Exploring digital transforming challenges in rural areas of South Africa through a systematic review of empirical studies

The current Covid-19 pandemic has led to the need for more profound research on the digital state in developing nations. As societies aim to adopt technologies, there are critical challenges at hand. The digital divide issue has been luring in modern-day society, particularly the various challenges societies face from harnessing the full benefits that Information and Communication Technology can deliver. Unquestionably, an increase in access to enabling technologies has great potential to close the disparities between social groups. This paper presents the results of a systematic review based on the PRISMA protocol that aims to investigate the digital transforming challenges encountered in rural communities within South Africa. The systematic review was conducted using a comprehensive selection of scientific databases as reference sources, allowing access to several related studies. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined and applied to each retrieved article to choose those that satisfy the current study. From 233 retrieved articles, 32 were included. To further understand the main causes of these challenges, three major problems were identified: socio-economic, technology, and politics. Each of the 32 articles was critically studied to understand their findings before grouping them under any of the identified categories. Based on our findings, we highlighted other key challenges and recommendations to enhance ICT adoption and integration into rural areas in South Africa.