Electricity outages overshadowed Cape Town`s celebrations as it became the first South African metropolis to offer free Internet access at all its public libraries yesterday.
The public library access to the Internet is part of the Smart Cape Access Project begun more than three years ago and since then, 54 000 of the city`s residents, many from under-privileged areas, have signed up to use the free service.
Congratulating the City of Cape Town, Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool said: "By taking the lead in this province and in the country, to improve access to ICT to all its citizens, the City of Cape Town has enabled access to government information, thereby ensuring all citizens form part of an all inclusive and development-oriented information society."
City of Cape Town deputy mayor Gawa Samuels said local government had responded to the challenge of making lives better by forming partnerships with the private sector and exposing residents to IT.
"Initiatives and innovations like this are helping our city and members of our communities to deal with the challenges of creating jobs and opportunities, reducing poverty, combating HIV/AIDS and getting access to social and community services," Samuels said.
During the event, Cape Town also launched the Smart Cape Access Truck, an initiative that will take mobile Internet connectivity to those remote areas that are unable to access the Internet or computers.
Powerless
ITWeb asked Rasool about the ongoing electricity cuts plaguing the province and the impact they could have on confidence in the province`s ability to support the growth of the ICT industry - a key part of its economic growth strategy.
"These power cuts have been a wake-up call for us. They are a symptom of rapid economic and population growth and this had not really been adequately planned for," he said.
Rasool said by this time next year two gas-fired power stations should be online, one in Atlantis and the other near Mossel Bay, and work should start on a new nuclear power station to complement the troubled and aging Koeberg station.
Delft residents told ITWeb that power cuts had been a nuisance, but had not really interfered with their use of the library Internet facilities so far.
Share