The digital divide is growing wider, and could have a more devastating impact than the divides of the industrial revolution.
This is the view of Mpumalanga premier Thabang Makwetla, who addressed guests at the launch of an MTN Schools Connectivity project at Empuluzi High School in rural Mpumalanga last week.
MTN donated R21 million to the connectivity project, which has established multimedia centres at schools across SA in the past three years.
"Like the entire world, SA is in the throes of an information revolution," said Makwetla.
However, while he noted that SA had made great strides in the advancement of technology, many people in SA had still never seen a telephone, let alone made a telephone call.
"One would have expected that the advent and convergence of new technologies would really narrow what is now known as the digital divide. The gap has widened and continues to widen with each passing day. This divide brings with it a social divide, an educational divide, a financial divide and many other disparities. It is spreading faster than a wild fire as new services and technologies are being introduced in industrialised countries.
"While it is increasingly recognised that information and communications technologies are powerful engines of economic, cultural and social development, access to ICT is virtually impossible without a workable telecommunications infrastructure. I believe that the provision of basic telecommunications infrastructure development is a challenge to all nations," he said.
"The other major challenge facing the implementation of ICT in our country is the integration of the resources of all three spheres of government, national, provincial and local in ICT capacity-building for optimal utilisation of ICT."
Makwetla said the government realised that ICT alone may not feed the hungry, eradicate poverty or reduce child mortality, but it is "an important catalyst for economic growth, delivery of education, health and other government socio-economic services".
Makwetla added that it was "particularly pleasing" to government that the Schools Connectivity project was a clear indication that a partnership between the people, government and the corporate world was taking shape. He appealed for more partners to "join us in our quest to ensure that everyone in the community has the opportunity to fully benefit from all that the information revolution has to offer".
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