Mahlangu is the owner of Inxaso Infotech – an Internet café in Pimville Square, Soweto. A qualified sound engineer missed a good job offer because he could not fax a copy of his identity document in time. “I searched for a place where I could fax my ID but there was none available and there was also no way I was going to make it in time if I went to town,” he says. Mahlangu and two of his friends discussed this and came up with an idea of a “one-stop communication shop”. After much research to determine the need and financial implications of this kind of business Inxaso Infotech was born in 2001, offering services such as usage of computer and Internet, e-mail, fax, photocopying, and typing.

Like any other venture, Inxaso has had its share of challenges, the major one being the theft of all equipment including ten computers in 2004 and the breakup of partners due to differences before that. “I am now the sole owner of the shop,” Mahlangu explains.

Mahlangu says despite what most people believe, a majority of customers have some knowledge about using computers and Internet. “There are few clients who require assistance, and those who do it’s on things like typing because they can’t type fast – not because they can’t type at all,” he explains.

This is confirmed by research conducted by NETucation, an online research organization. It found that 59% of people who visit Internet cafes are self sufficient. According to the research, there are only about 13 Internet cafes in Soweto. “The number of Internet cafes have grown steadily since starting to research [in 2004] in this country,” says Ramon Thomas, Managing Director of NETucation.

Thomas says there is great demand for this kind of business in Soweto and his study proved that. “Many people travel from Soweto to visit Internet café’s in Johannesburg and Braamfontein,” he says because their fees are the lowest in the country. “Part of the reason why Internet café’s in Soweto have not been accessible in the past is because of the severe lack in infrastructure. As recently as two years ago there was no exchanges in the entire Soweto, which is home to a third of greater Johannesburg residents, that supported ADSL [Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line - a technology which provides fast and permanent connection to the Internet]. And ADSL is the best form of connectivity for a high bandwidth business like an Internet Cafe.,” he explains.

“My associate Jason Hobbs found that Internet café’s in Braamfontein – where there’s a large number of Internet cafes – charge as little as R5 per hour. The business owners are intelligently working together to reduce the costs to their clients by sharing their Internet costs,” he says.

Thomas says improving Internet access in Soweto is critical to reducing the digital divide in South Africa and that starts with companies such as Telkom, iBurst, Sentech, Vodacom, MTN and so on providing the necessary infrastructure.