Premier Ebrahim Rasool said that the South African government should harness information and communications technology (ICT) and place it at the disposal of all the people.
He said the ability to communicate could be included as a basic need of communities, along with needs like water and housingand the government has the opportunity to make otherwise inaccessible technologies available to transform the lives of the most remote villages and the poorest communities.
"ICT transforms the way government works and the way it relates to citizens," Mr Rasool said. The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) is doing extensive research in "community informatics" with the aim of empowering local people through the use of technology.
The provincial government, the City of Cape Town, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and the Department of Communications, is hosting information Society Week.
Two international conferences form part of the event, including the World Summit on the Information Society, which starts on 22nd August 2005. The Community Informatics Research Networks conference starts on August 25.
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