Information and communications technology

ICT

Amazon and Microsoft have chosen Cape Town.

Cape Town has the potential to be a world leader in technology. That is according to Savills, which identified 22 such cities in its “Tech Cities 2017” global survey.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) will set up a data centre in Cape Town in 2020 to serve Sub-Saharan Africa. Microsoft Azure data centres were due to open in Cape Town and Johannesburg in late 2018 or early 2019. The French government has officially designated the city as one of six global French Tech Hubs.

French Tech Labs is a fintech incubator, offering mentoring for innovators, connections to possible investors and a chance to travel to France. Barclays Bank has invested in a fintech incubator in Cape Town, Rise. There are six other Rise sites around the world, including New York and Mumbai.

Ambitious targets to roll out broadband coverage across the province have been reached by the Provincial Government of the Western Cape. More than 1 400 schools and libraries and about 400 other public facilities have access to full broadband coverage.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative: www.citi.org.za French South African Tech Labs: fsatlabs.co.za Independent Communications Authority: www.icasa.org.za Silicon Cape: www.siliconcape.com

SECTOR INSIGHT

The Khayelitsha Bandwidth Barn is producing innovative thinkers.

In her State of the Province Address in 2018, Premier Helen Zille also noted that 178 WiFi hotspots had been created, with plans in place to turn the broadband sites into hotspots. Libraries have been at the centre of expanding access: 222 rural libraries with 1 076 computer workstations offer free Internet access. There are also 70 Cape Access Centres and eight Youth Cafés where young people can use the Internet to look for career guidance and opportunities.

The former MEC for Economic Development, Agriculture and Tourism (DEDAT), Alan Winde, will follow Zille as premier if the DA wins the next election. As DEDAT MEC, Winde oversaw the establishment of the I-CAN centre in Elsies River, a trial run for using a communitybased approach to teaching digital skills. It has been hugely successful and DEDAT is aiming to roll the concept out in other municipalities such as Agulhas.

ICT has also been front and centre of initiatives in schools. One example is the Khayelitsha Bandwidth Barn, a township tech incubator supported by DEDAT, and where young people like Zintle Masoko, winner of a full TedX scholarship, have a chance to shine. In 2017, Ed-Tech set up its first business incubator in Africa in Cape Town.

The Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi, pictured) is another support system for the ICT sector. There are 2 000 ICT firms in the Western Cape and they have 17 000 employees.