City staff showcase top class digital innovation ideas

17 September 2026

The City of Cape Town hosted the Digital Innovation Pitch Day yesterday, 16 September 2026 considering the United Nations International Day of Science, Technology and Innovation in the South. The pitch day, a first of its kind, took place at the Cape Town Civic Centre and served as a platform for employees to present bold ideas, emerging technologies and practical solutions that can enhance service delivery and improve operational effectiveness across the City of Cape Town.

Seven finalists had the opportunity to exhibit their displays and pitch their big ideas to a panel of judges and City staff members. The journey for these finalists started with the City’s call for idea submissions from staff in its Corporate Services Directorate, which consists of the municipality’s enabling departments such as Human Resources, Information Systems and Technology and Facilities Management.

A total of 44 strong entrants then submitted their proposals from which the top seven exhibitors at yesterday’s event was selected.

The deserving winners of the day, team Scamper, stole everyone's hearts with their enthusiasm, passion, and unique idea of an AI-enabled computer vision intelligence platform, which aims to support the City’s artisans, technicians and inspectors through interfaces such as drones, smart glasses and tablets. It would improve operational efficiency, upskill technical staff and help retain scarce engineering knowledge all designed around the City’s operational requirements.

The judging panel evaluated the ideas on how practical, achievable, original, and forward thinking the solution was.

Team Scamper, a young and ambitious team consisted of three staff members namely:

Lawrence Mandlaenkosi Nkala (26) from Thornton, who is a handyman in the Facilities Management Department. He is interested in digital technology and computer systems that simplify daily operations
Khanyisile Mvimbi (25) from Kuils River, who is a handyman at the Bellville Civil Maintenance Depot and is a change champion at the City of Cape Town looking for ways to combine practical service delivery with innovation
Samkelisiwe Mgadi (31) from Lower Crossroads, who is a Project Management Graduate intern whose aim is to contribute to the development and implementation of innovative initiatives that strengthens municipal service delivery.

‘We brought together some of our best innovators, problem-solvers, and change-makers from across the City for the very first Corporate Services Digital Innovation Pitch Day, some of whom would possibly never have had this opportunity to share their brilliant ideas at this level. Innovation starts with a single idea, and these finalists have demonstrated that with the right amount of creativity and collaboration, it is possible to bring their ideas to life and create solutions that can solve real challenges for the City. I am truly inspired by the winners. Their passion and enthusiasm was contagious and I believe their idea deserves all the support,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services, Alderman Theresa Uys

‘This experience meant a lot to me because it pushed me out of my comfort zone and that’s when I get the best of myself. I studied to be a Mechanical Fitter and Turner and when I completed my apprenticeship, I had to start in my role as a handy man and needed to learn about the electrical trade from scratch. That’s when I realised that there is a great need for a tool that could allow students that are coming through the City to gain additional practical skills, that as an organisation we could improve in how we make knowledge and technical information available to those starting out, to help them learn and build skills. The platform we have proposed would be able to create AI tools for staff to assist them in these technical roles,’ said Lawrence Mandlaenkosi Nkala

One of the aims of the International Day of Science, Technology and Innovation aims is to highlight how advancing innovation creates a more inclusive world, which is exactly what was evident in so many of the ideas presented at the City’s Innovation Pitch Day.

Runner up winners included:

Second Place: Michelle Joja-Johannes from the City’s Public Empowerment and Development department with her Public Employment Ecosystem idea
Third place: Alicia Perumal; Neo Mahloane; Ryan Kestoor and Collin Soogrim from the City’s Human Resource Department with their Business Systems Knowledge Twin idea, to build role-based organisational memory for critical City functions.

The City’s IS&T department will now determine where to include this project in its overall Digital Strategy.

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