In South Africa, where cellphones are as common as they are in the US, tech is often associated with violence and even death. Last December a ninth-grader was stabbed in the chest for refusing to hand over her cellphone to a robber in Durban. "Issues of personal security affect most South Africans," said Nancy Odendaal, a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town.Odendaal has interviewed immigrants to South Africa who've been subjected to, as she put it, "dreadful xenophobia"."My respondents used their cellphones to stay in touch with one another, give advice on what places to avoid, and what to wear to not stand out," she said.Still, it's mostly the non-poor who benefit from these advances, she said, pointing to apps developed by security firms and targeted at people who have money. "But, of course, those most adversely affected by violence are poorer folks in townships."Twenty years after the apartheid government was overthrown, more than half of the country's 52million people survive on about R800 a month. But as technology begins to become a part of South African culture, a handful of companies and non-profit organisations are trying to harness the fledgling ICT industry to take on these issues.The programmes aim to train people from disadvantaged backgrounds to be able to work in ICT, equipping them with skills such as computer programming, app building, and web design.The ideal outcome is that disadvantaged South Africans can learn a skill set that has the potential to energise the economy. However, the ICT industry has not made much of a dent in the country's poverty thus far.Lungi Zungu, 28, was born in Durban.She applied to complete a programme at a tech development organisation called CapaCITI after struggling to find a job after graduation.CapaCITI works to train South Africans in software development, programming and IT support, then connects students with companies for permanent positions.Zungu is now a software developer at Sanlam."What we are trying to do is address the tech skill shortage that firms face, as well as provide opportunities to unemployed youth," said Alethea Hagemann, a skills development leader at CapaCITI.But critics warn that technology isn't a fix-all for South Africa's systemic problems, and shouldn't be treated as such."There's this tendency to see technology as a magic bullet," said Chenxing Han, who studied mobile technology in Cape Town."There are these ideas and then there's the reality."Myriad barriers stand between disadvantaged communities and the country's flourishing tech sector.For one, although the government allocates more money to education than any other sector, studies show that South Africa has "one of the worst school systems in the world", according to World Policy.A lack of reliable electricity also makes it difficult to have working technology inside the classroom, and the internet itself is pricey.What's more, even if students like Zungu have a university degree, there aren't necessarily enough firms to employ them.Bryan Pon, research director at Caribou Digital, a think-tank that analyses how technology is changing in emerging markets, believes that it's overly optimistic to expect start-up programmes to lead to sustainable opportunity.After all, if a large percentage of the population doesn't have money to pay for internet, there's little demand for the development of products that live online. And the local tech industry can't provide the kind of funding, networks, or institutional advantages to budding developers that are available in the west, so it's harder for firms to get off the ground."When you don't have [these advantages], it becomes hard to launch and scale digital businesses," Pon said.It's also a matter of connectivity. Internet access in South Africa is dominated by Telkom, and sent out in throttled, expensive packages to paying customers. That means that for many township residents internet is a luxury that will remain out of reach.CapaCITI itself acknowledges that the programme is successful on an anecdotal basis, not a structural one ."We currently have 300 people set to be trained this year, with a proposal to do another 3000 in the next few years," said Hagemann...