Page 27 - UKZN MIMI Report 2025

• City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality: Multiple strategies including a dedicated Innovation Division, hack- athons, cashless transport systems, and partnerships with universities; approved 2023–2027 Innovation Strategy.
• City of uMhlathuze Local Municipality: Implementation of Safer City technology and surveillance.
• Dr Beyers Naude Local Municipality: Adoption of small-scale embedded generation (SSEG).
• Drakenstein Local Municipality: Use of tamper-proof traffic UPS systems, drones, GIS, SeeClickFix app, and battery
energy storage for power reliability.
• King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality: Drones for illegal dumping enforcement, apps for garden waste pickup
and burial plot booking, and Greenest Ward Competition.
• Kouga Local Municipality: Migration to Azure cloud platform and deployment of Software Defined Network (SDWAN).
• Namakwa District Municipality: Promotion of a paperless environment.
Figure 10. Existence of innovation unit in the municipality
Figure 10 presents the proportion of senior officials who reported the existence of a dedicated innovation unit, division, or department within their municipality. A slight majority (53%) indicated that such a unit exists, while 47% reported that no dedicated structure is in place. This reflects a mixed picture in terms of institutional readiness, with many municipalities still lacking formal mechanisms to coordinate innovation.
Figure 11 presents the reported size of innovation units within municipalities. Among senior officials who indicated the existence of a dedicated innovation division or unit, the majority (57%) reported staffing levels of 3–5 people. Smaller units with 1–2 staff members were reported by 18%, while 14% indicated slightly larger teams of 6–10 people. Only a small share reported teams of 11–20 (4%) or more than 20 (7%).
Figure 11. Number of people in the innovation units
MUNICIPAL INNOVATION MATURITY INDEX (MIMI)
25