With the students’ march on the Union Buildings underway, Project Isizwe, the non-profit behind Tshwane's Free Wi-Fi network, has confirmed that the Wi-Fi network will remain on during the course of the protest. A spokesperson for Project Isizwe noted that the installations at the Union Building site were built to cater for 20 000 users at the presidential inauguration, with high capacity fibre enabling the service. Tshwane Free Wi-Fi will remain operational as it is considered a public service.

For access to the Wi-Fi service, users must simply connect to Tshwane Free Wi-Fi from any Wi-Fi enabled device and click “Connect now”.

Three new services have also recently been announced. These are WiFi Chat, a bespoke chat service where users can connect directly with local government, WiFi Drive-In, where users can stream quality Hollywood films on weekends at the Fountains Valley resort, and WiFi Voice, a free calling service to users on the network who have the Tshwane WiFi Voice application installed on their devices.

According to Project Isizwe, the Tshwane Free Wi-Fi network has 700 live sites, in more than 95% of the wards in the city. So far the service has had more than 720 000 unique users.