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South Africa is a rich and diverse country. The bush. Gold mining. Cape Town. But it's a country that's been brutally managed on behalf of a very small minority for the past 40 years. And that has screwed up its entire infrastructure. Forty percent of the country's able-bodied population is unemployed. More than 70% of its adult population is illiterate or semiliterate. In a country of 40 million people, there are only 3 million telephones-old ones at that, as …

…system is anathema to the rapid spread of technology. South Africa could become the social and economic beacon for the rest of the African continent. But it needs to take some drastic steps-deregulating its telephone business, defining clear rules for competition, providing incentives to invest in technology and education-to become that beacon and to surf the Third Wave. I left hoping that Nelson Mandela does see the value of technology in enfranchising the entire population.