City’s Hackathon strives to digitise business licence application process
20 June 2025
The City of Cape Town's Innovation and Customer Insights team in collaboration with the Business Applications team wrapped up its Business Licence Innovation Hackathon on Thursday, 19 June 2025. The event coincided with Youth Month and included 20 Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) interns who showcased their coding talent. They worked on developing a self-service business licensing portal that aims to reduce the workload of Environmental Health officers who currently handle submissions manually. The 24-hour Hackathon was a joint effort between the City’s Corporate Services, Future Planning and Resilience, Economic Growth and Community Services and Health directorates. The winning team’s design will be presented to the City’s Environmental Health Department for support and full development.
‘We are quite excited about the product that will come out of this hackathon. The City’s Environmental Health Department is responsible for business licence processing and a self-service portal will provide an efficient and easy-to-use alternative. One of the things we are looking for is to improve our client experience. The vast majority of our processes are paper-based and we are quite keen to move on to electronic formats,’ said the City’s Executive Director for Community Services and Health, Zukiswa Mandlana.
The evaluation panel, consisting of selected stakeholders from the City of Cape Town, ranked Vuyolwethu Ngqina, Sandisiwe Mvandaba, Lauren Chawula, Lungelo Tom and Daniel Wood as the winning team with their ‘Team Charmaine’ mobile portal pitch.
The team presented an easy-to-use mobile site that streamlines the business application process, integrates Geo-spatial Information System and Land Use Management zoning data to guide customers on whether their current land-use rights permit their intended business operations.
‘The challenge statement that was posed to our IS&T Business Applications interns was, ‘How can the City create a self-service portal for Business Licence applicants that streamlines the application process and reduces the workload on Environmental Health service clerks?’ I am proud to say that our young developers did not disappoint with their ideas. A lot of ideas were shared and we were able to pick one for further development. The City services 4,7 million people and we must work hard to ensure a better and easier customer experience for all,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services, Alderman Theresa Uys.
High resolution images are available here.
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
