Internet café gives township-residents access to worldwide web

Like many services in the townships of Cape Town, internet access very difficult to get. Recently though its been been made available by Theo Treffers who is the first entrepreneur who opened an internet-café in the townships. And should Theo Treffers' venture in Cape Town’s oldest township Langa go well he plans to open more of the same in other previous disadvantaged areas.

The internet-café ‘African Access’ is in Langa’s Washington Road, next to the minibus taxi rank. Treffers came up with his idea when he realised how "under-serviced" the townships were. "For instance, one cannot order a pizza here because the pizzerias simply refuse to deliver." People are always talking about the great digital divide in South Africa, and I believe that if you don't give the community in the disadvantaged areas access, it will always stay that way."

Business initiative with a social side
Treffers makes no bones about the fact that he wants to built a viable business, but he believes there is a noble side to his work as well. "I help my customers write and design CVs so they can apply for jobs. We also offer them a chance to familiarise themselves with computers and the internet via different courses. "Some of my clients don’t even know what a CV is and have never touched a computer."

This pioneer knows that many students live in Langa and need the internet for their studies. "At the university there is not enough room and it costs money for transport to go to the city to use the internet. "Instead they can spend that money to surf net here." Treffers keeps his prices "as low as possible". His clients pay R15 (1,60 Euro) per hour for internet access.

From The Netherlands to Cape Town
Treffers, originally from Rotterdam, visited Cape Town for the first time in 1990 to do a business management internship. Three years later he decided to move to South Africa, and after management jobs at Woolworths and Spar supermarkets, he worked for an organisation called Peace Parks Foundation, which lays out parks in the townships. In that time he got to know the townships.

“Telkom not interested in the townships”
The internet café-owner had many difficulties when starting up the business. For instance, a fast and relatively cheap internet connection was not available. "Telkom, which provides this, is not interested in the townships because they think that there is no market here. "It's very short-sighted because if they don't deliver the service there never will be a market here."

Besides the cages around the computers, burglar bars are screwed to the window frames and, just in case, an armed response company is employed as well. All this is necessary for insurance purposes. "Even finding an insurer was a nightmare. Nobody wanted to insure a township project. Fortunately Mutual & Federal were willing to cover me."

"So many people live in this area and none of these services were available”
In the café, which is open seven days a week, clients can use the internet, send e-mails, scan photos or use a word processing program. They also can send a fax, make a photocopy or bind their paperwork.
"So many people live in this area and none of these services were available, so there was obviously a gap in the market."

"Many people just walk into the café to look around and I get many positive reactions from the community. "In the first two weeks I had more customers than I expected, so I'm positive about the future."

Plans for development in Gugulethu and Khayelitsha
Treffers has no idea why a guy from Holland was the first to come up with a plan to open an internet café in a township. "Maybe because I'm not from here, I see things from another angle.

Treffers has big plans. "I have to see how it works out here in Langa, but if everything goes well I'm planning to open a shop in Gugulethu and Khayelitsha in the next six months."