One of my favourite, picturesque towns in the Western Cape is Franschhoek, the feeling I get when I drive into this quaint little town is freedom and protection surrounded by the essence of nature.  Tourists from all over the world visit this epic little town and, in some way, feel that they are also safe and secure without realising that this is still South Africa with locals who take advantage of this mentality. One morning, while driving through Franschhoek, I thought, what if we create the feeling of safety into a reality? How can we keep Franschhoek safe without visitors feeling like they are being invaded with CCTV and surveillance but still being able to monitor who the perpetrators are and link this cutting-edge technology to all the security companies’ control rooms?

How can we educate the wine farms, guest houses and hotels on the latest, greatest technology currently in the market while still offering them a return on their investment?  I sat with our marketing team, and we decided to host a “Keeping Franschhoek Safe” Roadshow, where we invited all the key players to showcase exactly what technology is out there and how their guests and residents can benefit from this.

The event was hosted by Itec, Regal and Hikvision at Leopards Leap Wine Farm.  A representative from Regal, Talton Cooke, spoke a little about crime statistics and the housing of stock around the country while Hikvision’s Darren Carstens spoke about Smart Cities and the technology out there.  Itec touched on our different service lines and where we are doing things right throughout the country.

The feedback we received was “highly favourable and the content was very appropriate” to what is currently happening in and around South Africa, as a whole.

Perception is that we are all safe and secure without technology and the reality is that, when implemented correctly, there should be no need for crime in any town or city with our smart city solutions.

This, in no way interferes with our freedom and the feeling that we are being watched, we understand what you are currently experiencing, whether it be petty crime at a bank teller with opportunists that take advantage of people who perceive that beggars won’t steal from them, those who break into your premises to steal goods making your guests feel unsafe or not knowing who has entered your premises during the day or at night.