Transformation Pathways to Smart Villages
Emaculate Ingwani, Madilonga Trevor Mukwevho, Trynos Gumbo, Masala Thomas Makumule · 2022
This chapter shifts from an urban biased smart concept linked to cities to a localised rural perspective using a case study of Mulenzhe Village located in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The chapter reveals how Mulenzhe transformed into a smart village through reorganisation of a social system. This study adopted a qualitative phenomenological case study research design to reveal the motivations behind the transformation pathway adopted as well as the challenges and opportunities encountered. The construction of the Nandoni Dam in 1998 witnessed a relocation of 402 households from 33 villages located on a flood line considered a flood disaster risk zone in the Mulenzhe area. The relocation process and allocation of new homesteads in Mulenzhe Village marked the inception of a smart village concept. Enhanced rural–urban linkages emerge as one of the important opportunities from the smart village concept. Distorted developmental outcomes are visible as some villages that benefited from the relocation exercise are far from being rural. Transformation of rural spaces into smart villages requires local-level visionary leadership; reorganisation of the social structure including dynamics to access land and other property rights and provisioning of adequate basic services and infrastructure to local communities by the local municipalities. The Internet of Things and connectivity are key to the transformation into smart villages. This requires integrated planning that brings together infrastructure and supporting services. There is need for deconstructing the narrative of associating smartness with urban spaces. Transformation pathways to smart villages are important to spatial planning functions in Africa.