Digital Divide in South Africa “The disparity in access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTS) which may result from differences in class, race, age, culture, geography or other factors can affectively deprive certain citizens to participate in the global economy (Kroukamp, 2005). This disparity is known as the digital divide. There is need governments around the world to bridge the digital divide. Using the Internet to capture and provide access to appropriate and relevant digital information produced by governments could also contribute towards bridging the digital divide (Chisenga,2004).” - Hamilton Mphindi

Q 1.1. Issues surrounding access Digital divide refers to the Economic, social, demographic and geographic challenges that hinder access to technology and modern information. In South Africa certain geographical locations have underdeveloped infrastructures with limit access to the internet. Telecoms companies are reluctant in developing this infrastructure as it is not profitable for them to make the investment. Other factors include the monetary ability to purchase devices like computers, laptops and smartphones. This is mainly driven by the increase in lower income households and increase in unemployment in south Africa. Development and access in south Africa is concentrated in cities and their immediate surrounding areas as the population is concentrated in those areas. Early 1994 Internet Solutions laid their first fibre optic link between the USA and South Africa. With this development, they were key in transforming the access to the internet for South Africa. By 1998 globally the Internet had 1 million users. In our current political and socio-economic climate, the divide is widening as the poor communities in the rural and outlying geographical areas of the country struggle to access the internet and the communication and technology benefits that come with it. The Digital divide has an impact on education as it limits access to information for research. This also has an impact on the employment aspects for the youth as today for a basic entry position, a candidate need to have basic computer skills and knowledge for performing their daily duties.

Assisting the Government to solve the issues The Department of Communications has already established stakeholders that regulate the Communications and technology industry i.e. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and Government Communication and Information technology (GCIS) to name a few. The only thing lacking is co-ordination and implementation methods for transformation related projects. How I would assist the government, is by consulting with all the government regulators and our telecoms interconnect partners and document the current standing on the deployment of infrastructure to remote areas and improvements in cities. With the current steady growth in the mobile markets, Vodacom as an example has set the pace in the establishments of their e-Learning portals. this is the first of the projects I would then encourage government to ride on the deployment plans by subsidising the provisioning of smart devices in rural areas as they have done with public schools in the townships. With this projects I would then acquire the buy in from the department on Minerals and energy to align the roll out of solar energy to rural arears in order for the communications department to rollout smart devices and also encourage the telecoms key players to specifically subsidise lower income and rural households with internet access data. I would also encourage the department of education to assist with providing educational content that can be access which is relevant to the CAPS syllabus which will in turn empower unemployed mothers to open Home schooling centres especially in remote areas where children cannot safely access schools.

References http://huawei.com/za/about-huawei/corporate- citizenship/bridging-digital-divide/index.htm https://www.is.co.za/history http://mg.co.za/article/2013-08-16-00-bridging-the-gaping- digital-divide https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/fallsem98/final_papers/Rozner. html http://www.gov.za/about-sa/communications