The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality have partnered to develop an integrated intelligence dashboard to transform raw, scattered data into actionable, real-time insights that improve decision-making, increase transparency, and enable a capable state.
A screenshot depicting the top 10 pressing issues across the Tshwane Metropole.
Monitoring its suite of municipal functions, corporate fleet and business units that generate extensive data, new dashboard capabilities developed by the CSIR for the City of Tshwane can capture live data across several of the city’s specialised departments and trading services.
The proof of concept was initiated in 2025. The technology’s feasibility has recently been tested at the metropolitan municipality, where the CSIR has aggregated all the City of Tshwane’s weekly reporting and extracted data, enabling the organisation’s software developers to visually display and draw on the generated insights within a dashboard custom-built from scratch. The technology provides a first-hand view of service requests, response times, and weekly operational plans – key ingredients for decision-making and critical resource deployment interventions.
Its appeal lies in its ability to retain the metro’s business units’ data in a unified ‘source of truth’, allowing the municipality to make actionable decisions and gain operational insights into events across the city. All the system’s digital architectures, such as applications and databases, are hosted on the CSIR’s secure network as a safety measure to mitigate cyber risks.
“Dashboards are not a new invention, but the integrated intelligence dashboard has been modernised and is a bit more than a unified data source,” says CSIR geospatial modelling engineer Tristan Davis, lead developer of the dashboard. “Over the past few weeks, the City of Tshwane has taken a strategic decision to ensure that its reporting measures are shaped and informed by its dashboard.”
Having the data sources available can generate interest in the integrated intelligence dashboard, as it helps eliminate the need for multiple meetings, freeing up more productive time. The self-navigation assists users in obtaining preferred results that match the operational context, whilst gaining independent insights.
“Currently, the technology is only available to the City of Tshwane; however, the CSIR is open to working with other metros and government departments in South Africa,” says Davis, adding that additional reporting and security features are being investigated. “Our engagement with the City of Tshwane’s administrative leadership is ongoing, also encouraging more robust authentication systems for further improved security.”
The partnership between the CSIR and the City of Tshwane also demonstrates the important role that collaboration between government, academia, research institutions and broader civil society can play in strengthening public service delivery. “Building a capable, responsive and data-driven state cannot be achieved by government alone. It requires partnerships that combine technical expertise, innovation and public-sector experience in the service of residents. By working together, institutions can develop practical solutions that improve transparency, accountability and operational efficiency, while ensuring that technology and research are directed towards addressing real community needs and improving the daily lives of residents across Tshwane,” says Jerry Seko, Director of Enterprise Data Management
Although the dashboard is only deployed in the City of Tshwane, CSIR is open to further collaborations with industry and government.
