JOHANNESBURG - Few people know what they
want to do with their lives at an early age. And even fewer go on to pursue
their dreams relentlessly. One of the rare to do so is Duduzile Mkhwanazi, who
decided that she wanted to lead a new literacy revolution when she was only
5-years old.
Mkhwanazi, the chief
executive of Project Isizwe says her mission is to change people’s lives and
empower those who are outside the access mainstream.
Project Isizwe is a
non-profit organisation (NPO) behind Africa’s
most successful, large-scale Free WiFi network. Its mission fits in well with
Mkhwanazi's own stated commitment towards making access to WiFi to be free for
as many people as possible.
“Project Isizwe is lobbying
for ubiquitous, government subsidised internet access within a walking distance
of every South African,” Mkhwanazi says.
“Internet access is a tool to empower those in low socioeconomic ranks. When
the government heeds the call to make internet access a basic human right akin
to water and electricity in South
Africa, it will be more than a progressive
pioneering policy, it will be a selfless act to bridge digital, economic and
social divides.”
Also read: Internet access should be a basic human right
Mkhwanazi, who was born and
raised in Katlehong, in Johannesburg’s
south east, says she saw the need for empowerment at an early age when her
peers struggled with literacy while she could read.
She says her parents made
sure that there were always enough books for their children, buying them books
that stretched from storytelling to astronomy.
“My grandmother has fond
memories of me learning hard to read from an early age, she swears that I used
to wait for the news to plays and read the headlines on the weather, from the
young age I always love reading.”.
This inculcated a culture of
reading in the 26-year, tuning her into what she calls an activist for Free
WiFi. “I believe in being part of an organisation that not only sets out to
change people’s lives but also rewrites the history as far as empowerment is
concerned.”
Being an activist is what
Mkhwanazi knows well. During her days at the Northwest University,
she had to juggle her role as a student activist and a part-time position as a
research assistant.
She also calls herself an
academic at heart because she spends lot of her time studying - a belief that
is not misplaced given that she already holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy
Analysis from University Montpellier, France, and still wants to accomplish her
PHD before studying towards an MBA.
Mkhwanazi says is deeply
committed to enabling social justice and empowering South Africans through free
access to the internet.
"While the middle class
are fighting for #datamustfall, what about low-income communities,” she says.
“We believe internet access is important to all."
She says while her job as a
chief executive is busy, she loves the idea of offering a service to South
Africans who would otherwise be condemned to illiteracy.
She admits that funding is
one of the biggest hurdles for Project Isizwe but charges that in the next
coming years, she would like to advance the struggle for free WiFi to all the
corners of the continent.
“It doesn’t feel like work,
its feel more like service. We need to try and get people access to this
digital device”.
But one challenge that she
is still batting to master is to balance her professional life with her
responsibilities as a young mother - she has a 17 month daughter - and a wife
to be.
When things get hectic, she
takes time to go to the Market Theatre with her fiancé.
“It is exciting to be a
South African. Our challenge is to make sure that we get young women into the
tech work.”