South African Apps For South Africans

Keeping up with the theme of supporting local from my previous  post – New Year, New Me Bull, I thought I would share some of the African developed apps that we should have and also riding on the twitter wave that we should normalise supporting South African businesses first before supporting the big dogs whether  it’s black or white doesn’t really matter. Let’s support local first and if one local business does not give you quality service try the next local business. Try at least supporting 3 local business before you go to the international conglomerate.

·       Moya Messenger – This a messenger app that enables its users to communicate without the use of data provided they don’t send any attachments. Sending attachment is not data free. No charges on voice notes though. It’s data free when your sim is from a supported South African mobile network. All you do is switch on your data and you good to go. There are features on the app as well as some  tools which when you click on them may direct you to sites that incurs data and some sites don't and these features include Wikipedia, weather check, communication with government, games and a whole lot more.

·       Sweep South – This is an app that lets you book, cancel, reschedule Sweepstars (cleaners/helpers). Sweep south connects you with a cleaner to do cleaning and gardening for you. They do indoor and outdoor cleaning services including regular house and office cleaning, gardening, pool cleaning, car washing and heavy lifting. The extras include laundry and ironing, windows, cleaning inside the oven, cleaning your fridge. You can add multiple locations and cards on your account (even better).i Highly recommended if you are moving into a new home or want to do a deep clean in your house, you can choose how often you would want your place cleaned up, cool right. The Sweepstars have been screened and therefore it’s not like you are inviting a complete stranger into your home. It’s flexible in case you want to change your bookings. It’s actually affordable too, for a 2 bedroom and 1 bath in the Westrand its roughly R250 and if you are in Rosebank it’s R262…perhaps the prices are influenced by the area, not quite sure but anyway it seems affordable to me. There’s an added booking insurance for accidental damage or loss if you would like to add that to your booking.

·       Droppa is a delivery service for household goods or massive moving of office stuff or furniture. If you cancel your booking, Droppa will refund 70% of the amount. It is currently operating in major regions such as Gauteng, Western Cape and KZN and obviously goods in transit are insured. They do freight, relocation and bakkie for hire. It seems as though they give a comprehensive service regarding delivery services. They have easy booking system, with an option to pay either online or EFT. Droppa does not own trucks but instead has driver partners that have registered their vehicles and has formed a partnership with Skynet to leverage of the expertise of both business entities. There’s a Droppa express to courier goods that are less than 25 kgs.

·       Eat out South Africa’s guide to best food and restaurants depending on your taste, budget and location. They do restaurant reviews and rank restaurants according to their top 10. They give out awards, which could be motivating for the establishment. One outstanding thing here is that they give a holistic and comprehensive approach on eateries from reviews to recommendations on the app to awards as well. Eat out has evolved to being a brand that covers all aspects of food, from having a magazine, to hosting awards, to reviewing restaurants. Having the app basically means having the restaurant directory on your finger tips plus using the app you can basically make reservations and give reviews of the restaurant on the app. The site does give guidelines on reviews. They assist in funding restaurants that are struggling during this pandemic, how cool? And you can donate in order to assist these restuarants.

·       Zulzi another player in e-hailing services. Zulzi in an on-demand delivery platform which delivers your food in less than an hour. Delivery fees range from R20 to R85 and in some cases they offer free delivery. It’s like a mini digital mall, where you can buy goods from various retailers and get the goods delivered to your doorstep. While Zulzi does your orders, it has a chat functionality where the shopper and the buyer can chat in real time if certain items are out of stock. Compared to its competitors, the one thing that stands out with Zulzi is that you can purchase from any store using their app as compared to the other retailer apps. They also have a refund/returns policy which I highly recommend that you read thorough.

Like the saying goes “There is nothing new under the Sun” same goes with these apps. There may be an app similar to the ones I’ve mentioned but guess what, the ones I’ve mentioned are by South Africans for South Africans. These are apps that stood out for me and I'm pretty sure there are hundreds of other South Africans that have developed apps, but those apps are not known and maybe word of mouth marketing is not reaching the right audience.

Kindly share some really cool apps that you know which you are underrated. 😉