Digital Partnership South Africa The Government of South Africa has announced their full backing to the national roll out of the Digital Partnership South Africa as a strategy to deliver affordable access to technology, training and the internet for learning, enterprise and development. RSA Director General of Communications Dr Andile Ngcaba devoted his keynote address to Tel.Com Africa 2002 participants in Johannesburg on Wednesday 23rd October to outlining the objectives of the Digital Partnership South Africa, a non-profit private/public partnership that he chairs. He hoped it would be a new partnership model for NEPAD and other countries faced with a digital divide.
The Digital Partnership South Africa aimed to put South Africa on the map as a regional centre of excellence for technology refurbishment, leading with a commitment to place up to 170,000 computers in schools and community centres over two years. Outlining the model, he described how the partnership integrated affordable hardware supply, based on decommissioned PCs donated in bulk by major corporations in America, Europe and Asia, with training, software and local content. Over 20 partnerships have been developed by the Digital Partnership South Africa to help deliver eLearning centres to disadvantaged schools and communities across South Africa, and further partnerships demonstrating capacity for delivery would be developed. All are demonstrating business contribution of skills and resources to development solutions. Earlier at the Department of Communications stand in the Tel.Com Africa 2002 exhibition in Sandton Convention Centre Johannesburg, where the DOC had constructed a township 'school room' to exhibit a Digital Partnership eLearning Centre, staffed by educators from Soweto, Dr Andile Ngcaba met partners and awarded <digital.partner> plaques to the business supporters backing the programme. He appealed for other businesses to join as <digital.partners>. He was joined by Board members of the Digital Partnership South Africa from Accenture, Cisco Systems, IDCS, Intel, Oracle, Microsoft, Telkom and Vodacom. Initiated and supported by UK based Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum with support from the World Bank, foundations and international business, the Digital Partnership South Africa is a non-profit S21 company governed by a South African board of industry leaders and is forging partnerships in the education and community sector. A global technology supply chain from America, Europe and Asia has demonstrated low cost global logistics through a partnership with Exel, and quality refurbishment under warranty by a private sector consortia of South African authorised refurbishment partners enhances job creation and guarantees quality standards. Dr Ngcaba described how ten per cent of the programme will be devoted to innovative projects placing eLearning Centres and ICT applications in prisons, health centres, community centres and enterprise projects. The Digital Partnership South Africa also provides a platform for private sector training initiatives for IT orientation, network administrator training and technical support through the Vodacom Foundation sponsored Digital Partnership Resource & Learning Centre in collaboration with Cisco Systems, Intel and Microsoft. www.digitalpartnership.co.za [EMAIL PROTECTED] Johannesburg, 24th October, 2002 ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
