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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

“You cannot find Ubuntu in a culture of dominance” – Dr Mamphela Ramphele during second Leah Tutu Gender Symposium

2015-02-28

From the left are: Samantha van Schalkwyk, Zanele Mbeki, Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela and Dr Mamphela Ramphele.
Photo: Johan Roux

Video message from Mrs Leah Tutu

Session 1: Keynote address by Dr Mamphela Ramphele
Ndiyindoda! Yes, you are a man

Session 2: Professor Robert Morrell from the University of Cape Town
South African Gender Studies: Setting the context

Session 3: How can we engage young men to act against violence against women?
Panel discussion by Lisa Vetten (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research), Despina Learmonth (Psychology Department, University of Cape Town) and Wessel van den Berg (Sonke Gender Justice)

Session 4: Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
Self-defence as a strategy for women’s resistance: Reflections on the work of Susan Brison

Engaging men to act against gender-based violence in the Southern African context.

This was the theme of the second International Leah Tutu Symposium, hosted by the Gender Initiative of Trauma, Forgiveness and Reconciliation Studies of the University of the Free State (UFS) on Tuesday 24 February 2015.

What does it mean to be man? How can men become active in the fight against gender-based violence? And when does one say: enough is enough? Questions like these set the tone as highly-respected individuals such as Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Prof Rob Morrell, Lisa Vetten and Andy Kawa took to the stage in the Odeion on the Bloemfontein Campus.

Leah Tutu
Unfortunately, Mrs Leah Tutu could not attend this year’s event, but she still managed to send sparks of wit and insight into the auditorium. In her video message, Mrs Tutu referred to the fact that our country has “consigned discriminatory legislation to the rubbish bin of the past”, but we continue to inhabit a divided society.

“We have a constitution and bill of rights that should have sounded the death knell for patriarchy. But women are unsafe across the land,” Mrs Tutu said. “Our freedom cost too much to be left out in the rain,” she urged.

Ndiyindoda! Yes, you are a man
In Dr Ramphele’s keynote address, “Ndiyindoda! Yes, you are a man”, she scrutinised the dominant masculinity model that has supported an alpha-male mentality for millennia. A mentality that celebrates dominance, power and control – where the winner takes it all. How then, can we expect our young boys to embrace the value system of a human rights culture?

“Gender equality is at the heart of our constitutional democratic values. Yet, our society continues to privilege and celebrate the alpha male as a masculinity model,” Dr Ramphele said. This dissonance can only produce conflict and violence.

We encourage our young men to be gentle, communicative, caring people who show their emotions. And when they do, what do we as women do? Do we encourage them?

“Or do we join those who call them wimps, moffies, sissies? How do we respond when they are ridiculed?” Dr Ramphele asked. Are we, as mothers, fathers and grandparents willing to socialise our children to acknowledge a diversity of masculinities as equally valid in our society?

The new man and the new woman of the 21st century need to be liberated from the conflict-ridden dominant masculinity model. They need to be able to shape their identity in line with a value system of human rights as enshrined in our constitution.

Perhaps Dr Ramphele’s message could be summed up by one sentence: You cannot find Ubuntu in a culture of dominance.

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