Our flagship project

TSHWI-FI

In 2013, Project Isizwe as a non-profit organization pioneered the blueprint of how free public WiFi can be deployed in a way that is sustainable.

The project was approved by the City of Tshwane’s Council under the Municipal FinanceManagement Act (MFMA) and funded under a grant due to the organisation’s non-for-profit status.

This was also the first time such an initiative was to be rolled out on the African continent.

In 2013, five free public-access WiFi hotspots were rolled out as part of the TSHWI-FI initiative, which later expanded to 15, 250 and ultimately 1050 throughout the City by 2018.

Project Isizwe connected over 3 500 000 unique users in the Capital City since November 2013, logging over 276 Million sessions.

We also developed a content portal, called Tobetsa, which is designed to give users access to uncapped curated content.

This content is focused on education, skills development and employment, and gave local communities the power to access information, education and jobs online, empowering them to participate in the mainstream economy like never before.

During Isizwe’s partnership with the City of Tshwane, our initiative delivered 500 TB (1000GB = 1TB) of data a month.

To buy this amount of data as pre-paid data would cost about an average of R300 per 1 GB.

This implies that Project Isizwe’s flagship Free WiFi project with the City of Tshwane saved residents up to R150 million per month during the duration of the initiative.

The project concluded in June 2018.

Our current projects

We have partnered with Yes4Youth in connecting the first Entrepreneurship Hub in Tembisa to free WiFi and we also offer WiFi users of the Hub a content portal that allows the entrepreneurs to advertise their businesses and curate local content.

We have partnered with Glencore Mine to roll-out 10 hotspots in two mining towns in Witbank, namely Ogies and Phola, to establish free WiFi hotspots at the Makause Combined School, a library, a community sports field near the local police station, the Phola and Ogies taxi ranks and a youth centre.

We partnered with The Social Collective in Bushbuckridge and Botshabelo to launch the Free WiFi Champions Program which aims to leverage the power of young, motivated individuals to share, activate and educate WiFi users about this important service, creating micro-jobbing opportunities.

We have partnered with AWARE.org on their Responsible Alcohol Usage programme, enhancing access to their portal by providing 15 free WiFi hotspots in Botshabelo and 15 free WiFi hotspots in Bushbuckridge.

We have partnered with Amafreezone to enable the roll-out of 15 hotspots in Durban and KwaMashu; and we have partnered with Amafreezone to enable the roll-out of 10 hotspots in Edenvale, and 5 hotspots in Diepsloot, Alexandra and Sontonga Mall in
Johannesburg.

We have partnered with Digital Village to enable the roll-out of 130 hotspots in George.

We have partnered with Airband to provide free internet access to the Lamontville Good News Community Centre in KwaZulu-Natal.

Prior initiatives

Ingwe TVET College & SES Mount Frere and Lusikisiki campuses

In 2015, Project Isizwe deployed high speed internet connectivity to the Ingwe TVET. For the first time, students at both the Mount Frere and Lusikisiki campuses received dedicated Free WiFi in this momentous pilot of bringing high speed connectivity to TVET rural...

Grootfontein Agricultural Development Institute

Project Isizwe assisted to bring the Grootfontein Agricultural Development Institute online as the college strived to fulfil its vision of being the world’s leading centre of excellence in training, research and extension in agricultural production in semi-arid to...

Fun Learning for Youth in Gugulethu

Fun Learning for Youth (FLY) is a nonprofit organisation centred around a team of young professionals who volunteer their time to make a meaningful contribution to the development teaching mathematics to underprivileged learners in the Cape Town townships of...

Express WiFi with Facebook in Limpopo

In late 2014, an initial roll out of 10 Free Internet Zones (FIZ) enabled the groundbreaking work to begin in rural Limpopo, allowing more than 11 000 people to access high speed internet for the first time. Facebook Free Basics provided free, unlimited access to...

Schools in Atlantis and Robertson

Through the Western Cape Broadband Initiative, Project Isizwe -in collaboration with the Department of Economic Development and Tourism - enabled 30 000 people Free WiFi access to at 8 public secondary schools and their surrounding communities in the Atlantis and...

Open Society Foundation

Project Isizwe and the Open Society Foundation established two Free Internet Zones (FIZs), one each in Gugulethu and Khayelitsha serving local residents, in an attempt to kick start a ‘bottom-up’ campaign for free and subsidised internet access for people living in...

Safety Lab in Nyanga

Project Isizwe established a Free Internet Zone (FIZ) at the Zolani Centre in Nyanga. Recognising the power of the internet in supporting research and innovation in services like safety and security provision, Project Isizwe and Safety Lab enabled the internet service...

Gert Sibande TVET College

In partnership with Project Isizwe, Gert Sibande College (Technical Vocational Education and Training institution), which spreads across four campuses in Ermelo, Evander, Standerton and Mpuluzi, deployed Free WiFi which enabled students to better access the internet...

North West Province Hotel Schools

Project Isizwe deployed Free WiFi to the Mahikeng Hotel School and Taung Hotel School campuses in an initiative which will assist the students at the hotel schools to further their interests through access to information, education and resources online.

Khaye-Fi

WiFi hotspots were deployed and access to the hotspots were gained by: Converting recyclable goods into internet access via a voucher system; Converting micro-training sessions into internet access via a microcertification platform; or Converting gaming sessions into...