The transition from classroom education to home schooling can be easy if you have internet access. One of the Biznews contributors Anton Roux related how his daughter’s day has not changed much during the Covid-19 lockdown as she sits down in front of her laptop for lessons until the school day ends. For many other families in the country, it is not that easy as they do not have access to the internet. The charity Project Isizwe is enabling some poorer families to continue education by providing them with modems and data. But as Alan Knott-Craig told Alec Hogg it is a short-term solution during the novel coronavirus outbreak. The cost of data in South Africa is too expensive to provide internet to communities over the longer term. – Linda van Tilburg
It’s really good to see people stepping up to help the South African effort during the Covid-19 crisis. Among them, Alan Knott-Craig, who is well known to members of the BizNews community through his contributions from time to time which are always very well read because you take a glass half-full approach to life, generally speaking. We’re going to talk about Project Isizwe, your philanthropic operation that you’ve been involved in. In fact, if memory recalls you took time off to establish this.
I wouldn’t say I took time off; I was kicked out of my company and I was forcefully unemployed. In 2013 we started an NGO called Project Isizwe. The idea was to figure out ways to effectively bring free internet into poor communities across South Africa. This started with a project we did in Pretoria called the Tshwane free Wi-Fi project, and since then the guys did projects for IPP’s across the country, for coal mines, like Glencore in Mpumalanga. And recently we’ve done a cool project in Stellenbosch where we facilitate free home internet for children who go to school so they can keep up with academic classes whilst the lockdown continues.
In your day job though, you are the chairman of HeroTel your new business concept. How is it going on that side?
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We’re quite lucky, the Internet is more needed than ever. Demand is still strong, and we haven’t seen a problem of bad debt just yet, although we do have quite a big customer presence in northern Mpumalanga around the Kruger Park. A lot of our customers are luxury lodges and they are struggling a bit, we’ve had to come to the party and help them with discounts. In general, if ever there was a demand for the internet, it’s now. This kind of forced telecommute, that’s happening around the country for almost every industry and it is going to further prop up our industry.
It also requires people who are underprivileged to find new ways of accessing the Internet, hence the reason why we’re talking today. Project Isizwe is doing some fascinating stuff in this area. You sent me a video which was quite moving, I must tell you. What exactly is project Isizwe up to?
At the moment its major project is working with a school called Rhenish Primary, it’s a government school in Stellenbosch. Headmaster Gary Skeeles and he asked me whether we could assist with getting the internet into home for children living in Kayamandi. The families in Kayamandi don’t necessarily have enough money to have home internet. The school had to start again even though the lockdown started but all children are doing online learning lessons. If you can’t get on the internet at home, you are getting left behind.
It doesn’t just apply to Rhenish, it’s just a small example of a national problem where the academic year is going to be threatened for millions of children if they can’t afford Internet access at home. Isizwe effectively solves the technical problem. We worked with Vodacom; the shop in George had a lot of 3G modems which we bought up and activated them. We have delivered them in person to the families and load them with airtime remotely. The airtime and modems are sponsored by the more well-off families within Rhenish as well as the school itself and corporates. That’s what Isizwe is good at, creating a model that can be replicated across other schools and hopefully come up with a fairer system. It’s certainly not a long term solution for Internet access. It’s a very expensive solution in the short-term but at least it is a solution for as long as the lockdown lasts.
The parents you say have come together, the wealthy parents helping the not-so-well off.Â
Yes. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to live in South Africa and realise some people are less fortunate than others. I find most South Africans, if they’re in a position to help; they want to help, they just don’t know necessarily. Isizwe is the organisation that helps you, if your specific angle would be to get people on the Internet and make sure the digital divide does not increase further, Isizwe makes it easier for both companies and individuals that want to make a difference.
Other schools could do this as well?Â
Yes absolutely. There are already two more schools in Stellenbosch that have copied it. Any school can do it, they go register on Project Isizwe website and they facilitate the whole process. How can you be sure that you’re not necessarily giving the Internet to a family with children at school rather than some teenagers that just want to go on YouTube? The school facilitates it, to make sure the families are legitimate and that they’ve been trained and educated around making sure the Wi-Fi password isn’t shared too much. Then once that’s taken care of; Isizwe makes sure that the technology is installed properly.
How much are the parents in for?
To start with, it’s R940. That includes a modem and airtime for 1GB. We found that 1GB gets you about three or four days, depending on the child but you could get away with 2 or 3GB a week. That equates to an extra R200 a week. If the lockdown lasts three or four weeks, you’re probably in for R1,400 and then the child at least doesn’t fall too far behind. Of course; you have to manage it if the whole family gets the Wi-Fi password a then data goes really quickly.
Have families then stood up and sponsored one other family or are they trying to do more than one; what’s the typical take up?
Well in the case Rhenish there were 15 families, so we just found 15 sponsors. We took 15 x R940 and got the money together and then you still have to do the airtime recharge. Effectively what the principal and the school does, is sends an e-mail out to the parents saying anybody who would like to contribute towards connectivity at home for underprivileged kids , send money to the school, we will put money into the pot, and the school managers that.
You’ve got to wonder what happens at other schools that have now sent their kids home and are giving remote lessons via the Internet, what happens if you come from a community where you simply don’t have it?
There are three kinds of schools, you get a really high and private school where there are no children without home Internet. You’ve got these kinds of former model C schools which are like Rhenish, where you’ve got haves and have-nots. And I think Rhenish is a great example of how within the school they’re trying to solve that problem by getting well-off parents to help out the less fortunate. Then you get the schools, probably the majority of parents that don’t have internet at home; that problem, I guess would have to be solved by matching the more wealthy schools like Bishops or big corporates that understand there is this massive academic discrepancy and digital divide and getting them to contribute towards an underprivileged school. If we don’t do that, this academic year is going to be a disaster for millions of children. If you’re a well-off kid, you are going to get through the year and if you’re not ;you’re either going to be passed without the fundamentals or you’re going to fail the year.
There was a promise in the state of the nation by the President that there will be an iPad in the hand of every child. Has anything happened there?
I don’t know. I haven’t seen any iPads being handed out but weirdly enough with this project we didn’t find that anybody needed a smart device. Recent research shows that the average household in South Africa has access to at least five smart devices; so, there’s no real need to distribute hardware and go to all the expense of iPads. It would be great if everyone had an iPad, but if you have a Huawei or Samsung tablet or smartphone; you are still going to be all the stuff online. What stops people from getting on the Internet is not access to devices, it’s the cost of internet. There is definitely internet access in all the towns and all the schools in South Africa; the problem is it costs too much. If you can’t subsidise that cost via a scheme like Project Isizwe is doing, then the children simply can’t get on the Internet.
