The world in one country is how South Africans describe their nation, referring to its diversity of cultures, ethnic groups and landscapes, and perhaps also to its juxtaposition of high technology and progressive thinking with old-fashioned superstition. During the last 10 years a lively internet community has emerged in South Africa. It is among the top 20 countries worldwide in terms of number of internet users. Recent surveys count more than half of the African continent's 5m web surfers as being in South Africa. On closer examination, however, it becomes apparent that internet use is largely a white phenomenon.

South Africa is a land of extreme contrasts and nowhere are they more apparent than in the business centre of Johannesburg. Managers enjoying 'power lunches" pay more for a meal than members of the Xhosa tribe in their mud huts earn in a month. Outside the glass-fronted stock exchange, homeless indigents fight to survive. "Place of gold" is the word for Johannesburg in Zulu, one of the 11 official languages recognised in the country since the abolition of apartheid in April 1994.

But the consequences of 46 years of racial separation cannot be erased overnight. They still exist when it comes to the internet, says Mike Jensen, an independent telecom consultant from Port Saint Johns on the south-east coast. "In the white residential and business districts B2B and B2C are flourishing," he says. "In rural areas, where the population is predominantly black, access is difficult, if not impossible, and very expensive. Our most important task, therefore, is to democratise access to the internet." The first step, he says, is for the government to liberalise the telecom market. It has already begun privatising Telkom, in which the state has a majority holding.

Most of the country's major companies, newspapers, hotels and radio and television stations have a web address. Big internet stores include Megashopper, Kalahari.net, CyberCellar, WineTrader and Hypermall. Shares are traded online on the Johannesburg stock exchange. "South Africa has better access than the rest of Africa but we still lag far behind North America and Europe," says Mr Jensen. "Only one South African in 20 can use the internet."

With an annual per capita income of about $3,000 (£2,120), many simply cannot afford access. A private individual wishing to surf for 20 hours a month must pay about $40 (£28) for the privilege.

Although the urban infrastructure in South Africa is on a par with that of industrialised countries, the same cannot be said of the more remote areas or, in particular, the former "homelands", the self-governing regions set up under apartheid for 10 black tribes. The government has been attempting since May last year to set up "Dot ZA centres" in the townships, the impoverished settlements on the periphery of the major cities in which black workers were permitted to reside under apartheid. The community centres are intended to provide internet access and to make residents more computer-literate.

Professor Joachim von Braun, director of the Centre for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn, advises G8 countries on the question of the internet in developing countries. He is also a member of the Dot Force committee set up last year following the G8 summit in Okinawa. Its aim, he says, is not universal access for individual households but, rather, to ensure that all universities, schools and libraries are online and that people can surf the web at tele-centres. "Our idea that every young person will have an e-mail account for his 13th birthday is feasible in the long term. I am very optimistic on that point," he says.

Sello Mashao Rasethaba, head of South Africa's state-owned IT agency, is less so. The developing world, he says, cannot keep pace with the rapid evolution of new hardware and software. "The expertise and programs all come from the north and are too expensive for developing countries," he says. He fears they will simply become more dependent instead of gaining a foothold in world markets. "The information society of the 21st century is leading to cyber-colonialism," he says. "What do people need more urgently - clean water or the possibility of ordering underwear online?"

Professor von Braun finds this view surprising. "Our research has shown that poorer members of the population can benefit from developments in the new media." For example, IT helps to extend the market radius for products and ideas. It also encourages greater involvement in decision-making and thus strengthens democracy, he ventures. He concedes, however, that these developments are contingent on a suitable political framework "to ensure uncontrolled access to information, that poor and remote rural areas are also involved, and that investments reap rewards in the long term."

Meanwhile, South African farmers are among the first in the country to have discovered e-commerce. Since January the Spot Commodity Exchange website has been providing information on price developments and enabling them to contact customers and international shipping agents directly, explains Paresh Kotecha, one of the founders.

Another initiative comes from Africa Online, one of the largest sub-Sahara internet service providers. Together with Barclays Bank of the UK, it is promoting online shopping that does not require a credit card. Credit cards are not used widely in Africa - something of an obstacle to the development of e-commerce.

Nevertheless here is little doubt that South Africa - with its high number of users, up-to-date technologies and evolved markets - will play an important role in the development of the internet on the whole of the African continent.

finkenzeller.karin@ftd.de