Ensuring broadband access for every South African and making the country’s cities digitally connected.

This is the goal of government, said the country’s minister of telecommunications and postal services Siyabonga Cwele, speaking at the Intel Africa Broadband and USF Leaders forum in Cape Town on Wednesday.

Cwele spoke at the event after being named minister of the newly created government portfolio in President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet last month.

"Connectivity is no longer a privilege of a few but a basic human right," said Cwele to attendees.

"South Africa is working towards ensuring that all South Africans have access to the internet," he said.

Cwele further said that South Africa has made progress with broadband connectivity.

He referred to a Stats SA’s general household survey for 2013 that said 40,9% of households have at least one member who uses the internet either at home, the workplace, a place of study, or at internet cafés.

But researchers such as Ipsos have said that only 34% of South Africans have access to the internet.

Nevertheless, Cwele said most of this ‘growth’ in access has been thanks to high mobile connectivity.

According to BuddeComm research, South Africa has a mobile usage rate of above 100% for the country.

“It is more reflective of the growth of mobile access in the last few years," said Cwele.

But government plans to connect more than just people, Cwele said.

"The advent of the age of the internet of things ... brings into sharp focus the need for inexpensive broadband," he said.

"We need to start thinking of digital cities with the need for smart energy grids...smart transport systems," he added.

Looking more broadly at South Africa's technology landscape, Cwele said "policies that limit market competitiveness and rolling out of broadband will be removed.”

He added that a detailed digital roadmap would be developed by government, that there will be a move to push open access broadband fibre, develop e-skills among public sector workers, prioritise e-government and ensure that all school children in the country are equipped with tablets by 2020.

Cwele’s appointment though as South Africa’s telecoms and posts minister has raised eyebrows in the country’s information and communication technology (ICT) sector.

Cwele, South Africa’s former state security minister, advocated a controversial secrecy bill, which has been criticised for attempting to curb journalistic freedom by giving government more power to classify information.