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Image: Sibonelo Ngcobo
There’s no doubt that Sixty60 is shaking the South African retail sector market.
It has been reported that R18.9 billion in sales, a 47.7% increase year on year, now flows through the app.
It’s interesting to note that Sixty60 sales represent nearly one-tenth of Shoprite’s R213.5 billion turnover, according to Shoprite's results in 2025.
The e-commerce platform has become an important arsenal for the Shoprite group in retail wars with other major retailers.
All the praise, however, has gone to a group of innovators elsewhere and conveniently ignored some of the key contributors to this important piece of technology.
What is almost forgotten is that Checkers Sixty60, as a technology platform, was built by young people from South African townships, one of them being Vutlharhi Donald Valoyi.
Vutlharhi Donald Valoyi.
Image: LinkedIn
The founder of Zulzi, Vutlharhi Donald Valoyi, grew up in Limpopo. He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science.
That same year, he embarked on his career as a software engineer at Mavoni Technologies, a firm specialising in information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing. In 2010, Valoyi joined EOH, a technology company offering IT services, software, and industrial technologies, as a Java developer.
In 2011, he moved on to the position of technical team leader at First National Bank South Africa. Later, his entrepreneurial desire moved him to leave his high-end job at FNB to invest more time into his start-up company, Zulzi.
The startup was established in 2013, evolved from Zulzi.com, an e-commerce platform initially targeting students with immediate delivery of books and electronic devices. This service laid the groundwork for the creation of the on-demand delivery platform.
The innovation that was developed by the Zulzi team attracted the attention of some of the leading retailers in South Africa. One of them within the Shoprite group saw a need to collaborate with Zulzi in the process of developing an e-commerce platform that became Checkers Sixty60.
Today, little is attributed to Vutlhari Valoyi and Zulzi team as one of the contributors to what became a leading e-commerce in South Africa. This is not to say Valoyi was not rewarded for his work in creating what has now become Checkers Sixty60.
In fact, it’s reported that the startup was paid handsomely for the development of the early version Checkers Sixty60 app. The point is that we need to celebrate technology founders who emerge from township and village environments even more.
The more society gets to hear about innovations that are developed by young people from township communities it will inspire other young people from similar communities.
I have no doubt that there are more young people who are behind corporate innovations that are not celebrated today. What is sad is that they are not known as innovators behind those innovations.
Most corporates tend to present the face of corporate CEO’s or CTOs as innovators instead of the real innovators. It is about time that we shine a spotlight on contributions by young innovators from townships that are hidden within and by corporates. The current strategy by corporates focuses on just highlighting corporate innovations instead of giving credit where it’s due.
There’s a need for SA corporates to change their ways and commit to celebrating young innovators from township communities. In line with this, I will be personally starting community conversations with young innovators in my community with the hope of enabling more township innovators to come out and, more importantly, to be known by society. It’s hoped that such an intervention will elevate the status of companies such as Zulzi to rise and ultimately also rival leading e-commerce platforms and other tech companies.
Wesley Diphoko is a Technology Analyst and the Editor-In-Chief of FastCompany (SA) magazine.