South Africa's digital inclusion policy and regulatory landscape are at a turning point. After years of championing community-centred connectivity initiatives (CCCIs) on the ground, the country's decision makers are conducting a consultation process until 21 August 2026 to update the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, towards amending the Electronic Communications Act, 2005.
This update addresses key definitions regarding community networks, rapid deployment of digital infrastructure, and licensing and spectrum policies. The voices of the most affected communities in underserved areas have long gone unheard in the rooms where these policies are shaped. Yet these very communities have been building local access initiatives and pioneering new approaches to bridge connectivity gaps.
One recent milestone in this sense was the South Africa School for Digital Policy, Community Networks Edition (ZASDIP CN/2026), which convened 23 practitioners from community connectivity initiatives across the country for capacity building, sharing experiences and training in the advocacy field. In this article, we share their insights on how to foster an inclusive policy and regulatory environment, specifically to ensure those local community voices are heard.
From the ground up
A joint effort is usually a strong first step that leads to achievements – and ZASDIP is a great example of this. The school was led by the Community Networks South Africa (CNSA) association, together with Ellipsis Regulatory Solutions, and a group of CCCIs, including Mamaila Community Network, Soweto Wireless User Group (SOWUG), Zenzeleni, Amadiba, Amaqhawe, Project Isizwe, Jus Technologies, and Parktel – as well as other initiatives in the country that joined the school. Convened by the Local Networks (LocNet) initiative – jointly led by APC and Rhizomatica – ZASDIP also brought together a faculty specialised in key areas of digital policy, along with all the voices necessary to lead this important conversation. It counted support from the British High Commission in Pretoria and the UK Government's Digital Access Programme in South Africa.
While building training on policy advocacy for CCCIs, ZASDIP offered participants coming from variegated realities and backgrounds a space to share their experiences and be inspired by each other. "Your experiences are evidence," noted Josephine Miliza, LocNet’s policy coordinator, while sharing the South African policy context – underscoring the potential influence of these initiatives on policy advocacy, and inviting more engagement from participants in this challenging moment.
A key space of the school was the Practicum, "an immersive practicum roleplay simulating multistakeholder policy discussions aimed at developing recommendations to inform a formal policy decision on Starlink's operating licence applications," as Catherine Kyalo, LocNet’s Africa regional liaison, described it. Steady on the course in the room where ZASDIP was developed, fellows were prompted to answer this question: "What would you say to an ICASA [Independent Communications Authority of South Africa] officer if you get to him/her in an elevator?"
From the extended geography of South Africa and from the different strands of stories of ongoing initiatives, participants expressed their concrete requests and proposals to the regulatory authority. They focused on the difficulties faced in their territories, on the type of service they provide and the social impact they prioritise. While valuing their diversity, communities had a common request: they need authorities to tailor policies and regulations to their realities and needs, acknowledge their contribution to digital inclusion and also address spectrum and licences as key resources to guarantee their sustainability to continue providing services to their communities.
"The exercise fostered insightful deliberations and a valuable capacity-building process, culminating in a rich output document," added Kyalo. Now the opportunity is in place, with the ECA 2005 Amendment open call for contributions, and communities are ready to participate.
Strengthening voices from communities
When asked about their experiences, participants were very articulate. They took pride in the important aspects of the projects they are leading, were connected and committed to their communities, and had absolute clarity about what was needed to achieve policies and regulations that would lead to their sustainability and growth.
Highlighting their achievements, Kgwarishi Malatji from VNET said he was proud of "giving people an opportunity to have access to the internet in their home, something that they never thought was possible given the conditions of where they live." In his appeal ICASA, he requested them "to open up spectrum specifically for community networks to operate so that we can continue to give quality service to communities."
During ZASDIP, practitioners shared experiences of community-centred connectivity initiatives.
Janine King from JUS Technologies – from a very rural area with almost no electricity – highlighted that "one of the things that our company is proud of is that we connected the Isilimela Hospital. We had no idea what is the impact we made until doctors actually explained to us they can speak to the outside world; they can speak to their families; they can get medications in." Janine preferred to appeal to ICASA by way of a question: "We are a small ISP [internet service provider]. We do wireless connections to homes, schools, community centres, hospitals. We live in the area so we know what the people want, what they need. So how can you assist us to bridge this digital divide and help both our villages?"
Leora Magoro from Mamaila Community and Zuri Foundation underlined that these organisations "ensure that we can cover all the aspects leading to meaningful connectivity usage, because we provide skills training, digital literacy, access to devices, and, most recently, we have developed a tech toolkit which focuses on online safety, inspired by the traditional customs of our people." Neo Magoro, also from Zuri, Mamaila and part of the CNSA, highlighted that the biggest achievement "is being able to be a network that provides digital literacy classes to schools in our area." She also wished to see digital literacy integrated fully into the schools’ curriculum. She reiterated: "One of the most important issues that community networks are actually fighting for is access to spectrum."
With different words but with the same intentions, Sylvan Van Kramberg from Parktel stressed that "access to spectrum would be a much-needed and welcome policy to look at and enable us, community networks, to have further reach and more stability. I would urge the minister to really look into that, in helping community networks have better deliverability." From Zenzeleni, Yumna Panday defined it in her own words: "I would just say simply… because you have the mandate, we have the market. So let us merge to make connectivity meaningful to the people."
Yumna Panday from Zenzeleni and Ganief Manuel from Ocean View, both members of the CNSA.
Ganief Manuel from the Ocean View community and chairman of the CNSA expressed his feelings thus: "What I'm proud of is assisting the people within the community and of the difference that connectivity is making within their lives." expressed. To ICASA, he would ask for support. "You wouldn't need to impose extra policies and regulations to enforce us, or force us to perform socio-economic work within the communities. This is already the work that we are doing. We just need assistance to help us have greater impact in helping connect our communities."
Their testimonies and requests are recorded in this series of videos. Watch them here.
Future steps
The programme concluded with a visit from South Africa's Minister of Communications Solly Malatsi, who presented certificates to participants and joined fellows at a fireside chat about community network policy priorities. An important result of this conversation was the minister's invitation to fellows to identify and communicate to the ministry three most urgent needs of communities in the digital policy field. These priorities are being channelled to the ministry through the CNSA.
Faculty of ZASDIP together with South Africa's Minister of Communications, Solly Malatsi.
The CNSA is a collective entity created in 2024 to address the needs of community networks in terms of advocacy, capacity building, support, partnership and resource mobilisation. As part of the operationalisation of the National Strategy for Community Networks in South Africa, the association is upping its representation of CCCIs in the country.
Speaking on behalf of the CNSA, Ganief appreciated the value of ZASDIP to the community: "Communities don't normally get to speak about regulation, and that's also helping us open up and broaden horizons to understand the importance of policy and regulation so that we can take this further to get the assistance that we need." Its first edition leaves no doubt that communities' voices need to be heard. But ZASDIP did not merely end with the shared sessions. It led to the call – which will remain open until 21 August 2026 – for contributions to the ECA Bill amendment by the Parliament.
"The Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, now published, defines community networks as not-for-profit entities and exempts them from licensing requirements, substantially lowering barriers to entry for community-driven initiatives," explained Kyalo. The bill also mandates spectrum sharing with secondary licensees, prioritising small networks. Additionally, it outlines standardised municipal by-laws, including uniform wayleave processes and standardised terms for electronic communications facilities deployments. "This is quite significant for last-mile connectivity actors such as community networks," she underlined.
The website of the Parliament of South Africa hosts the call for contributions.
Following ZASDIP's first edition, 23 policy fellows are advancing their contributions to the ECA Bill, and one lead will be working with CNSA's policy and regulation advocacy this year. Two complementing documents presented at ZASDIP become integral resources for them. This context makes it all the more important that civil society organisations, grassroots organisations and CCCIs have the technical and policy capacity to engage in shaping an ICT policy environment that addresses their realities, reflects their voices and fosters communities' digital rights.