Investigating the impact of internet in eliminating social exclusion: The case of South Africa

In many other developing countries Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is seen as a means for tackling the problem of social exclusion. This perspective of ICTs has translated into governments and donor agencies spending on establishing Internet access points (e.g. telecentres) in socially excluded communities. Yet, beyond the belief of inherently beneficial ICTs there has been little empirical work done to evaluate the impact of ICTs, notably the Internet, in helping address social exclusion. This paper investigates whether the Internet does contribute to the elimination of social exclusion. The cross-sectional study uses a qualitative research approach on four communities in the Western Cape, South Africa. The major finding of the paper is that the Internet does play a very minimal role in eliminating social exclusion, with very few beneficiaries. The implication of the findings is that governments in developing countries may need to downsize their expectations of the Internet in addressing social exclusion. The relative investment on bringing the Internet against other necessary infrastructure spends (such as healthcare, education and economic resuscitation) may need to be revisited.