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To improve the delivery of services, municipalities in South Africa are implementing information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives. The use of digitalization thus demands municipalities to introduce e-government services. With adequate resources and training, some municipalities also aim to advance their status as smart cities. However, However, not all municipalities are equipped to operate ICT-based services.  The article aims to explore this situation in the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (herein referred to as CoE). The article is qualitative in nature and the data collected is analyzed descriptively. The article utilizes the triangulation of data (document review, literature review, interview) to strengthen validity and reliability in the research process. The findings explore the challenges related to leadership in the municipality that requires a willingness to adopt, adapt and implement ICT initiatives for smart governance; ICT infrastructure that requires a municipality to allocate adequate budget to smart governance platforms, training of employees to equip them to operate digitalized processes, to state a few. Overall, the study considers the status and implementation levels of ICT and smart governance in the CoE to be unsatisfactory and requires policy recommendations for effective realization to become a smart city. The article offers policy recommendations emphasizing incorporating ICT in municipal budgets to invest in digital infrastructure.

Rapid urbanization and the advances in Information and Communication Technology have changed the definition of "city" all over the world. In the beginning, the concept emerged as Digital Cities and gradually changed to Smart Cities bringing criteria along. It is inevitable that, in future the concept will change and develop new criteria. There are many components in the smart city, with the knowledge of the idea of "information and communication technologies", which is the focus of smart cities and the cities of the future. The ability to define cities as smart is possible through the development of balanced applications around these applications. In this study, the Istanbul city will be evaluated in the context of smart city studies while it is presented with components of smart city concept.