PRETORIA, South Africa, October 17, 2016/APO/ --

Thank you Programme Director, Deputy Minister Mkhize
Honourable African Union Commissioner, HE Dr. Elham Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers from African Union (AU) Member States
The Premier of KwaZulu Natal, Hon Mr. Willies Mchunu,
Members of the Diplomatic Community
Representatives of local and African Internet Forum community
Dr. Robert Khan, one of the co-inventors of the internet,
Government officials from across the continent
Members of the media,
Distinguished guests,

Sanibonani, Good Morning, Sabah Alkhyry, Habari za asubuhi, Bonjour, bom Dia, Buenos dias.

On behalf of the South African Government, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of you in this warm city of Durban. It is indeed my singular honour to welcome Your Excellency AU Commissioner Dr. Ibrahim back to our country after you successfully launched the first African Regional Internet Exchange Centre in Johannesburg three weeks ago. We are extremely grateful for your continuing partnership with us in ensuring that we build an inclusive continent by rolling out large infrastructure projects that connect Africans to opportunities and to each other.

Honourable Premier Mchunu thank you for the wonderful example of cooperative governance. This has enabled us to share our spirit of Ubuntu with our guests. In addition, your Moses Kotane Institute is empowering the young people of this province with the requisite ICT skills to cope and adopt to the digital economy

We are gathered here today after Cabinet decided to partner with the African Union Commission to host this Africa Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF). This meeting aims to discuss key elements around the internet and internet governance as we prepare to finalise continental positions ahead of the December 2016 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Mexico.

The IGF is a multi-stakeholder forum that brings together people to discuss technical and public policy issues relating to the internet and looks at creating an inclusive and sustainable digital economy.

In 2015, while addressing the Pan African Students Association at Princeton University in New York President Jacob Zuma said the following;

“Importantly, the growth of the information and communications technology sector in Africa has been phenomenal. The number of mobile phone users has multiplied 33 times to three hundred and sixteen million users since the year 2000. The internet is spreading around Africa at an even faster pace. These trends have strong positive effects on growth. Due to the lack of fixed line internet infrastructure, roughly 39% of mobile users access the internet via mobile. This has opened an entire new portal for assistance in health and education, in especially the most rural areas.”

President’s Zuma’s comments highlight the progress that the continent has made in connecting Africans to the internet and also the work that lies ahead to ensure that we achieve an inclusive Africa as envisaged in our Agenda 2063 adopted in 2013 by AU.

This 50-year plan aims to build effective institutions, enhance accountability, strengthen solidarity and integration, ensure gender equality, youth empowerment and peace and security in the continent. In 2015, Agenda 2063 was complemented by the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Both these programmes require robust internet or broadband to maximise and expedite the achievement of all their goals.

While internet was first developed in the US, it has become a global resource for the development of all our citizens. In this regard the global community has been advocating that internet should be open, technology neutral, resilient, interoperable and responsive to growth needs for all. At global level we are guided by the outcomes of the 2005 Tunis World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and the 15 December 2015 New York WSIS +10 United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting.

On the African continent, we are guided by the 2014 AU Heads of State Convention on Cyber-security and Data Protection; the objectives of AU Pan African e-Network, Pan African Radio & TV, AU Space Agency, Dot Africa and Regional Internet Exchange Points projects. In addition, we must note of The 2017 Draft AU Declaration on Internet Governance that is currently being consulted in our Member States.

We as the African continent believes the internet governance should be multilateral, democratic and involve all governments and relevant stakeholders such and academics, NGOs and ICT companies in their respective roles. Governments are critical in policy development while other role player may assist with technical aspect and advice on how best to expedite development and deployment of ICTs. The policy issues must include among others the following:

1. How to ensure everyone participate in the on-line economy
2. Intellectual property matters
3. Cybersecurity
4. Privacy online, and
5. How key technical issues such as Domain Names and IP Addresses make internet governance possible.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The AU infrastructure projects, particularly those of power and internet connectivity, are crucial for this continent to leapfrog in development to be on par with the developed world. It was our global icon, former President Nelson Mandela, who in 1999, reminded us that “although much is being done in attempting to bridge the gap between the information haves and the information have-nots, the task remains daunting. Indeed, it is sobering to consider the information revolution from the point of view of global development and its capacity help raise the quality of life. We have to say that our collective vision is in danger of failing where it counts most, namely the goal of universal access to basic telecommunication services.” 

As a continent we must pay particular attention to infrastructure access, affordability and skilling of all our citizen to take advantage of the internet and internet economy value chain. We must work with the private sector and other role players to close the emerging digital divide within and across our nations. We must focus on adding value to and empowering our citizen to enter into the knowledge economy and cope with the unavoidable 4^th Industrial Revolution.

In 2013, South Africa passed South Africa Connect, the national broadband policy which we are currently implementing. During the current global financial downturn, it has been prioritised as part of the Nine-Point-Plan to reignite growth. Two weeks ago, after long consultations since 2012 and in line with our vision 2030, the National Development Plan, we finalised the National Integrated ICT White Paper to guide the development of ICT in a converged environment. It deals with matters of universal access and how we will measure progress we make. It deals with supply side measures such as spectrum and rapid deployment policy to facilitate deployment of infrastructure at reduce costs to our operators. It also covers demand side measures such as e-skills, digital economy and industry growth.

One of the chapters in the White Paper deals with the Internet. It outlines the policy framework for maintaining the open Internet to maximise the possibilities offered by Internet that include transforming how citizens interact with governments and each other, how governments deliver services and how businesses transact. It also includes approaches to governance of the Internet at an international and national level and policies on managing and administering the Internet in line with the vision set in the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society. Importantly, it outlines policy choices that South Africa can use to step up from being merely consumers of internet to creators of internet content across the value chain that includes data centres, search engines or navigation internet and internet exchange points.

Dr. Khan, I doubt that you and your fellow software engineers would have imagined that the internet would be such a powerful public good in your life time when you set out to find a way of managing information between computers 43 years ago. Your initial work has led to an explosion of technological advancement that has continuously improved the way people communicate and interact with the world around them.

Over the next few days, the AfIGF will discuss topics that include Shaping the Future of the Internet in Africa, Delivering an Inclusive Development, Bridging the gender divide in digital transformation of Africa, Youth and Internet Governance, and assessing the role of Internet Governance in the Sustainable Development Goals.

It is important that we consider these subjects because we need to ensure that the continent is empowered to take advantage of the Internet and the 4^th Industrial Revolution. This is crucial for our small and medium sized businesses because this is the sector that will create jobs and deepen innovation.

A little later today, Dr. Khan and I will sign a Multi-Party Administrator Service Agreement between South Africa and the DONA Foundation. Our cabinet approved that South Africa participates in the development of the Digital Object Architecture (DOA) or an alternative way of managing information on the internet. We don’t see this as benefitting South Africa alone but all African nations that would like to participate in or adopt it.

The advantages of this architecture include that it is not controlled by one government or from one location. It is run under the DONA Foundation with the support of the International Telecommunication Union. It is distributed globally through the Multi-Party Administrators (MAPs). It is multilingual and has persistent unique identifiers that provides information over long periods. It provides better security and the owner of the information has control over it and decides which will be public and which will be restricted to authorised users only, such as your personal medical records or sensitive information.

Ladies and Gentleman,

I look forward to our engagement towards finding common goals and solutions to the challenges facing Africa in this digital era. There is much potential for Africa to produce new innovative tools and products, if we work together. Also, I hope that after the three days we will have an action plan that we can take to the Global Internet Governance Forum and show that Africa is ready to do business with the international internet community on an equal footing.

In conclusion,

We must keep in mind the basic problems facing the people of Africa are unemployment, inequality and poverty. Once again, we must be inspired by the wise words of Nelson Mandela who warned; “Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity; it is an act of justice. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by actions of human beings. Sometime it falls on a generation to be great. You can be that generation. Let your greatness blossom.”

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honour to declare the 5^th African Internet Governance Forum open.

I thank you.