Acknowledgements:
Sol Luca de Tena, Nicholas Eppel
“Coming from rural area is like being cursed.” This OpEd headline did more than just grab attention when it was first published several years ago. It ultimately transformed an entire community.
In the opinion piece, Hlokomelo Mabogale, a South African chicken farmer and digital activist, wrote about the disadvantages rural youth experience by lack of access to quality education, computers, and the Internet. Being from a rural area himself—Mamaila in the country’s northernmost Limpopo province—it was an issue he knew all too well. Remembering his own lack of digital skills as a young person, Mabogale signed off with a plea, “These days, Internet is life.”
It resonated with Kgopotso Magoro, a civil servant and PhD student who also grew up in Mamaila. Like many from the area, she had moved away to the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria for the sake of her education and employment prospects. Reading Mabogale’s words, she felt compelled to act. So began the long journey that eventually led to the Mamaila Community Network.
A Deep-Rooted Rural Area
Mamaila is a cluster of six villages in the Greater Letaba Municipality, made up of more than 20,000 people. In South Africa there are striking rural-urban inequalities, both socioeconomic and in terms of the digital divide. Mamaila is no exception. According to government statistics for the parent municipality, over fifty percent of the population are not economically active and only twenty-two percent are employed. Farming is the primary economic activity, though a significant proportion of households depend on social grants and casual wage labor.
Fifty-five percent of households are headed by women—a result of economic migration and South Africa’s challenging history with HIV. Between gender-based income disparities, fewer employment opportunities for women, and other factors, these households are generally poorer, with average annual household income in the region at ZAR 14,600 (US$926). On a positive note, small businesses are growing. A shopping mall is also under construction—the area’s first—bringing hope to the community that it will foster economic growth.
The technology landscape is just as stark, with Internet access out of reach for most residents. The area is served by several mobile providers, but coverage is expensive and unreliable. One gigabyte of data ranges in price from roughly ZAR 30 (US$2) for 24 hours to ZAR 85 (US$5.75) for 30 days. Even this is cost prohibitive for many, where a loaf of bread, a kilo of rice, or a liter of milk cost around ZAR 15 (US$1), and most users purchase data in smaller increments, which come at an even higher price per megabyte. There is a commercial Internet service provider active in the area, but at ZAR 290 (US$19) per month for an uncapped 3Mbps connection, plus an installation fee of ZAR 2,500 ($170), it is unaffordable for the vast majority of the area’s residents.