A group of entrepreneurial youngsters from Langa have started a food delivery service for Langa residents who are not able to go and do their own shopping.
Colin Mkosi, the founder of Cloudy Deliveries, says he started this business because he saw the need to meet his community half way, especially the senior citizens who couldn’t – and during the pandemic shouldn’t – be standing in long lines at supermarkets, or waiting for transport to get there.
“The business was in its initial stages in 2019 but we struggled getting off the ground, so eventually we started earlier this year, in February.”
The group currently has eight active members, aged between 17 and 19, who make deliveries on bicycles fitted with crates to transport the goods.
Langa residents either call Cloudy Deliveries to do their grocery shopping on their behalf, or to collect take-away orders they have placed.
To keep safe during lockdown, Mr Mkosi said, each of the boys has masks and sanitiser.
Mr Mkosi said a challenge they have encountered is having to repair their second-hand bicycles from time to time, having been last serviced in March. And with the winter season looming, they will have to rethink their operations.
Ward councillor Nomtha Dilima said the boys were doing a great job and that the initiative had been well received by the community.
“They are doing a great job, this initiative needs to be enhanced, especially during the Covid-19 world pandemic. The community is supporting them, the initiative was well received and I haven’t heard any negative report from the community.”
Mr Mkosi said when they started they felt hostility from some residents whose trust had been hard to win because they were new in the business.
“We want to serve the community in the best way we know how to. When we started, we got so much support from the community and as much as it was hard for people to trust us, once we got our T-shirts branded, it became much better.
“They started trusting us more, because of our brand,” he said.
Their goal is to finally get the business online and to develop an app through which people can place their orders.
“We currently have two phones which we get our requests from which we can’t always respond to. We want to have an impact in our community, in the lives of young boys, in our township. We want to be a reliable alternative to the way people do shopping.”
The youngsters can be contacted on 074 882 0306.