Innovative app, Malaicha helps Zimbabweans in South Africa send groceries back home .  

An innovative app, named Malaicha is helping Zimbabweans living in South Africa to order and send groceries to Zimbabwe.

Usually, citizens in Zimbabwe depend on food supplies from South Africa, however, these supplies were suddenly prohibited when the two countries restricted across border movements in March in a bid to mitigate the spread of Coronavirus.

For this reason, prices of food and other essential products have soared as a result of the economic crises the pandemic has brought.

The Malaicha app allows customers to choose from a wide range of non-perishable items, which will be available to collect on the same day at various locations in Zimbabwe.

The Managing director of Malaicha, Sayjil Magan said the use of the app, which facilitates the traditional way of sending goods over the border with bus and taxi drivers has increased in April.

Amidst the restriction across borders, Malaicha is authorized to import goods into Zimbabwe.

At first, Malaicha received an average of 20,000 to 30,000 orders a month, but the number has increased by about 200% month-on-month in April, while user numbers grew by 100% to 75,000.

“It’s something they are going to carry on using; that’s the feedback that we are getting from our customers,” Magan said.

In Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, one of five major cities where Malaicha operates, about 200 deliveries have been made in a day, from an average of 20 before the lockdown, warehouse manager, Mario Ventouris disclosed.

The workers at Malaicha are putting in extra hours to clear long lines of people who had come to collect their orders. One delivery driver, Decide Sabamba said, “It’s busy, it’s busy every day.”

At a time like this, when the world groans under the burden of COVID-19, an app like Malaicha is connecting families to one of the most important human needs, food.

The innovative app, Malaicha was launched in 2019, nevertheless, the app’s user base continues to grow.