The Minister of Science and Technology, Mosibudi Mangena, took to the hills and valleys of rural KwaZulu-Natal today where, together with the community, he unveiled a cluster of Digital Doorway terminals at the Ntshongweni Community Sports Centre, in the outlying areas of the Ethekwini Municipality.

Digital Doorways are CSIR-designed, robust, multimedia terminals that house computer hardware and software which is aimed at improving computer literacy by enabling members of the public to access office computing applications,  encyclopaedic information as well as educational games, amongst other things.

During the event Minister Mangena announced that his department has begun a massive roll-out of Digital Doorway terminals throughout the country. “This national project will give communities in rural and peri-urban areas the opportunity to become computer literate and to access information,” he said.

The Minister added that “We still have a long way to go in our computer literacy campaign, considering that there are nearly 7.5 million illiterate adults, in South Africa, of which nearly 3 million are unschooled”. He said the fact that only 20 to 23% of the country’s approximately 30 00 schools have one or more computers is “obviously untenable and an impediment, necessitating a Digital Doorway deployment”. The Department of Science and Technology has therefore provided more than R48 million for the deployment of 170 digital doorway kiosks country-wide, before the end of the year.

Villagers and community leaders of Ntshongweni, situated some 30km from Durban, welcomed Minister Mangena to jointly celebrate the installation of the three-seater Digital Doorway at its community centre. Ntshongweni has a population of approximately 8 500, comprising about 1 800 households.

In a first, this Digital Doorway has also been connected to four other Digital Doorway kiosks installed at sites in surrounding areas, as part of a trial based on wireless mesh networking. Mesh is a wireless co-operative communication infrastructure between a number of individual wireless transceivers which allows networks to self-form and self-heal.

As part of this network, Digital Doorway terminals have already been installed at Ntshongweni Municipality, Ntshongweni Primary School, Albini Girls High, Wozamoya School and the Lalelani Primary School. Learners and educators at these schools can now communicate with one another using the network. An additional personal computer has also been installed at the Charles Memorial School which is linked to the same mesh network.

The event was attended by members and councillors of the community, learners from the schools where Digital Doorways have been installed, and officials from the Ethekwini Municipality.

Ronel Smith, the project coordinator for the Meraka Institute, a national research centre managed by the CSIR, says it is the first time that a number of Digital Doorways were installed in such close proximity. This enabled the researchers to use recent knowledge gained by their fellow researchers who are focusing on wireless solutions, to establish a trial mesh network.

“At the Meraka Institute we continue to research sustainable information and communications technologies to create a more inclusive information society. We have now combined the learning from two projects: the Digital Doorway – which is about computer literacy through minimally invasive education, and the Wireless Africa project – which is about finding affordable, viable broadband infrastructures – and we are excited about the potential and the progress.”

Jointly issued by the Department of Science and Technology and the Meraka Institute.

For enquiries contact:

The Department of Science and Technology:

Celeste Tema, Deputy Director: Communication and Media Liaison; Cell: 083 3990765 or Email: celeste.tema@dst.gov.za

Nelvis Qekema, Ministerial Liaison Officer, Cell: 082 571 2571 or Email: nelvis.qekema@dst.gov.za

The Meraka Institute:

Ronel Smith, Project Manager, Cell: 0836004424, or Email: rsmith2@csir.co.za