Info technology 'a basic need'
Karen Pretorius
17 August 2005
The government should harness information and communications technology (ICT) and place it at the disposal of all South Africans, said Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool.
He was addressing a media conference in Cape Town on Tuesday at the launch of Information Society Week, to be held from 22 to 31 August.
Information Society Week is being hosted by the provincial government, the City of Cape Town, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and the Department of Communications.
Two international conferences form part of the event: the civil society colloquium on the World Summit on the Information Society, thetha, which starts on 22 August, and the Community Informatics Research Networks conference, which starts on 25 August.
Transformation
Rasool said the ability to communicate could be included as a basic need of communities, along with needs like water and housing.
"Government has the
opportunity to make otherwise inaccessible technologies available to transform the lives of the most remote villages and the poorest communities," he said.
Rasool said the knowledge and minds of citizens should be harnessed, saying the information society does not only relate to the "middle class and those educated".
Interim vice-chancellor of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Prof Anthony Staak, said the institution is doing extensive research in "community informatics" with the aim of empowering local people through the use of technology.
"This will give us an opportunity to make a contribution and to expand our programme beyond the realm of academia," he said.
Source: BuaNews
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