South Africa’s post-1994 democratically elected government thus had to place particular emphasis on the alleviation of spatial and infrastructure constraints in the previously disadvantaged areas. South Africa has registered tangible progress in many areas, including electrification, water and sanitation, mobile telephony or Internet access, health and literacy improvement.
To give a few examples, the share of households with access to electricity rose from 64% in 1984 to 84% by 2016. Similarly, between 2000 and 2016, cell phone subscriptions jumped from 18 to 147 per 100 people.