costs intrinsic to obtaining and maintaining BBBEE points and schemes, as well as (iii) enabling capital raising from offshore investors without risking the loss of BBBEE status when local equity is taken up by non-South African investors”.

Having said that such a call should not delay the implementation of this proposed act. The loss to the South African economy is immense when considering the intellectual property leak currently. South Africa can no longer afford to lose people like Elon Musk who are starting impactful tech businesses.

Understandably, economic decision-makers in South Africa may be trying to protect the country from capital flight. What does not make sense is what is taking so long to move on some aspects of the proposed Startup Act. One can only assume that the economic cluster in the cabinet is not fully aware of the fact that South African tech startups are moving their companies to the US.

It has to be said that part of this is influenced by some of the so-called local investors who are just not interested in truly building African tech giants. Founders of local tech companies need to be aware of the hidden agendas of some investors. Founders need to realise that even though they may need funding they have the power to build the African digital economy.

At the same time, SA economic authorities need to look into this issue and prevent the potential of losing another entrepreneur like Elon Musk.

Dream Kaya (Home)

My first piece of serious writing was about my dream home (iKaya Lam). I tried to describe its interior and exterior in such a way that the reader (my teacher) could visualise it. When I wrote my dream home essay at school I was inspired by the sorry state of housing in my community at the time. Most homes were built with zinc and wood. Very few houses were built with bricks. Currently, wooden houses are considered modern and environmentally friendly. In my community, wooden structures remind people of poverty.

Working from home has got me thinking about that dream home again. I have recently moved back closer to where I grew up, Stellenbosch, and I sometimes drive through the streets of Kayamandi my hometown and note with great concern that little has changed, things have become worse. There’s now more zinc and wooden structures that are built poorly and close to each other. This situation has inspired me to build that dream home which I described in my first piece of writing. 

The shelter is one of the key needs described in Maslow's Hierarchy of needs yet it is one thing that has not been solved. 

As a technologist, I’ve been exposed to many solutions to some of the toughest challenges in society. I sometimes wonder why is it that we have not yet solved and delivered one of the basic needs of humanity. The more I thought about the housing challenge the more I realised that it’s not just a challenge for my community in Kayamandi. Housing is a global challenge that affects many today.

Providing decent housing for citizens is a perennial challenge for nations around the world. From slum residents in the developing world to middle-income households in expensive global capitals, hundreds of millions of people struggle to find decent housing that they can afford without severe financial stress. The economic and human toll of the housing affordability gap is enormous. It is estimated that 330 million households are affected around the world and, under current trends, by 2025 the number of households that occupy unsafe and inadequate housing or are financially stretched by housing costs could reach 440 million—or 1.6 billion people. 

So today, I’m officially pivoting Kaya Labs which is my side hustle research and development entity to focus on this challenge for the next 10 years.

During my spare time when I’m not working on my official work, I will be working with a group of architects and builders to develop the dream home. I would like to build the house in such a way that it becomes a model for other houses that can be built in my community and other similar environments.

My DATA

“10 000 steps daily is the goal”

People who know me very well will tell you that I’m obsessed about DATA (not that one, the one that makes information). My latest data obsession, thanks to lockdown, has been my steps (the amount of steps I take everyday). 

I’ve been paying attention to my steps partly because I know it’s one of the ways I can measure the quality of my health (I worry less about weight, I’ve got the fastest metabolism in my family).

According to my Watch, on a normal day (before lockdown) I would approximately walk 10 000 steps. As I write, I’ve walked 3708 steps and I woke up at 5am this morning, yes 5am to read US media developments before I join the Diary meeting via Google Hangout. By the time I sleep, probably at 10pm I will have walked 5500 steps.

That’s how much inactive I’ve become and I know because of my health data sourced from my watch. As from tomorrow, I will kickstart a habit that will get me to walk my 10 000 steps on average (in the yard of course, I’m locked in). My new habit should keep me in good health I guess. 

The point I’m trying to make here is that DATA matters, without it nothing can be measured. Start gathering data about your life and you will see some great improvements…