Farmers in the Makuleke area of the province have been given a valuable tool to upgrade their methods, and to stay abreast of real-time agricultural marketing trends.

During a colourful ceremony on Thursday, a project linking the community to internet facilities, by the use of cellular technology, was officially launched at Makuleke Village, near the boundary of the Kruger National Park. The community's contribution was to supply 200 handsets in order to facilitate the installation of the communication system.

The initiative is the product of a partnership between the Makuleke community, Senegalese-based technology giant Manobi, and their South African counterparts, Alcatel and Vodacom. It will enable farmers to run their businesses more effectively, by giving them access to stock prices and other important information.

"This project demonstrates that sustainable internet access can be used to bridge the digital divide between the country's urban environment and underdeveloped rural areas of South Africa," Vodacom’s Corporate Communications Director, Mthobi Tzamzashe, pointed out, when addressing guests and members of the local community during the launching ceremony. He said the Makuleke area was chosen for the pilot project because of its remoteness, and its lack of access to information, infrastructure or market information through newspapers or radio broadcasts.

"If this pilot project in South Africa proves to be as successful as the one launched in Senegal by Manobi, expansion to various other remote areas in the country, is likely to be swift, and the impact great," he explained.

Manobi General Manager Daniel Annerose was equally optimistic in his assessment of the many possible spin-offs the network could bring, in servicing local rural needs.

"Since its creation in 2000, Manobi has transformed the mobile phone into a genuine working tool, to connect usually distant economic worlds; the chain which has been created with Vodacom, Alcatel, the Makuleke community, market places, lodges and restaurants, is the beginning of our journey in South Africa, and we hope to do similar projects in other parts of your country," he said.

Alcatel's Thierry Albrand sketched the way in which the network would operate. He said Manobi inspectors would, for instance, visit agricultural markets, and enter all relevant data on their personal digital systems, before sending the information by means of a GSM network to a database to which the farmers would have cellphone access.

In thanking the main sponsors of the new technology, for choosing the community for the pilot project, Councillor Gibson Maluleke said local farmers would take advantage of this opportunity to enhance their productivity and marketing.

He related the inspiring story of how the community had refused to accept their fate, when they were forcibly removed from a large section of their ancestral land by the apartheid government. They worked tirelessly through the years to regain their dignity and to control their own economic destiny, eventually obtaining a land restitution order, which saw large tracts of land returned to them.