The primary dimensions of the digital divide are geography (urban vs rural) and income (rich vs poor), but other dimensions include: gender (men vs women), age (young vs old), ethnicity or race (white vs black), linguistic (English-speaking vs non-English-speaking) and literacy (literate vs illiterate).
In particular, South Africa faces many developmental problems that make it one of the more complex societies in the world to map the digital divide in.
[4] South Africa faces unique challenges in addressing the digital divide, including ethnic inequality, disparities in development levels between different sectors, and a historically monopolistic telecommunications industry.
[6] One attempt to liberalize the communications industry was to end the monopoly of Telkom and open up the sector for market competition.
[8] The introduction of e-governance such as the implementation of online governmental websites has been proven to be a huge challenge to South Africa.
Still, today the South African government impedes progress, many in this industry would agree, the reason they restrict growth in certain areas is simply that they have no understanding of the benefits.
NGOs, NPOs, government projects, and public-private collaborations have all contributed to reducing the gap in digital accessibility and knowledge.