Programme Director
MEC for Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport, Dr Ismail Vadi
HOD for Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport, Mr Ronald Swartz
Members of GGDA and TIHMC Boards
Group CEO of the GGDA, Mr Siphiwe Ngwenya
CEO of The Innovation Hub, Mr McLean Sibanda
CEO of Mobility and developer of GoGauteng, Mr Justin Coetzee
CEOs of the different institutions Distinguished guests
Honoured Ladies and gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the official launch of GoGauteng, an innovative mobile application to improve public transport for commuters in Gauteng.

My department has a mandate to mobilise stakeholders to foster growth in innovation. As such, we are informed by the Gauteng Innovation and Knowledge Economy Strategy, which hinges on three pillars - promoting the efficiency of the provincial government, promoting social innovation and supporting industrial competitiveness.

A huge part of this mandate is carried out by various agencies that are the implementation arms of the Department of Economic Development and have the responsibility to implement government programmes in a prompt and effective manner.

It pleases me to see a transport mobile application developed by our second prize winner in the mobile category of The Innovation Hub’s Gauteng Accelarator Programme. This competition is platform that is used to identify start-ups that are looking towards commercialising their technological innovations.

On the 01st of April 2014, I was joined by Honourable MEC for Gauteng Community Safety, Ms Faith Mazibuko at The Innovation Hub to launch the groundbreaking Memeza home and personal alarms. These alarms are an innovative solution to combat crime in Gauteng. In fact, the community based alarms will be piloted in the troubled area of Diepsloot. This innovation, too, was brought to fruition as a result of our focus and leadership as the Gauteng government.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is technological innovations such as these that drive The Innovation Hub. The Innovation Hub works with entrepreneurs and software developers who have developed innovative solutions and have the responsibility to nurture these novel ideas into innovative mechanisms to support provincial government service delivery. It also has the responsibility to support various industries in the province to be competitive and to assist government to pilot these solutions to test their effectiveness and ultimately to replicate them elsewhere in Gauteng and across the country.

The companies that emerge from The Innovation Hub are knowledge-intensive companies that position Gauteng amongst the best in the world. Our competitiveness as a nation will be determined by the kind of companies that are built from the knowledge of our young people.

Once again, it is my pleasure to collaborate with my colleague in the Department of Roads and Transport, MEC Vadi, as we launch the GoGauteng application. This application will consist of modes of transport that can be used in and around Gauteng and it is aimed at public commuters.

It will serve as an effective planning instrument for public transport users. It will also include the stations, stops, locations and listings, operational times and announcements. This is yet another success story in our celebration of twenty years of democracy as a country.

My sincere gratitude goes to the developer of GoGauteng, Mr Justin Coetzee, our agency GGDA and The Innovation Hub. I thank you for your good work and determination to truly maintain Gauteng’s status as a better place to live.

Thank you!