Yo, meals now just a click away

Tech-savvy trio open e-hailing food delivery service in Mthatha

Three tech-savvy, thirty-something local entrepreneurs have managed to find a proverbial silver lining in the constraints Covid-19 has imposed on everyday life.

The pandemic has seen an explosion of ecommerce across the globe and Mandla Holomisa, Asanda Maqabuka and Mac Mabidilala have brought this trend to Mthatha with their e-hailing food delivery service, YOJO Food.

The trio’s app, which is available at Android

and iOS app stores, allows restaurants to either deliver pre-ordered meals or have a YOJO Food driver collect and deliver to the customer.

In the fortnight that it is has been operational YOJO has already registered 130 consumers. The food market they hope to cover includes restaurants, eateries, tshisa nyamas, home-based caterers and liquor outlets.

Holomisa, 33, is a marketing and branding expert who said the lockdown had forced businesses to think outside the box.

“Digital migration was sped up by the coronavirus. There’s a strong economy in our small towns and we shouldn’t take it for granted,” he said.

Entrepreneur Asanda Maqabuka, 35, said their market research had identified a need for the service in Mthatha and they planned to expand it further afield.

“Covid-19 presented an opportunity to look into our communities where food delivery services don’t normally go. I’d say that was a deciding factor for us. Also, if you look at history after pandemics, these give life to new businesses,” Maqabuka said.

He said employment creation was one of the goals of their initiative.

“We have stringent recruitment in place. Our goal is to create entrepreneurs. We’re looking for drivers who will think smart while creating something for themselves,” Maqabuka said.

Mabidilala, 33, said technology had allowed them to automate a lot of the functionality of the application.

“We have a dedicated product manager who oversees the hosting of the app on the Andriod and iOS operating systems, and maintenance,” he said.

Mabidilala said there was local software development potential which they hoped to use in future.

“This is phase one but we want to put in further developments as the business grows. Creating employment is a key pillar in our business, so we may build our own local maintenance team and grow the app,” Mabidilala said.

For more information go to https://www.yojofood.com/en/