The Premier of Mpumalanga
The Executive Mayor of Nkangala District Municipality
The Mayor of Siyabuswa Local Municipality
His Majesty King SJ Mahlangu
His Excellency, Ambassador Briet
Representatives of the European Union member states
Senior government officials
Learners
Distinguished guests
The Innovation for Poverty Alleviation Programme is a partnership between the Science and Technology Department and the European Union (EU). We are launching this partnership today.
Let me take a moment to reflect on our partnership with the EU.
South Africa’s first intergovernmental agreement with the EU after 1994 was the agreement on science and technology, and since then the EU has been an invaluable partner in our aim to establish an effective national system of innovation.
Since 1997 South African researchers have participated in the EU Framework Programmes for Research and Technology Development, while government officials have exchanged views, experiences and best practices in science and technology policy matters.
South African participation in the Framework Programmes has contributed significantly to the enrichment of science programmes and to improving the quality of life of our citizens. South Africans currently participate in more than 100 FP7 projects across various scientific disciplines.
We look forward to strengthening this relationship, first, at the SA-EU Summit to be held in Brussels on 28 September 2010, then, at the South Africa-European Commission Joint Science and Technology Cooperation Committee that the Department of Science and Technology will host on 5 and 6 October 2010, and last, at the Africa-EU Summit.
The Innovation for Poverty Alleviation programme is funded by the EU Sector Budget Support programme. The project, which started in 2009, will run for a period of four years.
It will pilot and establish small-scale industries in rural areas through the transfer of technologies.
It will focus on health research, including programmes for tuberculosis, malaria and microbicides, as well as telemedicine initiatives.
And it will unlock the potential of information and communication technology (ICTs).
This project is a large-scale technology demonstrator project on rural broadband connectivity using wireless mesh network technology.
The wireless mesh network project’s use of science and technology to reduce the impact of poverty in rural communities is in part a response to one of the government’s key strategic priorities, rural development.
It has a three-phase design. In the first phase, the connectivity technology is tested and demonstrated.
The second phase involves the creation of new innovations in services and applications using the connectivity infrastructure, and the third phase entails testing the replication of business models and approaches, working towards a model that allows small new rural businesses to raise funding on the basis of what has been learnt.
Through this, we aim to demonstrate alternative models for deploying broadband infrastructure and services to rural areas.
By the time the project ends we hope also to have established 45 small enterprises run by local operators (also known as village operators), and provided Internet access and voice over Internet protocol to 450 government sites (mostly schools).
Among other things, this will enable the schools within the wireless mesh network to cut down on their telephone bills.
Currently, 180 schools in the Nkangala District Municipality have been connected to the wireless mesh network and, of these, 114 have been connected to the Internet. We have also been able to train and set up 19 village operators, and to give technical training in wireless mesh network technology to a further 50 young people.
Traditionally, telecommunications infrastructure could be set up by only a select few national or large regional telecommunications operators, mainly because they were the only ones that had the financial muscle, access to specialised expertise, and licences.
However, as a result of technological advances in the field of wireless technology – WiFi – it is now possible for anyone with a bit of technical know-how to create direct wireless connections between devices such as computers.
Within the context of government’s Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme, and existing research and development initiatives by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Meraka Institute, this project is being implemented at a municipal ward level in the Nkangala Municipal District in Mpumalanga, the Sekhukhune Municipal District in Limpopo, and the JT Gaetsewe Municipal District in the Northern Cape.
We hope to expand it gradually to other parts of the country that have similar broadband and Internet connectivity challenges.
In the long term, we hope that the project will result in the establishment of a number of interdependent building blocks to create an alternative telecommunications system that will enable the new village operators to flourish.
This project will stimulate sustainable rural economic development through local enterprise development in broadband infrastructure and services, using community wireless mesh networks and free and open source software.
Its direct economic impact will be felt in the connectivity costs saved at municipal ward level, new revenues flowing into the community as a result of services offered by small local businesses established under the project, and revenues flowing into the community as a result of other services and businesses.
The direct social impact of the project will be local capacity creation, improved government service delivery and broader public access to ICT.
Another part of the capacity development programme will focus on local manufacturing, reducing the need to import technology in the telecommunications equipment field.
The intention is to establish a new line of local telephone PABX soft switch manufacturing, and a production line for wide area wireless networking equipment. New innovation will be stimulated using the "Living Labs" approach, with innovators from the community supported in creating technologies, and researchers and developers put in direct contact with the local community.
We hope that the Wireless Mesh Network Project will empower this specific community.
I wish this project and the EU Sector Budget Support programme every success. I hope that our partners will continue to support us as we continue to change the lives of people for the better.
I thank you.
