Noting the need to provide people in townships with services enjoyed by those in more affluent areas, Freddy Mahumane quit his corporate job to start a food delivery business in Thembisa on the East Rand.
The founder of Kasi D, an online food delivery service, launched an app in 2022 to make e-commerce accessible in townships.
Mahhumane said he was inspired to pursue the idea after reading a news article that global food delivery app Uber Eats and its local counterpart Mr D had withdrawn their services in some townships as they deemed them “too dangerous”.
“I grew up in the township, in Thembisa and I didn’t think it was dangerous, and I saw a gap in the market, which was an opportunity for me,” said Mahhumane.
Kasi D users have access to fast food stores such as KFC, Chicken Licken and McDonald’s, but the app also caters to the informal sector. Users can buy bunny chow, kota, vetkoek, mogodu (cooked tripe), and sheep’s head, also known as “skop” on the app in their area.
While getting people to believe in his vision was not easy, Mahhumane said the township proved to be an unfriendly ecosystem.
“Infrastructure was and continues to be a big challenge for the business; it’s not very conducive. Crime has also played a role, but we have managed to mitigate that.”
To insulate the business from criminals, Kasi D hires and trains local people to operate in their communities. He said while this was useful as the employees knew the hotspots, community members also ensured the protection of the staff as they are people they know.
“The communities know that the business employs their children. So far, this system has worked for us,” he said.
Mahhumane said running a business means being emotionally prepared to deal with the feeling of loss that can come with it.
“One day you wake up and sign a deal, the same day you go to bed and you’ve lost another [deal]. So that is a rollercoaster. It’s not always a win, and it tends to be challenging.”
Funding Kasi D solely from his savings, Mahhumane said this made the process a little harder, but it was necessary.
To make it a success, he spent time educating communities on how to use the app. He said introducing it to people who may have not been tech-savvy required the company to invest time in ensuring they understood how it worked.
“We were the first business to go digital in this area and we took the risk. We educated the community. While our technology works very well, part of the uniqueness of Kasi D is that we always assume a mistake has been made. So once an order is placed, we call the consumer and confirm that it’s the correct order.”
Kasi D now operates in Kempton Park, Thembisa, Ivory Park and Irene, with plans to extend the service to Rustenburg, Soweto and Soshanguve.
The business employs 11 permanent staff and has more than 60 drivers. Mahhumane said the company was looking to improve this number and employ at least 300 drivers by the end of 2024.
As part of its growth, Kasi D has partnered with one of the country’s biggest retailers, Spar, to power its Spar2U delivery service in underserved communities.
Just two years after it was established, Kasi D will launch a “super app” that will offer a wider range of services next month. In the upgraded app, consumers will be able to buy traditional clothing and shoes, gadgets, and three-legged cast iron pots. It also plans to add collection and delivery of medication.
“We want to make Kasi D more than just a food-delivery service but an app that changes the township landscape.”
“I want to change how these underserved communities are viewed. I believe there is a lot of potential in the township and it’s important to ensure that we make such services available.”
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