Sangotech, the technological arm of Sangonet, has saved South African non-governmental organisations (NGOs) R10 million in the last 10 months through various technology donations, it says.
The savings are being attributed to NGOs taking up free software and hardware, saving the money that would normally have been spent on IT.
"Given the competition NGOs face for limited resources, free software can give NGO managers the chance to allocate money to more pressing concerns," said the South African NGO network in its latest newsletter.
Sangonet says Microsoft and Cisco have donated the bulk of the free products to organisations such as Learn to Earn, in Cape Town; the Papillion Foundation, in Johannesburg; and the Mpilonhe Project, in KwaZulu-Natal.
International software freedom
Its announcement comes on the eve of international Open Source Day, which Sangonet describes as "a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the importance of software freedom and the virtues of free and open source software (FOSS)".
SA's official celebrations to mark the international day will take place in Pretoria and deputy minister of science and technology Derek Hanekom will address the event.
According to Ungana-Afrika Regional eRiding programme manager Tshepo Thlaku, "civil society organisations are finding it difficult to take advantage of the benefits that ICTs provide due to cost and lack of appropriate support.
"FOSS has become a buzzword instead of an opportunity for many organisations."
Thlaku proposes a number of measures to turn this situation around, including promoting greater awareness, contributions to the stability of FOSS, and a change in the way vendors operate so that NGOs can buy new computers with FOSS applications.
He says in Sangonet's experience, people without basic computer skills easily adapt to FOSS applications, especially when support is available.
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