Bridges.org, in partnership with Cape Town IT company DGE, was commissioned by the City of Cape Town to conduct an assessment of the City's digital divide. The project's goal was to help the City better understand the current IT landscape in Cape Town -- including current access and usage of IT, the demand for services, and realistic constraints to improvement -- in order to better target its proposed policies and initiatives to lessen the divide. The project examines traditional measures to gauge e-readiness such as access to technology, affordability, and skill levels, as well as often overlooked issues of relevant content and services, and socio-cultural factors that impact effective, sustainable access.

View report: Executive Summary

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Table of contents

Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
PREFACE: ICT LEADERSHIP IN CAPE TOWN
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

1.1 The digital divide
1.2 The need for this study
1.3 Framing this study
1.4 Roadmap to this report

2 FINDINGS OF THE DIGITAL DIVIDE STUDY

2.1 ICT in South Africa and the Western Cape
2.2 City level ICT strategies and initiatives in Cape Town
2.3 The status of ICT in Cape Town's communities
2.4 ICT at work in Cape Town’s organisations and businesses

3 RECOMMENDATIONS TO CITY LEADERS

3.1 Use best practice principles in Cape Town's ICT strategies and programmes
3.2 Frame ICT strategies with long-term ICT objectives
3.3 Focus City actions toward Real Access to ICT
3.4 Position ICT as an enabler for broad socio-economic development in key target areas
3.5 Scale up programmes to improve local Government ICT use and internal capacity
3.6 Build upon Cape Town's ICT kernels and facilitate widespread involvement to implement City strategies
3.7 Provide City Council leadership for ICT activities in target areas
3.8 Understand the obstacles in order to overcome them effectively
3.9 Focus on implementation and conduct further research only as needed

4 CONCLUSION
ANNEXES
Annex 1: About bridges.org
Annex 2: Meetings conducted and organisations contacted
Annex 3: Assessment framework and methodology
Annex 4: Project questionnaires
Annex 5: Further information about e-readiness assessment
Annex 6: Glossary of terms
Annex 7: Glossary of acronyms
Annex 8: Bibliography
Annex 9: Annotated list of related studies
Annex 10: Key stakeholder groups and initiatives relevant for Cape Town
Annex 11: Telecentres, Internet Cafés, community radio stations and Vodacom phone shops in Cape Town

 

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the involvement and enthusiasm of the more than 2000 people who participated in this project. We would like to thank the City of Cape Town's Directorates of Economic Development and Tourism, Information Technology, and Social Development for driving this initiative. We are especially grateful to Heinrich Heymann, Mymoena Ismail, and Carol Wright of these Directorates for their leadership and input. We would also like to thank those who gave us their time to review this work, including Roy Bloomfield, Andy Bytheway, Bruce McConnell, Mary Murphy, Raven Naidoo, Mark Neville, John Pape, Larry Press, Nirvesh Sooful, and Kim Van Deventer.

 

The project team met with over 100 non-governmental organisations, businesses, academic institutions, government agencies, and community organisations during the study, and we are grateful for the thought and time each put into the project. A complete list of these organisations is included in Annex 2. A few organisations went the extra mile to add their support and insight, including: ABET, Capricorn, CITI, CSSA, FutureCITI, ISETT SETA, SANGOCO, SANCO, SchoolNet South Africa, UCT's Department of Information Systems, UCT Graduate School of Business (Centre For Innovation And Entrepreneurship), UWC's Department of Information Systems, Webchek, and the Western Cape Schools Network.

Finally, we would like to thank the Cape Town residents who participated in the community meetings and expressed their needs and concerns about technology in the City of Cape Town. We hope that this report brings them, and the local Government, closer to their goals for progress in the City.