South Africa

“There is so much potential in rural South Africa, and with a little bit of capacity building, a lot of things could happen around affordable internet access,” summarised Carlos Rey-Moreno, coordinator of APC's Local Access Networks project, at the end of a productive workshop about community networks with government stakeholders at the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) in Pretoria on...

South Africa risks continued failures to fulfil its human rights obligations to people if the government’s austerity policy is maintained, civil society organisations have warned at the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the Committee). The organisations outlined the systemic challenges that impede access to adequate health care, housing, education, work, social...

What are the most relevant changes in the telecommunications landscape and their implications for achieving universal, affordable access to communication in Africa? This was the main focus of a workshop organised by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and the Communications Regulators’ Association of Southern Africa (CRASA) on 9 September 2018. Held as a pre-event to the 201...

"There was a massive storm during the night, and signals from all operators were off when we woke up. And yet, internet from Zenzeleni is still up and running. Who can still doubt the capacity of community networks to provide universal access?"  This was the message shared by Carlos Rey-Moreno, coordinator of APC's Local Access Networks project, during the Third Su...

Community networks have existed for many years. They provide a sustainable solution to address connectivity gaps in urban and rural areas around the world. In Africa, where these gaps are more evident, a recent survey was able to identify 37 community network initiatives in 12 African countries. To promote the creation and growth of these networks, the Third Summit on Community Networks in...

Some governments in the global South are devoting increasing attention to the divide between urban and rural areas, a key issue to address the fact that millions of people are becoming left out of the information society. Access to communications in rural areas is made possible mainly by big mobile phone operators, but their services are usually not affordable for people with lower incomes. Con...

Technology and communication at the heart of social change You would like to participate in an international internship with one of Alternatives’ partners. You want to advance Alternatives' and its allies’ work in the areas of social communications, information and communications technology (ICT), human rights and gender equality. You are dynamic, curious and eager to have a rewarding inter...

Alex Comninos (MSocSci, International Relations, University of Cape Town) is a policy researcher who has published research on various topics including freedom of association and peaceful assembly online, cybersecurity, intermediary liability, mobile banking and African political economy.