With millions of South Africans still unable to connect to the Internet, costs across the board – from data fees to devices – need to come down.
This is the word from Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, minister of communications, telecommunications and postal services, speaking at the launch of Huawei’s ConnectUnity campaign in Johannesburg.
“In South Africa we have about 98% of population coverage, we are still battling with geographic coverage,” she says. “We have about 20-million people what are unconnected.
“We want people to be able to unite in diversity, so we need connectivity – and people must have access to networks and devices. This talks to the cost, so availability and affordability of the device is crucial.”
She urges international companies to invest in South Africa with the aim of going beyond job creation. “We don’t just want jobs, we want people to provide solutions to their own challenges. Companies like Huawei must also give people the opportunity to give their input into the value chain.
“We want to build a community, and part of creating a community talks to people being able to thrive economically.
“That is why we support small businesses. We are not going to achieve our targets if we allow investors to do everything themselves. It is one thing to invest and spend, but spend to the right target.
“We want to reduce unemployment, give opportunities to people who didn’t have opportunity. We want to see products that are locally produced. We want our people to have a chance to participate in the your success.”
Huawei South Africa has released catchy dance tune and music video; created, produced and performed by talented young South Africans, for a corporate campaign called ConnectUnity: Moving beyond Connectivity for South Africa.
Huawei SA CEO Spawn Fan says Huawei is known for its technology but the company wanted to highlight what connectivity meant beyond technology. “Connectivity has a transformative power to bring opportunity, build communities and promote unity needed to build a brighter future for South Africa and Africa.”
Fan adds that ConnectUnity was inspired by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Thuma Mina call to action.
“We wanted to do more outside our ICT investment, so ConnectUnity is about showcasing the value connectivity brings to every life it touches. We want to encourage the spirit and power of togetherness.”
Huawei creative director Xavier Wong says a song was a natural choice for the South African campaign because music is such a uniting force. “South Africans love music and dance and so a song was an ideal tool for the ConnectUnity message; apart from the song and music video, it can be shared as a ringtone and download, played at events. It also has a universal appeal.”
The song, ConnectUnity, was produced by producer/rapper Big Dreamz and features up and coming female vocalist Mikhale Jones. Grammy-nominated producer and audio engineer Mazwe Mtetwa collaborated on the track. The music video was produced by multimedia agency, Cut2Black, on location in Johannesburg.