11 August 2021, Business Tech, Staff Writer

Media Monitoring Africa’s executive director, William Bird, said that failing to do so would effectively take the country back to apartheid.

He described access to the internet as a basic human right like water or shelter, which is enshrined in the Constitution. “You shouldn’t have to worry about data,” he said.

He added that internet access was inherently cheaper for wealthier people in South Africa, while the majority of the population have to resort to disproportionately high rates for data to access the internet.

This is because the poor pay higher costs because they cannot afford to pay for data in bulk, whereas those who were better off could do so in terms of data contracts or fixed ADSL and fibre lines, he said