When Herman Maritz and Dan Southwood-Wells conceptualised ESP eight years ago, they never imagined that it would become an important source of information for more than 6.5 million users.
According to Herman, who obtained his Masters degree in Electronic Engineering at Stellenbosch University, he and Dan met at Entersekt, a mobile security start-up company in Stellenbosch, where Herman was employed as a software engineer in 2010. “Accepting a job at Entersekt was probably the best decision I made in my life – figuring things out as you go is the best way to learn fast,” he says.
He and Dan created the app at the end of 2014 because they wanted to know when loadshedding was happening so they could plan around it during their December holidays.
“Loadshedding schedules are hard to understand, and we wanted it to be simple. We started to send notifications to ourselves, so that we knew when we needed to stay in the office a bit longer. This xpanded to our friends and family. We then spent a weekend writing the app and we kept working on it in our spare time over the years.”
Although EskomSePush refers to push notifications for Eskom’s loadshedding, Herman doesn’t deny that they’ve had a few chuckles when people with Afrikaans accents (including his own, he admits) pronounce the app’s name.
The creation of EskomSePush and its initial growth to 1.5 million users coincided with a career move for Herman. At the beginning of 2015, he joined the OLX Group in Cape Town.
This was followed by a break in loadshedding in 2016 and 2017, and Dan kept things running until loadshedding returned in 2018. Since then, the app has grown to 6.7 million users and its impact has expanded.
“Something cool that I didn’t expect is that we’re now helping other companies deal with loadshedding.
Mobile networks and large corporations are using the Business API to provide information to contact centres, manage faults and status across dispersed networks, and visualise impact on operations. It’s all about gaining efficiency and handling the impact of loadshedding effectively.
“Information is power. We all want to know what’s going on around us. Accurate and timely nformation gives us peace of mind and provides a sense of reassurance in an increasingly chaotic world.”
They are now working on EskomSePush’s new AskMyStreet feature, through which anyone can ask questions and get answers to hyper-local problems. Current categories include electricity, water, roads, fires, pets, internet issues and safety.
“In collaboration with our app community, we’re helping to inform people about issues nearby, just like we did with loadshedding. Keeping up with what’s happening in your area has never been easier.”
Despite loadshedding, Herman is still a proud South African.
“There are problems everywhere. The way South Africans use humour to lighten the weight of our issues is something special. We also know that no one is coming to help us; we complain but, in the end, we deal with our issues and make it work,” he says.
- Writer: Pia Nänny
- This article is featured in our first issue of the Matie alumni magazine, and is one of the many stories that reflect the resilience of the individual writ large.
If you are seeking a few life hacks or simple reminders on turning adversity into opportunity, please read on, Maties!
https://console.vpaper.ca/stellenbosch-university/always-a-matie-202301_eng/
