The Internet community is an enclosed group of white people that must accept the need for transformation and make it a priority, its representatives were told today.
Speaking at iWeek, a series of events hosted by the Internet Service Providers Association and the local chapter of the Internet Society, Department of Communications director-general Andile Ngcaba said the Internet industry was one of the least transformed sectors of the economy.
"No transformation has yet happened in the Internet community when compared with other industries," he said. "There are very few black people in the area of Internet."
The comments came after questions from the audience about the Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act that has stirred fears of government interference among the industry.
Government has a role to play when it comes to the online space, Ngcaba said, and despite the anarchistic leanings of some practitioners, the Internet needed enabling legislation.
Met with disbelief when insisting that the board of a .za domain name authority, to be set up shortly, will be independent, he said the Internet industry lacked faith in government.
"We really need to develop trust and confidence as we work together," he said, referring to the ECT Act.
Although implying that the need for transformation was not recognised within the industry and that it tried to ignore apartheid`s impact on its racial composition, Ngcaba said the blame for the situation could not be laid at any one door. He vowed that government would work with industry to rectify the imbalances of the past.
Ngcaba also said the weekend meeting of president Thabo Mbeki`s international IT advisory body had identified education, health and small business as crucial areas for technology development. He said every school and clinic in the country had to be given a telephone number and Web site address.
According to government figures, less than 25% of SA`s schools have computers.
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