Not surprisingly, South Africa came out tops in comparison with the communications systems of countries to the north of us, in the number of telephones per person and in access to new technologies such as cellular phones, e-mail and the Internet. But in the past few years there has been a vast upsurge in the African connection, with some 33 countries acquiring cellular networks and all but two linked to the Net. These and other advances were highlighted by the Naidoo odyssey. Without a doubt, Africa is now more in contact with itself and the rest of the world than it has ever been. Vehicular communications, however, remain a problem, as Naidoo and his team discovered.
Many continental highways are still atrocious and slow down transportation.
Bureaucracy sometimes brings everything to halt, even if the roads don't. But though they visited some of the remotest locations in Africa, journalists with Naidoo reported that they mostly felt safer than in their own crime-ridden society. South Africa has much to learn, as well as teach.