The United Nations recently decreed that broadband internet access is a basic human right. Notice that they said “broadband”, not just any old slow-poke noisy dial-up connection. No, fast, seamless, streaming internet access.

In South Africa, where the other basic human rights like access to clean water, electricity, education and health care are not available for much of the population, the UN’s decree strikes us as somewhat absurd. But, thinking about it, it actually makes a lot of sense — even if it is a far dream for us.

Access to broadband, if it is rolled out properly, can stimulate the economy by creating digital infrastructure for small and large businesses alike. It can change the way education is disseminated and structured, can boost the number of skilled workers in the country and can aid in health care and health care education.

A large percentage of the workers in developed countries are becoming “knowledge workers”. This is mostly because of the increase in broadband accessibility in these countries. A “knowledge worker”, providing he or she has an ethic of always learning by using the tools at hand, can contribute a large and varied array of skills, whereas other workers, who don’t have such digital accessibility, will deliver a more niche skill.

One of the main reasons for declaring broadband a basic human right is based on the recent uprisings, specifically in Egypt, where broadband and the mechanisms of social media platforms played a vital role in achieving cohesion in the protests — which resulted, eventually, in the overthrow of the government.

So broadband is intimately tied up with freedom of speech and access to uncensored information. Along with this, it also has the above mentioned potential to positively influence the economy, education and training, and health care.

But all this progressiveness is yet to reach South Africa, and not for a lack of trying. A few years back undersea cables bringing almost free, fast broadband to our shores had businesses and computer game junkies celebrating on the street but nothing came of it. The lowest permissible speed according to the UN is 10mbps. In South Africa only the luckiest get 3mbps, everyone else gets less.

Internet is also very expensive here — in fact, South Africa is top of the pops for the most expensive internet in the world. This is because certain companies, Telkom and Vodacom in particular, perform large-scale, public domain, government sanctioned robbery. Broadband will never be a basic human here, unless these oligarchy fat-cats stop putting a 3000% mark-up on our internet.  

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