Our Profile - SOWETO Wireless User Group

Soweto Wireless User Group (SOWUG) is a registered Non-Profit Organisation, that provides free wireless
solutions and it is currently based in Soweto with Registration number: 075-643-NPO.
SOWUG was established in February 2010 as an NPO that seeks to promote information sharing through
wireless communication. Its true form was from an organization called Johannesburg Wireless User Group
that provided wireless services through game playing and chatting to friends who have deployed the WiFi networking at their homes. As founders of SOWUG, we then felt that it is necessary to customize our
network to cater for the intellectual, social, and economic needs of our community not just limited to information sharing and social networking but also to enhance the development of the broader community
through self-empowerment and self-education programmes amongst others.
Long term objective
To be running a freely accessible, reliable, upto date
and efficient network around Gauteng that will benefit youth and the general community, especially
from Previously Disadvantaged Backgrounds with
their domestic, environmental and societal issues
and to integrate them into the ICT and socio-economic mainstream.
Medium term objective
To transform rural townships and remote areas by means of creating a wireless network that renders enabling and free digital information, communication and empowerment.
To create a knowledge database and increase SOWUG knowledge content and capacity by developing and operating a Research, Innovation and Development Hub (SIDC) in
order to remain relevant and deliver modern and improved solutions and services to
our all our beneficiaries and clients.
SOWUG
TEAM
Our staff generally compromises of a mixture of multi-skilled professionals & entrepreneurs, mostly experienced and skilled youth and graduates, community leaders and youth all working on a full-time and
part-time voluntary basis at this stage of the organisation. Below is the Age, Experience & Expertise of the
Board of Directors and staff members:
Executive Director (Jabulani Vilakazi): AGE: 34 years EXPERIENCE: 5 years in the
ICT and Wireless industry. He has been working for one of the telecommunications giants in Africa for the past for 4 years. EXPERTISE: Wireless Network Engineering administrator.
Organisational Secretariat (Gabriel Ramokotjo): AGE: 30 years EXPERIENCE: Setting
up name servers for domain names, resolving DNS queries using Linux operating
system, is technical team for new Top Level Domain (gTLD) .AFRICA, Sits on ICANN
(Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) advisory board. Provides
leadership and builds strategic partnerships.
Financial Director (Thato Mfikwe): AGE: 35 years EXPERIENCE: 4 years in Project
and Financial Management, 2years in Market Research and Analysis, Advocacy
and lobbying, 3 years in Strategic Leadership and Management. 6 months in Financial Administration, EXPERTISE: Finance and accounting TUT Graduate, Certified in Project Management and strategic leadership, skilled in Skills development,
Marketing, Business Development and Support, New venture creation, Market
Research and Analysis, Budgeting amongst others (International, NPO, FMCG,
Financial services and public sector/service experience).
PR and Marketing (Refilwe Segopa): AGE: 35 years EXPERIENCE: Refilwe Segopa
the founder of Soweto BizLink a social enterprise organisation since 2010 that
strives to put Soweto’s brand in the forefront of an on-line Global Digital Village.
She holds a Business Analysis Certificate with View Point IIBA and has studied Marketing Communications with the Institute for Marketing Management and CIS.
She has more than 10 years professional business experience in various fields and
has passion for Development in ICT sectors. Her extensive experience includes
marketing, sales, project management, event management, consultancy and servicing well-established organisations in business administration.
Communication and Web Development (Kodishang Tshwaane): AGE: 33 years
EXPERIENCE: Kodishang Tshwaane is the founder of KNK Consulting which is a
web development agency based in Soweto, specializing in web development,
social media branding and online marketing. He was a communications officer at
Social Development Western Cape Head Office for 1 year and worked at Wolwekloof Academy for 4 years, which was a Social Development project – during 2006
and 2009.
Project Manager (Sthembiso Xhakaza): AGE: 31 years EXPERIENCE: Sales, Events
Management, Research, supervision, Programme Director, Promotions, Project Director, Training , Show Room Management and analyst EXPERTISE: Management,
services technology, project management, Business Motivation, Mentorship, Motivational Speaker and Youth Empowerment Movement.
Strategic Director (Paul Muller): AGE: 47 years; EXPERIENCE: 16 years in the Internet and Telecoms industry having been a director at Vox and its COO
Technical Director (Brian Magwaza): AGE: 36 years EXPERIENCE: BSC Computer Science graduate from University of Cape Town, has networking, A+ and N+
experience, also founder of Nijinjicom a network and Wi-Fi service company based
in Soweto.
Project Coordinator (Lucas Luthuli): AGE: 29 years EXPERIENCE: Computer studies and training, Wi-Fi installation and networking and community service.
Project Coordinator (Sello Dibedi): AGE: 30 years EXPERIENCE: ICT training,
e-learning, entrepreneurship, project management and facilitation. Previous
Gauteng online Facilitator.
Our
Beneficiaries
- Community and Youth in general: We provide this
group with a free wireless digital communication
and information platform, which has a community,
business and youth directory for self-improvement,
self-education and self-empowerment purposes (at
personal, social and professional levels).
- Young adults, professional and graduates: By
providing this group with opportunities to contribute back to communities with their knowledge, skills
and expertise. The network will create a conducive
environment to finding employment, marketing
ideas, business and social innovations for this group.
- Small and Medium Business: By providing this
group with referrals information and adhoc business
support and development services. The network will
create a marketing and advertisement platform to
enhance their businesses visibility and products.
- Government departments and other stakeholders: By bridging the gap between service delivery,
communication and social investment through a free
wireless network. We will continue fostering fruitful
relationships with government institutions and our
partners in order to ensure that our network provides
helpful and actionable insight, hindsight, foresight,
support, advice and guidance to end-users.
Background
Demographics
SOWETO
- Dominant population group is 99%
- The Female gender is at 51%
- 41% of the population is between 15 – 34 years old
- The number of people with Grade 12 education
level is at 25%
- 33% of the population is economically actively
employed
- The dominant language spoken is Zulu and Sotho
- The total population of Soweto is 4million with 10 %
anticipated to use the SOWUG network.
Needs Overview
Generally the needs of our target market are cross-cutting and interlinked. We seek to develop highly
skilled, innovative and adaptable communities and promote social and economic development and transformation through ICT in order to support the growth and development of our beneficiaries with government being our auxiliary partners. Social media and next generation Interne related technologies are
not simply a passing trend, but are fast redefining the way business is conducted and how acquaintances
communicate online.
- Youth and Community: They need quicker, cheaper and reliable access to social media, general
information and empowerment – services, health, skills, jobs and education amongst others.
- Government and Community: They need easy, convenient and reliable communication amongst the
community and stakeholders to affect transformation; better, improved and organised social cohesion
and service delivery.
- Adults, Graduates and Businesses: They need a conducive environment and accessible platform that
is complex and flexible to turn a dream of an innovation or business ideas into reality amongst other
things.
SOWUG Services
Our detailed interventions and chamber details will be available in an interactive form on the wireless network and our level of community and stakeholder engagement and consultation will robust and thorough
to building a “Knowledge Market” along with our partners. Below is a general description and overview of
our SOWUG programmes:
- Media and Gaming Zone: Games, music and Media file uploads, downloads, articles, updates and access.
- Communication Forums and Platforms: Friend finder, collaborative software, focus groups, chats,
discussions and forums
- Information Dissemination and Referral: Announcements, jobs, Community directories (local businesses,
organisations, youth and government services directorates).
- Citizenship and Community Development: Upcoming and current projects, campaigns, training and skills
development opportunities
- News, Updates and Events: Community news, updates, events, public sector news, announcments and
projects
- Business Development and Support: Involves strategic integration of enterprises into the local economic
mainstream via advertisement, access to procurement opportunities, business creation, improvement
and growth amongst others.
- Education and skills: Education and Career guidance, advice and directory; entrepreneurship,
employment and life skills (Downloadable articles and resources)
So far SOWUG has covered 40 percent in terms of the Network Infrastructure in Soweto. Picture below
displays current active Grid antennas and the areas covered.
We have acquired a License from ICASA to broadcast the 2,7GHZ and 5,8ghz spectrum. The radio frequency spectrum will be managed in the public interest and in accordance with principal of legality.
Economic
Impact
10% of broadband penetration increases the GDP growth by 3%; the SOWUG network infrastructure will
enable a platform for open access to the community of Soweto. SOWUG aims to bridge the digital divide
in return this will enable entrepreneurs to manage their business efficiently. It will improve customer
communication and management.
- Jobs will be created to assist the technical team with antenna installations and maintenance.
- The existing www.sowug.org.za site will be modified to include a classified section which will create
a platform for jobs and services rendered by the government. A dedicated Web developer will be e
ployed with responsibilities of information dissemination to the community at large through the ne
works.
- The project will bring down the cost of communication between Business, Citizens and Government.
- Enhancement of services such as e-filling , payment of fines , applying for grants and reporting crime
and incidents
- It is convenient and cost-effective for businesses, and the public benefits by getting easy access to the
most current information available without having to spend time, energy and money to get it
- E-Commerce market will be enabled for SMME’s and micro businesses to expand their businesses and
compete in the market beyond expectation.
How it works?
- Point to Point 5.8ghz WI-FI access points are
deployed for long distance link
- Every five access points will have a backhaul
wireless unit that takes traffic to the base station.
- The base stations are linked to each other and then
to Fiber optic cable to the data center
- End users will access the network through a 2.4ghz
frequency.
- Easy to use functionalities
- The network is compatible for all devices using the
802.11 technology
Initiated Project
Outcomes and Goals
- Create awareness and facilitate development programs that will alleviate poverty from the
disadvantaged people.
- Create Jobs and skills transfer for the people of Soweto, through white labelled sites on the network
and the SIDC.
- Enable the people of Soweto to take advantage of technology and lower the digital divide within the
Soweto area.
- End –user will have access to e-government (i.e. e-government the digital interactions between a
citizen and their government (C2G), between governments and government agencies(G2G) betwee
government and citizens(G2C), between government and employees(G2E) and between government
and business/commerce(G2B), e-services as being one prominence of providing government to
business/citizens)
- E-Government should enable anyone visiting a city website to communicate and interact with city
employees via the Internet with graphical user interfaces (GUI), instant-messaging (IM), audio/video
presentations, and in any way more sophisticated than a simple email letter to the address provided at
the website
- The use of technology to enhance the access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens,
business partners and employees
- E-Learning content will be available for students in the higher education sector, though a cache server.
Other sites such as the Wikipedia will be available on the network as part of the white labelled sites.
- E- Health, better health information and services leading to reduced disability and their dependence on
hospital care.
Proposed SOWUG
Wireless Network
- implementation plan 2015 - 2020 (Soweto)
- Installation of Wi-Fi coverage (400 AP’s) and Information access for the residents of Soweto and the
surrounding communal areas.
- The Wi-Fi network will grant citizens 500Mb each for a period of 5 years. Once the latter has depleted
the user will only have access to white labelled sites (i.e. E-government sites)
- SOWUG will be responsible for maintenance of the network and the routers for the project duration
- The network equipment will be insured for the duration of the project (5 years)
- SOWUG has a marketing department that will be effectively involved in developing a marketing plan
that will foresee that the project of offering broadband within Soweto and surrounding areas will be
effectively communicated to the residents of Soweto
- A support Centre will be established that will create additional 30 jobs for supporting an estimated
40 000 people on the network.
Progress on
Implementation
plan
To date, SOWUG has partnered with network provider Dark Fibre Africa, data centre company Teraco and
internet provider Vox Telecom to launch the Wi-Fi
project. Teraco and Vox Telecom are involved in the
project as part of their enterprise development programmes.
SOWUG has also received funding from global organisation the Internet Society for the project that is
planned to last 12 months. But he said this funding
could run out sooner owing to the high costs associated with running an infrastructure project of this
nature.
We need another three to four high sites, back-end,
infrastructure; fibre, SOWUG needs another 400 high
sites across the area.
Our
partners
1 - WAPA - Wireless Access Providers Association, we are members of this NGO in the industry
2 - MTN – funding of website development, branding, marketing and network infrastructure
3 - ZADNA (ZA CENTRAL REGISTRY) – open education labs for computer training for 5 years to 10 years
children for Early Childhood Development (ECD), Higher education students, school learners and
recreational purposes
4 - HATFIELD CHRISTIAN SCHOOL – Electronic & downloadable past exam papers for grade 7 to grade
12 learners
5 - Innovators and Inventors Institute – software architect, development and integration by Innovators
and inventors Institute – innovation development
6 - Internet Society ISOC Gauteng Chapter – a global organization that has supported SOWUG
financially with a grant allowing the backend infrastructure to be established and finance
administration and operational costs involved for 12 months.
7 - Teraco – a neutral data centre hosting SOWUG servers and cross connect facilities for Internet breakout at Isando, provides SOWUG with data hosting facilities for the next 3 years, ending October 2017.
8 - Foundation for Internet Development (FID) – An NGO responsible for facilitating Corporate Social
Investments and Enterprise Development contracts for SOWUG (EG: Dark Fibre and Teraco)
9 - NIFRACOM – our technical and infrastructure partner in implementation of SOWUG Wi-Fi network
that will enable residents and businesses in Soweto to make full use of information and content
available on the SOWUG servers as well as easily connect to the fast Internet services as provided by
SOWUG.
10 - KHAN Academy – e-learning content provider for schools, academics and business related
e-learning content.
11 - Dark Fibre Africa – our partner for Fibre backhaul, SOWUG granted fibre access for 1 year ending
2016 February, from Soweto to Teraco.
12 - International Bureau of Understanding (INTBU) – commercialization and growth of SOWUG
network via ADS and communication platforms for SOWUG infrastructure rollout and financing
thereof.
Local Soweto
Business Associates
Lebpark Supplys (Pty) Ltd, Soweto Brands, KnK Consulting, Njinjicom, Khurampa Trading Enterprise,
Soweto BizOnline, Sthebo Project (Pty) Ltd, Soweto Theatre, Soweto Arts & Crafts,
Current Projects
Wi-Fi around Soweto – Active (Testing, planning and now ready for implementation): Installation of
affordable and reliable internet access and setting up of a freely accessible wireless network that will
enable digital empowerment of users and e-government services in and around Soweto.
Projects
thus far
- SOWUG has acquired a License from ICASA to
broadcast the 2,7GHZ and 5,8ghz spectrum. The
radio frequency spectrum will be managed in the
public interest and in accordance with principal of
legality.
- Collectively around the 50 young men and women
attended the I-Week event at Indaba hotel – 3days,
IGF – Gauteng Forum at Wits University – Gauteng –
2 days, IGF – Global at Midrand, ZANDA offices, EMS
training of 40 young people, 17 participated in an
ICT research done at the SIDC on the 22nd of October 2014.
- On the 18th of July 2014, we fed 5 households with
food parcels, 3 families in Jabulani Flats and 2 families in Nhlanzane Hostel.
- On the 4th and 5th of April 2014 we successfully
ran a 2 day event (Information day and Family Fun
day with service providers, activities, sports and
games amongst other things)
A total of 100 Jabulani Flats households on the 24th
and 25th of November 2014 were visited on a qualitative research drive (Usage, habits and spending
amongst others) necessary towards the provision
of wireless services and internet to the community.
3 young people we assigned as field agents for skill
development purposes.
Investment
to date
More than R100 000 has been invested with the project thus far from different stakeholders to establish
the branding of SOWUG and the infrastructure partially. We have also secured office space at Matubeng
Primary school, Moletsane, Soweto.
We believe that like water and electricity Internet should be a human right in South Africa. Citizens
should be subsidized for Internet access for skills development, poverty alleviation and socio cohesion.
With the hope that this will be the beginning of another fruitful and productive relationship, thank you.
Contact Details
Thato Mfikwe
Financial Director
Contact - 073 941 0041
Email: [email protected]
Jabulani Vilakazi
Executive Director
Contact – 083 209 0248
Email: [email protected]
Gabriel Ramokotjo
SOWUG Secretariat
Contact – 083 742 4005
Email: [email protected]
Kodishang Tshwaane
Communications and Web Development
Contact – 060 922 4152
Email: [email protected]
Business Office: 1331 Mosia Street, Matubeng Primary School, Moletsane, Soweto
Website: www.sowug.org.za | Email: [email protected]
“TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES
THROUGH ICT DEVELOPMENT”