Mankodi Moitse, CEO of Kagiso Trust.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the weaknesses of the data kept by municipalities across South Africa, according to the Kagiso Trust, stating that a lack of information regarding vulnerable families made it difficult to undertake focused and effective disaster management and assistance activities.

To that aim, the Kagiso Trust, a development organisation, will organise a hackathon in Johannesburg on March 16 and 17 in collaboration with the tech NPO Empire Partner Foundation to build a tech solutions for municipal data management.

According to the Trust, municipalities require reliable data about residents in order to implement solutions that aid local governments in times of need.

According to the organisers, this hackathon is intended to improve local government data management and pave the path for the development of significant projects, effectively serving as a localised census.

Teams will be asked to submit a pitch deck for each challenge area, including the client problem, the solution they developed, and their unique value offer.

They should also have a functional prototype, which might be a web app, a mobile app, a website, a dashboard, a chatbot, or another sort of user interface technology.

A jury of up to seven experts will decide the winning team.

The event features a prize of R20.000 for the winning team, which develops top data management system.

“We are at a pivotal moment where technology can drastically improve how local government operates,” says Mankodi Moitse, CEO of Kagiso Trust. “Our goal is to find sustainable, innovative solutions that will lead to more data-driven and efficient decision-making in our municipalities and result in agility in service delivery.”

EPF CEO Joanna Govender emphasises the crucial need of automating and prioritising community digital registration, highlighting foundation's commitment to solving societal challenges.

Govender says the EPF has significantly impacted the lives of over 5,000 digital innovators by successfully organising over 40 hackathons in partnership with both local and international companies, as well as government entities.

Govender emphasises the foundation's commitment to community development and social innovation through its cooperation with Kagiso Trust, which employs the "Solve for X" strategy.

She expresses eagerness to witness the transformative solutions that will emerge from this collaborative event, where the intersection of technology and social impact is expected to yield meaningful outcomes