Red tape keeps rural South Africans offline

A company responsible for building cellphone towers in South Africa’s deep rural areas has highlighted how government bureaucracy is hindering full connectivity for poor rural communities.

Many villages, farms and periurban areas struggle to connect with the outside world due to a lack of cellphone signals.

This absence of connectivity has negatively affected small businesses, learning and teaching in schools.

Lack of connectivity negatively affecting rural businesses and schools

Sean Shipalana, director of Moropa Site Solutions, said it could take over a year to construct a single cell tower, which is a relatively small structure.

“We face a chain of delays – some administrative, some structural and some simply logistical,” he said.

Erecting a tower involved approval from government departments at the national, provincial and local levels.

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These include permits from the Civil Aviation Authority, environmental clearance from the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment, consent approvals through municipal planning authorities and building plan approvals from local government.

Each step has its own timeline – often three to four months – making the cumulative delay difficult to manage.

However, the red tape is just one part of the challenge.

Red tape part of the problem

As mobile networks accelerate 5G roll-outs across South Africa rural communities continue to experience poor connectivity due to problems in getting infrastructure off the ground.

A study by Opensignal published in 2023 found that smartphone users experienced a 14.4% slower average download speed and 29.2% slower upload speed experience in rural areas than in urban areas.

The study also found that time spent with no signal was far higher in rural areas, with users in the Northern Cape and Limpopo recording the highest proportion of time with no signal.

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Even rural areas of Qonce and Stutterheim in the Eastern Cape, which are nearer towns, still struggle with signal due to the lack of cellphone towers.

Staff shortages at municipalities also contributed to delays.

“Smaller municipalities that cover rural areas often face critical staffing shortages. Applications for building plans or zoning permissions can sit unattended for months, not because of inefficiency, but because there simply aren’t enough staff to process them,” he said.

Staff shortages also contribute to delays

The situation was complicated by the recent CAA requirement that obstacle assessments be conducted through two newly appointed service providers: Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) and Tsela Obstacle Safeguarding (Pty) Ltd.

“Often mobile network operators change plans and cancel their leases with tower operators when the permitting process takes more than a year.”

“When this happens, not only is the costly application process in vain, but a local community that had been waiting in anticipation does not get the tower they need to service their area.”

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