South African High Commission

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WHY USE THE INTERNET

At the South African High Commission we have seen the internet grow over the past few years, particularly the explosion in 1995. As with other foreign missions in Ottawa, we were impressed by the sevices available in Ottawa, and in particular by the support offered by the National Capital Freenet.

WHAT IS THE SOUTH AFRICAN HIGH COMMISSION DOING AT THIS TIME?

At this time we are working to establish a site on the World Wide Web. We hope to have our site online in early February 1996.

Several exaples of the Websites of other institutions have been very useful. In particular the sites of the Federal Government of Canada, some of the Provincial Governments, the Canadian Parliament and other Embassies. Of the latter the Spanish Embassy and the Israeli Embassy have been of great assistance.

The advantages we have seen in using the Internet are the same as those identified by everyone else. At a time of severe budget cuts, the Internet provides a cost effective tool to extend the information task of our High Commission. We expect to move rapidly away from the traditional methods of providing information to Canadians. Our Site on the WWW will be the first step in this direction.

Initially we intend to provide an information data base which will be aimed at Canada. The success of this project will determine where we go from there. Again we will also be guided by the successes of other Embassies.

APPLICATIONS OF THE INTERNET IN SOUTH AFRICA, PARTICULARLY IN AIDING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The Internet provides tremendous opportunities to assist in the sustainable development of South Africa.

The first example is in distance education. South Africa has one of the best distance education universities in the world, the University of South Africa . South Africa already has a Schoolnet.

At the primary and secondary school level the Internet can be used to assist teachers in remote parts of South Africa, particularly where the teachers do not have the same levels of qualifications as those in the cities. It would also make it possible to teach subjects in remote rural areas which would otherwise not have been available.

Another example of how the Intenet is already used in South Africa is SANGONET, a net of South African NGOs. They share information which are relevent to all of them. This information is also available to Canadian NGOs that wish to operate in South Africa.

CONCLUSION

As with every other institution that uses the internet, we in South Africa are finding that it is a revolutionary tool in distributing, collecting and interpreting information.

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