Government must allocate 500MB of free data to South Africa’s struggling youth, according to demands detailed in a new petition launched by the DA Youth.

DA Youth Federal Chairperson, Yusuf Cassim, addressed the public at a mass rally at Nangoza Jebe Hall, Port Elizabeth, to announce a national campaign called Mobile Data for All.

“Amongst the multitude of challenges confronting our youth… joblessness, an unequal and oppressive basic education system, exclusion from skills training and university education, substance abuse etc, the exclusion from information and communication power provided through the internet remains the largest obstacle to the freedom to progress as an individual,” Carrim said.

The petition already has 2 400 signatures.

“How can we call ourselves free when half of the South African population have no access to the internet. Internet access is more fundamental than rights. It is an economic necessity.”

Cassim said the DA has been fighting this cause for years, going back to 2013 and continues to do so.

“Fellow Democrats, after all these years little to no progress has been made because in order to do so it requires releasing mobile spectrum in a manner that ensures competition will drive down costs and that additional capacity removes the artificially high costs being charged by service providers who have a monopoly on offering mobile data. This involves a digital migration of which the Department of Communications missed its deadline of November 2011 and also missed the international deadline of June 2015,” he said.

The DA Youth’s petition calls for 500MB to be allocated to:

• Poor and missing middle students.
• Matric learners registered at government schools.
• Jobseekers registered on the jobseekers database.

Cassim said the funding of this allowance as well as the falling of data prices will be achieved by:

1. An immediate release of the extra mobile data spectrum which would bring the much needed competition to the market. This will naturally drive prices down.

2. Funding the free mobile data allowance by deducting the total cost price from each mobile operator’s monthly tax bill. This will allow government to pay for the free mobile data without paying out a cent.

“We believe that this would be a much needed point of departure to enable our youth to exploit the opportunities technology offers to leap out of generations of oppression and disadvantage and prosper. We must not stand back in this struggle. We will not pull our punches,” Cassim concluded.

[Image – DA]