Engaging MobiSAM
By Hancu Louw, Communication and Citizen Engagement Officer
There has been a significant increase in reports and engagement on the MobiSAM Facebook page during the first month of 2017.
A 140% increase to a total of 355 pageviews over the last 28 day period and a 10% increase to 815 post engagements have indicated a rise in the levels of trust you as residents of Makana have put in MobiSAM. This increased amount of people sending information to us, which in turn we send to the Municipal Communications Office has arguably enabled Makana to address issues more effectively which in the past may have gone unattended.
MobiSAM has been working alongside Makana Municipality since mid-2016 as phase 2.0 of the project in a bid to increase the level of communication between you the residents of Makana and the Municipality itself; especially the Communications Office. Therefore, MobiSAM chiefly operates as a tool, providing a channel to lodge reports regarding general service delivery issues that affect you on a daily basis as indicated by the examples below.
Seeking to bridge this ‘communicative divide’ between Makana and the people that rely on the delivery of quality basic services as residents and citizens of this country, MobiSAM has been developing a digital application aimed at you as resident and consumer as well as the people responsible for service delivery.
Therefore, what drives MobiSAM as a tool is the level of use and engagement that it enjoys from residents from across Makana. With these levels increasing (as indicated by our social media statistics in the image below) it has become apparent to us that many residents feel the need not only to lodge reports, but to list longer and more intricate posts detailing issues that may have been neglected for up to a year.
Looking to launch the application in early March 2017, we are hopeful that the increase in use and reports via our existing social media account will grow and migrate to the app platform which is currently under development and in the beta testing phase.
In the meantime, while fielding an increasing amount of reports of burst and leaking pipes across Makana we would like to make a couple of requests regarding how you as residents compile a report.
Please list all of the following to assist us in getting the correct info to the maintenance teams dispatched by the Makana Municipality Communications Office.
– Street and physical address
– An indication of the severity of the issue eg. is it a burst pipe that’s flooding the road or a steady trickle?
– An estimation of the time that the particular issue arose or that you became aware of it.
– A photograph that can be uploaded with the post if possible.
By providing the above information you are actively assisting MobiSAM in relaying the details to the necessary departments that are responsible for addressing the issue. At the same time this information is logged which further serves as a record of complaints which allow for more effective management of unresolved cases as it provides concrete evidence that can be used to hold local government officials to account.
Therefore the aim, over time, is that this process will allow for ‘evidence based’ action regarding budgeting and planning on the side of local government for the sustainable delivery of services to the various communities that call Makana home. But this hinges on your engagement with MobiSAM via any one of the channels which are available to you.
