The Smart Cape Access Point Project is an initiative of the City of Cape Town.  Its objective is to ensure that all citizens of Cape Town have access to basic information and communication technologies, free of charge. With Smart Cape, the City has developed a model for public access that allows computing facilities with Internet to be provided cost effectively, using open source software and existing infrastructure and resources.

The project started in July 2002, with 5 computers being installed in 6 public libraries across the City on a pilot basis.  By the end of 2002, there were 3000 registered Smart Cape users.  The pilot project was a resounding success and demand for more Smart Cape sites grew on a daily basis.  A decision was then taken to expand the project to all 97 public libraries of the City Of Cape Town.  This implementation was made much smoother when the project was awarded the Bill & Melinda Gates Access to Learning Award (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)  in August 2003.  The award was $1 million, and these funds were put to good use in expanding this project to all the City's public libraries over the next year.

Smart Cape is now a Cape Town institution.  It has been 7 years since the pilot project, and we now have more than 170 000 registered users in 97 public libraries.  People use the public internet facilities for email, to type CVs and assignments, apply for jobs, conduct research, play games etc.  The project team works continually to support the project.  This involves resolving problems, keeping the system working smoothly, and working on next phase developments. There is also a team of staff dedicated to projects related to Smart Cape e.g. a web developer and a content development team who design, develop and write for the SmartCape website.

Smart Cape has become a model for municipalities throughout South Africa.  The project team has now worked on similar projects in eThekwini and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipalities, and has also been approached by the City of Joburg.  With these projects, the Smart Cape team is living its dream of bringing communities online.