Survey: non-English speakers lag behind on the Net

A BMI-T survey, sposnored by Internet service provider GIA, found that 5% of Internet users come from Zulu, Xhosa and Tswana speaking groups, 14% are Afrikaans, and an overwhelming 81% are English. Women are also less frequent Net surfers than men, researchers Althea Bacchialoni and Caryn Hanley found. The findings are based on random telephonic interviews conducted in November last year with 1120 phone subscribers from home, home office and small office environments. The survey found 74% surveyed South Africans had gone online by the time of the survey.