Communications & digital technologies minister Solly Malatsi has acknowledged the slow pace in ensuring South Africa’s mobile network operators make the digital content of public benefit organisations available data-free but is still confident about meeting a January 2027 deadline.
According to the DG Murray Trust, only about 40 out of thousands of public benefit organisations that may be eligible have been onboarded under the zero-rating requirement attached to a multibillion-rand radio frequency spectrum auction conducted by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) in 2022.In May 2024, Icasa published a notice for public benefit organisations, including government websites, to submit applications for assessment for their mobile content to be zero-rated. It said the successful bidders awarded licences in the auction must allow data-free mobile access to the websites of qualifying non-profit entities, including trusts or associations registered with the South African Revenue Service.
The zero-rating obligation must be implemented within 36 months from January 15 2024, the date of the issuance of the licences.
“We are aware of the slow movement around this. But also it’s important to recall that Icasa published the process to apply in May 2024. The deadline is January 2027, so there is still time,” Malatsi told Business Day.
“Our expectation is for Icasa to ensure there is compliance with the achievement of this component, as it was a critical part of the spectrum allocation obligations for the mobile network operators. Icasa has instruments at its disposal which it can use for non-compliance if there is non-compliance.”
Icasa had not responded to questions from Business Day by the time of publication.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the DG Murray Trust advocated for mobile operators to zero-rate digital content from public-benefit organisations so that low-income households could access educational and health information without paying for data.
After Icasa’s spectrum auction made zero-rating public-benefit content a licence condition, DG Murray Trust became vocal about the gap between the obligation existing on paper and people actually receiving free access.
In a country with unequal access to the internet and high data costs, the zero-rating of digital content is a bridge across the digital divide that could connect people to information for education, social services, healthcare and job seeking, the trust said in a recent statement.
“Almost every home in South Africa has a mobile phone, but many in poor communities can’t afford the cost of data. This means the tools for stimulating socioeconomic change are out of reach for millions of people in a country where barriers to connectivity and access to information and resources are a systemic choke which reinforces inequality ” CEO David Harrison said.
“When content that carries social value is zero-rated, new mothers can access trusted information about breastfeeding and nutrition, preschool teachers can tap into support networks and receive training, and young people can be linked to work opportunities.”
According to the trust, some mobile network operators like Rain have moved to zero-rate at least two dozen public benefit organisations ahead of next January’s deadline. But across the major operators, only 15 organisations have been zero-rated out of thousands that may be eligible.
“We are deeply concerned that with the deadline just months away, we’ve had no meaningful communication from most mobile network operators, or from Icasa, about how zero-rating will be implemented, regulated and enforced,” the trust’s innovation director, Busisiwe Kabane-Bailey, said.
Though mobile data prices have decreased nearly 50% in the last few years due to regulatory and consumer pressure, many consumers still find them expensive and complain about the fact that operators place a time limit on when airtime and data packages can be consumed.
In January, Icasa gazetted new regulations that will allow consumers to roll over their mobile data bundles from next year. Mobile operators have, however, raised concerns, and industry giants MTN and Vodacom have launched legal challenges.
The DG Murray Trust says since even before the pandemic, some operators zero-rated sites of their own accord, but implementation has been uneven — for instance, a site that is data-free on one network may not be on another, or may carry different speed and data limitations.
The content itself is selected at each operator’s discretion, with no shared standard to ensure it delivers the greatest possible educational or health benefit.
This article was originally published by Business Day on 27 August 2026. Read it here.
