Jun 17 2010
Twelve years late, but…
…rather late than never.
What the SA government under Mbeki should have done already in the late 90s, the Zuma government has now finally done: acknowledged the importance of the internet to economic development and (important) published a plan to get cheaper, faster internet to more people in SA. Eureka!
The inability of the Mbeki government to make the necessary decisions on electricity supply in the late 90s and early part of the new decade is well documented and understood by the world. What is not yet documented and understood, is the damage the Mbeki government did (to the internet industry in particular and the economy in general) in the period between 1998 and his departure at the end of 2008 with its indecision and refusal to invest in broadband capacity.
This will (one day) go down as another major mistake made by Mbeki, the president who governed for roughly 9 years and did nothing in that time.
Now, things are finally moving. After the private sector has (in big “Verzweiflung”) shown the way by investing heaps of money in undersea cables linking Africa and South Africa to the rest of the world.
I’ve been sceptical about SA and the internet before, suggesting it simply isn’t something which “turns the population on”. But, the hope dies last and I’m still hoping that cheap, fast, reliable access to the internet will (one day) turn South Africans into an “internet-begeisterde” community.
Here is what The Media Online reported about the “big plan” today:
Comparing apples with pears? Sorry, no. This is the era of “one world, one marketplace”, in which everyone competes with everyone.
