Johannesburg — As Mozambique, Iran and China have shown, mobile phone text messaging is showing an ability for the poor to mobilize quickly

Thirteen people died in protests last week in Mozambique after they were called to action in a combination of technology and old fashioned voting with their feet.

Many of those who turned out to vent their anger at a government which had set prices of food for years, then just as quickly removed these controls leading to a 25% hike in the cost of bread amongst other foodstuffs.

Some SMS read "Let's protest the increase in energy, water, mini-bus taxi and bread prices. Send to other Mozambicans."

Authorities are loath to allow formal protests in Mozambique, as they are in nearby Swaziland and a host of other African countries.

The poor are now exploiting their own ability to organize using instant messaging by mobile.

About a quarter of all Mozambique's 20 million people have access to mobile phone technology, and the cheapest phones all have SMS functionality.

"This technology is a new way of giving a voice, of giving power, of giving a means of expression that poor people themselves don't have," Joao Pereira, director of the Mozambican Civil Society Support Mechanism, has told AFP.

When someone receives a message, people without phones get it the old fashioned way, by word of mouth.

As Mozambique imports most basic food, and South Africa supplies it, the hike in value of the Rand has come at the cost of the local citizen who's seen the cost of bread rocket.

The anger the people are feeling is also captured in one message reported by AFP - "Mozambicans, the government appears to have met just for a coffee and whiskey and not to resolve the problems of the people," said one message.

In South Africa, a host of poor communities have begun to utilize both mobile and web technologies to pressurise the government into improving services.

And many are now receiving their news from the same sources which are exposing South Africa's new ruling elite. With AFP, Reuters.