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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

Heidedal-based foundation and UFS host inaugural music concert

2015-12-04

ROC children rock in marimba music
Photo: Valentino Ndaba

Reach Our Community (ROC) Foundation in conjunction with the University of the Free State’s Odeion School of Music (OSM) held its first-ever music concert last month. Children who form part of the foundation’s Afterschool Care programme showed their impressive music skills to their parents and guardians in attendance.

ROC provides support to orphaned and vulnerable children from early childhood through to adolescence in the Heidedal community in Bloemfontein. The foundation strives to address the challenges resulting from factors such as poverty, unemployment, HIV/Aids, single parenting, lack of guardianship, and physical and sexual abuse. In the Afterschool Care programme, the children engage in educational, cultural, and recreational activities.

Going the extra mile

Since 2008, the UFS has successfully partnered with ROC through service learning and community engagement in which students from across all seven faculties participate. Two Music Education and Practice students from the OSM took it upon themselves to continue after their curriculum requirements were met.

Amy Viljoen- now a final-year BMus student, together with fellow student, Petre du Plessis, and their lecturer and programme coordinator, Gerda Pretorius, established the music class project in Heidedal in 2014. The students embarked on weekly trips to ROC, and would spend an hour working on the recorders and marimbas with children from ROC.

This year, Viljoen and Kara-Lynn Crankshaw, a final-year BA Music student, spent eleven months teaching the children music practice and theory, culminating in a concert that both the community and students can be proud of.

“I wanted to do something that was not only meant for educational purposes, but to give back to the community,” said Viljoen.

After having to gather extra chairs because of the influx of community members at the ROC hall, the founder, Patrick Kaars, said he had not expected such a turn-out. “It exceeded my expectations, and it was a dream come true. It meant so much to the children to be exposed to music, and to explore their own capabilities and talents.”

More children will learn how to play other instruments. Currently, the instruments used for the children’s training were purchased second-hand in order to cut costs. New music education specialists, who will join the programme in 2016, will also work with Pretorius to gather additional equipment, and compile learning material.

Kaars is also thrilled about the potential expansion to the music group, now that the concert has become an annual event. The OSM is also in the process of establishing a Centre for Music Development at ROC.

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