After a long journey of intense training, mentoring and developing ideas, Mr Desmond Mongue was named the grand prize winner of the #hack.Jozi challenge on July 8.
Mr Mongue walked away with R1-million for his startup venture.
The #hack.Jozi challenge invited entrants to make a difference in their community by developing the best digital solutions to everyday problems.
The initiative was developed by the City of Joburg (CoJ) in partnership with Wits University, working through its Joburg entre for software engineering.
The challenge kicked off with 140 applicants and after the ‘hackathon’, 10 finalists were announced.
Mr Mongue’s PopApp was spotted by judges for benefitting the wider community.
The PopApp provides township and rural village residents with coupons to use at their nearest spaza or tuckshop to purchase a particular brand product.
Mr Mongue hopes to target over 1 000 spaza shops by next year, having delivered the first official retail promotion to them.
“The real prize isn’t only the R1-million. It’s the impact these ideas and start-ups will have on their communities,” said Professor Barry Dwolatzky, from the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering at Wits.
The CoJ’s executive mayor, Clr Parks Tau said, “The #hack.Jozi challenge is part of the plan to have digital entrepreneurs from the townships, city and suburbs rising and tapping into new markets,” said Clr Tau.
