Worldwide, women are abused, killed, mutilated, raped, and abducted.
We all know there is this dark side of life, and women killings, rape, mutilation, and human trafficking shows how cruel we are humans towards women.
A recent spate of violent killings, rape and abduction of women have shocked South Africans.
Shockingly, every eight hours a woman is killed in South Africa, according to the SA Medical Research Council.
This has prompted Langelihle Zulu (28 years-old) and Tshega Mampshika (23 years-old), the founders of Algorhythm – a digital marketing and technology company based in Empangeni, a town in KwaZulu-Natal close to the industrial hub of Richards Bay – to develop an app to deal with this challenge of women’s safety.
Both Zulu and Mampshika have developed a smartphone app aimed at addressing and minimizing instances of women getting kidnapped or abducted in South Africa.
The aim of the app is to promote women’s safety in one of the world’s unsafe countries, especially for women and children.
The Imbokodo app is available for download on the Google Play and can be utilised as a digital panic button during any emergency such as a possible rape, abduction, etc,
The app can track the location of the person using it through global positioning system (GPS) Coordinates via SMS, for free. Then the app can be used to simply detect the user’s location and send emergency alerts with GPS, making it simpler for families or authorities to digitally trace the whereabouts of their loved ones if they are in danger of being abducted or rape.
To register, an interested user can download Imbokodo app on Google Play.
After downloading the app, all you have to do is to store your own phone numbers and other two numbers on the app. In case of an emergency, the user can trigger the panic button or emergency alerts by tapping any part of the screen within the app.
From there, the Imbokodo app then sends within seconds an SMS alerting the two contacts within your GPS Co-ordinates and Google Maps link for easy tracking. At no cost to the user.
Using Imbokodo app, for an entire hour after the emergency is sent, the app will sent multiple updates of your location to your loved ones’ profile.
The Imbokodo app is not yet linked to the South African Police systems, however the founders are planning to engage with the authorities, especially the Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula, to make this a possibility.
“For long, we have had a problem of women abuse, women abduction, and killings in South Africa, we therefore had to do what we can to try minimize these horrific instances that bring shame to our communities and country,” the duo, Zulu and Mampshika told Techfinancials on Friday.
The app was started earlier in May in response to #MenAreTrash hashtag trend on social media platforms, following the news that South African women were being killed, maimed, and raped in numbers.
The #MenAreTrash campaign was started in response to widespread gender violence and femicide. The trash tag was rooted with deep pain, fear and disgust by women and men towards the widespread gender violence and femicide.
“We had to take the solution beyond hashtags,” Zulu told Techfinancials.
“For long, we have had a problem of women abuse, women abduction, and killings in South Africa, we therefore had to do what we can to try minimize these horrific instances that bring shame to our communities and country. “
Imbokodo app is attracting a great interest from users and the team is working on new features to improve it. In the first week of launch, the app saw more than a thousand-people downloading it on Google Play, just testing its response and functionality
“A lot more public and private structures want to be a part of the initiative as a result,” says Mampshika, adding that Algorhythm’s is planning more campaigns with partners to raise more awareness about the use and importance of the Imbokodo app within communities.
Both Zulu and Mampshika, who spend their time between Empangeni and Johannesburg, are developing other apps to transform the African continent.
They are both currently rolling out a full digital ticketing experience for township-based events as well as an App for accounting solutions for SMMEs.
They have big plans for their startup, Algorhythm, which is self-funded and despite this they are not fazed with their focus to respond to a societal problem in a country they love with all their hearts.
Algorhythm’s founders are keen to engage possible investors to grow the Imbokodo app and keep our women safe.
Zulu, an Empangeni-born radio presenter and producer, is a digital media enthusiast obsessed about community economic development as well as growth for black youth businesses. He also does talk radio @icorafm.
While, Mampshika is a computer scientist and programming freak.
“We need to stand up as young people and in our little corners put systems in place to restructure and revamp this country and continent’s economy,” says Zulu.
