Empowering South Africa’s digital education future

Teraco, a Digital Realty company and leading provider of interconnection platforms and vendor-neutral colocation data centres, has announced a five-year extension of its support grant to the South African Broadband Education Networks (SABEN) through the Teraco Connect Foundation

Initially signed in 2020, the grant has been extended until 2030, bringing its total value to R17.5 million (approx. US$958,000). This renewed funding supports SABEN’s national initiative to eliminate bandwidth poverty in South Africa’s public schools and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges.

SABEN, a non-profit organisation and a key component of South Africa’s National Research and Education Network (NREN), is the sole provider of broadband and connectivity services to public TVET colleges across the country. Currently, SABEN supports around 450,000 students across 267 campuses and 46 colleges, delivering digital solutions designed to address the unique needs of the education sector.

The Teraco Connect Foundation grant enables these institutions to access digital content more efficiently while laying the groundwork for long-term digital strategies.

Garth Scholtz, SABEN general manager, commented, “Thanks to Teraco’s generous support, we are equipped to continue improving the digital transformation potential of each institution, which SABEN can support adequately.

“Our ultimate beneficiaries are the students. We aim to position ourselves as a conduit to the various classroom technologies that can be built on our scalable platform of digital solutions through the NREN services offering or serving as a thought leader on related technologies. We see ourselves playing a large role in building future capacity in the sector, which would not only help the colleges to help themselves better, but hopefully retain the skills in the public sector where they are so desperately needed,” continued Scholtz.

Through the grant extension, SABEN will maintain a physical presence in Teraco’s Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban data centres. This presence connects colleges directly to Platform Teraco, providing access to a rich ecosystem of cloud and content service providers and enabling improved streaming, cloud-based learning, and remote education capabilities.

Jan Hnizdo, Teraco CEO, noted that the initiative reflects the company’s long-term vision for the education sector.

“The Teraco Connect Foundation sees the grant as an investment in the future of this country at a time when all sectors are facing significant challenges. As a leading data centre infrastructure provider, we are proud to invest in education, one of the most important cornerstones to secure the future growth and development of all South Africans.”

Scholtz emphasises the importance of collaboration between education and industry.

“Collaboration with industry is key, and the grant extension from Teraco will assist us in meeting the evolving digital requirements of all the institutions. South Africa’s skills shortage cannot be addressed unless our education system produces a labour force with the right skills to meet the industry’s demand.

“Poverty and inequality can never be eliminated unless the next generation of previously disadvantaged citizens is economically empowered. The role of all these educational institutions will play a significant role and, as SABEN, we need to ensure that this journey is fully enabled.”