In many South African cities valuable datasets exist, but they’re often siloed, difficult to access, or not shared in usable formats. This limits the ability of city officials, researchers and the public to use data for evidence-based decision-making, policy and planning. In Cape Town, we supported the development of a prototype Open Data Portal (ODP) to make city data more open, user-friendly and useful for public and internal stakeholders. The platform was piloted with the City’s Economic Analysis and Organisational Research branches in the Policy and Strategy Department and now falls under the Chief Data Officer’s portfolio. This work opens up access to key datasets like never before and starts to bridge the gap in how data can be leveraged for decision-making by both officials and residents.