Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Innovative UFS students revolutionise campus convenience with CartZA

12 November 2025 | Story Onthatile Tikoe | Photo Supplied

In an inspiring display of innovation and collaboration, a group of University of the Free State (UFS) students have reimagined campus convenience through CartZA, a student-developed food delivery app that is transforming how students access meals and services. What began as a late-night idea during exam season has grown into one of the university’s proudest examples of student entrepreneurship.

From late-night hunger to a campus-wide solution

The idea for CartZA was born in November 2024, when Kenny Netshitanzwani, now Chief Operations Officer, and Tshepo Lencoe, now Chief Marketing Officer, found themselves waiting endlessly in queues at the Thakaneng Bridge during a late-night study session. “We waited nearly 40 minutes just to get food and thought, what if students could order in advance and collect without waiting?” recalls Netshitanzwani.

By December 2024, the two self-taught developers began building a website prototype from their homes. They tested the concept through an online poll that received an overwhelming 97% approval from 425 students. On 27 February 2025, they launched the website during Ms Winnie Sereeco’s entrepreneurship lecture, processing ten orders on the first day and more than a hundred by the end of the semester.

Their pitch attracted Lehlohonolo Molaba Duncan, now Chief Technology Officer – a BCom Finance student and systems architect who joined to develop the mobile app. Later, he introduced Richard Molefe, a BCom Honours in Finance student with strong corporate and leadership experience, who became Chief Executive Officer, completing the CartZA founding team.

Turning queues into clicks

By August 2025, the team had launched a fully functional app available on Google Play and the Apple App Store. Within weeks, it had surpassed 1 200 downloads, now exceeding 2 000. The app allows users to order ahead for collection or opt for delivery, with CartZA’s slogan, ‘Add to Cart and Cut the Queue,’ capturing its mission to simplify student life through technology and convenience.

Overcoming challenges and gaining recognition

The journey was not without challenges. The team self-funded the project through allowances and side hustles, even borrowing a fellow student’s MacBook, affectionately known as Comfort the Barber, to publish on Apple’s platform. Their breakthrough came when The Deli restaurant joined the platform, expanding access to more outlets.

Their innovation has since gained recognition across the province. CartZA was named among the Free State Top 10 in the Youth Innovation Challenge, hosted by the Young African Entrepreneurs Institute and Absa Bank, and will represent the province at the national finals in November. The team also received the Student Entrepreneurial Excellence Award at the 2025 Executive Director of Student Affairs (EDSA) Prestige Awards.

Beyond convenience, CartZA now employs 15 active student delivery partners and has 30 more registered on standby across Bloemfontein, empowering peers while reshaping campus life.

Looking ahead

With plans to expand to other universities, CartZA aims to become a nationwide lifestyle platform connecting students, service providers, and opportunities. “Our journey shows that innovation starts with identifying the needs around you,” says Molefe. “CartZA is proof that when students collaborate and persist, they can create meaningful change.”

News Archive

Universities can contribute to economic transformation

2010-01-27

At the lecture were, from the left: Prof. Neil Heideman (Acting Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences), Prof. Hartmut Frank (University of Bayreuth, Germany), Prof. Bianchi and Prof. Jan van der Westhuizen (professor in Chemistry at the UFS).
Photo: Mangaliso Radebe

Universities have a role to play in economic transformation and industrial development according to Prof. Fabrizio Bianchi, the Rector of the University of Ferrara in Italy.

This was the core message of his lecture on the topic Globalisation, Agriculture and Industrial Development that he delivered at the University of the Free State.

He said after the collapse of the agricultural industry in Italy as a result of the subsidies that the farmers were receiving from the government, the university had to step in.

“This was meant to maintain high prices and maximize the production but in the long run this approach created problems because the farmers were no longer producing high quality products but large quantities in order to receive subsidies,” he said.

“The result was that the government itself had to destroy those poor quality products. This was a completely unreasonable way to manage the economy”.

He said they had to abandon that approach and concentrate on quality because they realized that Italy could not match the prices and the quantity, in terms of production, of countries like China and the USA.

He said “knowledge and human resources” were the key factors that could get them out of that crisis; hence they came up with what he called “the Made in Italy approach”.

“We were working on the idea that food is part of culture and that it is not just simply for refueling the body,” he said.

“One of the fundamental ideas was to come back to the idea that production is the centre of the development process.”

“Quality is a very complex, collective issue,” he said. “You cannot understand development if you do not understand that you have to base it on strong roots”.

This approach resulted in the formation of several companies with specialized niche markets producing high quality products.

His visit to the UFS coincided with that of the 1991 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Prof. Richard Ernst from Switzerland, who was also part of the fourth presentation of the Cheese fondue concept.

The main thrust of this concept is that technical advances alone are insufficient for an agreement to be reached on the minimum respect between the various groups and individuals within a society. It proposes that for this to be achieved there has to be a concurrent development of empathy and emotional synergy.

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za
27 January 2010

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept