GovChat

GovChat is a civic tech platform founded by Aldred Yordani that runs citizen services through WhatsApp, including municipal fault reporting and grant applications. The host discusses it in the context of South Africa's dependence on foreign big tech infrastructure such as Meta's WhatsApp Business API.

“He's a civic tech pioneer, founder of GovChat.”

GovChat is a South African platform used by over 15 million people on WhatsApp to reach government and information services. The speaker says its founder was told by Meta that the platform would be shut down, which he cites as evidence of dependence on American technology.

“getting a call from Mark Zuckerberg's office to say on Monday morning we are going to shut that platform down”