Kgosientso Ramokgopa’s investment and infrastructure unit has begun working on a smart-city that will be home to almost half a million people.

The unit, which was established in the Presidency after Ramokgopa was axed from Gauteng premier David Makhura’s cabinet, has, according to Ramaphosa, identified places around Gauteng and North West that will be the first projects to benefit from the smart-city developments.

Infrastructure will be rolled out in Lanseria, Tshwane and Madibeng in preparation for the smart city development.

“Working with development finance institutions we have put together an innovative process that will fund the bulk sewerage, electricity, water, digital infrastructure and roads that will be the foundation of the new city,” Ramaphosa said.

“It will not only be smart and 5G ready, but will be a leading benchmark for green infrastructure continental and internationally.”

Ramaphosa first punted the idea of smart cities in his last year’s Sona, where he asked if it was perhaps not the time to take bold steps by doing what may seem impossible by building cities founded on technologies of fourth industrial revolutions.

“Last year, I asked the nation to join me in imagining a new smart-city, a truly post-apartheid city that would rise to change the social and economic apartheid spatial architecture.

 “A new smart-city is taking shape in Lanseria, which 350,000 to 500,000 people will call home within the next decade,” Ramaphosa said.