digital divide in South Africa

1. Digital divide in South Africa
The issues surrounding access; note their role to social capital,
knowledge capital and human capital

2. “Digital Access”
• The first identified element of digital citizenship pertains to digital access, which is defined as:
“The full electronic participation in Society” (Ribble,2011).
• whilst the internet, world wide web, cell phones, television and other electronic information and
communication technologies (ICT’s) are opening up ways for the transformation of the way we
live, learn, work and communicate, it is important to note that the decisions of opening, directing
or closing of opportunities is key to bringing social land economic benefits to people around the
world.
• Digital access is key and critical to bringing these social and economic benefits and should be at
the forefront of all business and government decision making in the content of creating
opportunities.
• Digital access opportunities will improve social transformations as a result of increased use of
(ICT’s). –A prime example of the social transformations that (ICT’s) leveraged are the Arab Springs
in 2010, where the people of repressive countries leveraged the use of social media to gain
support and plan for demonstrations resulted in the toppling of various governments.

3. “Digital access and the role it plays to social
capital”
• Social capital is “the collective value of all social networks (who people know) and the inclinations
that arise from these networks to do things for each other (.norms of reciprocity).
• The central premise of social capital is that social networks have value” (Better Together
initiative(S.A). So, how does the digital divide impact on social capital and why is it a cause for
concern? Social capital is about specific benefits that are achieved from the use of social
networks, such as reciprocity, trust, co-operation and information.
• Essentially it creates value for people who are connected to each other% 5sers who engage and
collaborate with in social media tools such as facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, we are in fact
building social capital.
• In addition to building our social capital we are increasing our social and communication skills.
Furthermore, we are growing our general digital literacy, whilst increasing our psychological well
being, as we feel connected and respected through engagement with others
(Duke University, 2012).

4. “Digital access and the role it plays on
knowledge capital”
• In 2011, Rev. Jesse Jackson Sir was quoted as saying in a keynote dinner speech, that the digital
divide is as important as “closing the education divide, closing the healthcare divide and closing the
economic divide. Indeed, broadband is a tool that can be used to narrow these divisions and close
the poverty/ wealth gap” (legal speaks, 2011). This clarifies the issues of how the divide can impact
on business, as those that are marginalized in terms of emphasized the divide is overcome, the
technology can then be used to collate data for processing into information, resulting in knowledge
being learnt and used in decision making processes to improve the business. Overcoming this
divide is serious in a country where small, medium or macro enterprises (SME’s) make up 91% of
South Africa’s business entities, contributing between 52% and 57% of the GDP, and 61% toward
employment including those with less skilled labour (Habberton and Notcutt, 2013).
•
• This paradigm, or pattern, could assist developing countries in their attempts to close or minimize
the divide, thus supporting the growth of S.A’s biggest type of entity- SME’s. Moreover, the
paradigm is consistent with the natural progression we are seeing within developing countries;
where technology is being adopted and the skills are learnt to use the technology. The only main
difference is that, in a developed country, the socio economic factors and the infrastructure less
speeds up the time between the adoption of the technology and its universal operation. Will have
limited ability to gain reasonable and profitable employment.

5. “Digital access and its role on human capital”
• Health researchers and health care professionals, from both the developed and developing
worlds, have long been concerned about the link between health and education (Evan et at.,1994,
World Bank, 2000)
• Education and literacy rank as key determinants of health, along with income and income
distribution, employment, working conditions and the social environment, although the
interrelationships and weighting of these various determinants demand further research. The
second Canadian health report “Towards a healthy future” states.
• All countries rated in the top 10 for women’s well-being have a female literacy rate of 90% and
higher. Latin America has an 80% female literacy rate,the highest among developing nations. In
contrast, Africa has the lowest rate with wide disparities .For example, South Africa and
Zimbabwe have a literacy rate close to 80%. The strong relationship between women’s
educational level and the total fertility rate of the society is well documented. The insufficiently
considered impact of improved educational levels among women of childbearing age is beginning
to disprove the terrible predictions of an looming population explosion

6. The ramifications of digital divide
Various digital divides
• Socio-economic divide
• Divide in infrastructure
• Divide in content
• Universal access divide
• Gender divide
• Skills divide

7. Socio-economic divide
• The original problem surrounding access is that of the ability to
access data and information through the use of digital devices. The
above stated problem surrounding access is known as the ‘digital
divide’.
• The above stated divide is often united with socio-economic factors,
similar to the gap between developed countries and developing
countries. The differences between countries that are classified as
developing and developed extend to internet use. Countries that are
regarded as developed countries will have a larger ratio of the public
that has access to the internet, while those countries that are
regarded as developing have a much smaller ratio of the public that
has access to the internet (IIE,2016).

8. Divide in infrastructure
• The classification of a country, in regards to whether or not a country
is regarded as developed or developing, does not just apply to the
socio- economic divide, but also to the infrastructure divide. The
infrastructure within a developed country is significantly greater than
the infrastructure within a developing country. An example of this is
the dispersion of electricity throughout a country. The dispersion of
electricity within a developing country is miserable in comparison to
that spreading of electricity within a developed country.

9. Divide in content
• Although there is an excessive amount of content on the internet. The
problem remains in the fact that majority of the content that is
available is mainly in English. Over the years there has been a rise in
content available that isn’t in English, however English content is still
the most noticeable (IIE,2016).

10. Universal access divide
• People who suffer from some sort of physical disability are usually
marginalized when it comes to access. This isn’t due to their lack of
skills, but rather due to the hardware and software put to use and
available. Moreover, the expense of the hardware and software is
offensive (IIE,2016).

11. Gender divide
• There is a important internet gender gap within developing countries.
This significant gap is damaging to those girls and women that are
denied access to the internet within those developing countries. The
internet has allowed its users to extend their knowledge and due to
women’s lack of access, they don’t have the opportunity to extend
their knowledge, thus giving them a disadvantage to men who do
have access in developing countries. There opportunities include
access to educational opportunities, access to support communities
and access to potential career opportunities.

12. Skills divide
• It is all well and good having access to the internet, however once
you have obtained such access, you need the skills with which to
utilize the opportunity. Although accessibility has been steadily
increasing, skills have not necessarily increased as the same rate as
the accessibility has.

13. How can I assist the government to solve
issues around access?
• Re-examine and improve social welfare services and financing.
• Advance and increase early childhood development.
• Grow social support and enlarge the scope of the contributory social security system.
• Develop the capabilities of communities to attain sustainable livelihoods and household, food security.
• Build up coordination, incorporation, planning, monitoring and evaluation of services. South Africa has
made excellent improvements in building social organisations and promoting a new single national identity,
and work is progressing in this regard.
• Teach people about the important and welfares of using digital divide.
• Provide those who do not know much about technology with information that could help them to learn and
advance knowledge.
• Supporting young people to more skills and jobs so that will grow economically by creating more training
and skills to the youth.
• Offering low business with access to cheaper rates of internet access.
• Source areas with no technology and internet with access and network.

14. Bilbliography
• The Digital Divide,ICT,and broadband internet, 2016.
http://www.internetworldstats.com
• Independent Institution of Education, 2016. DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP
MODULE MANUAL, Sandton: Independent Institution of Education.