By Motšelisi Sekonyela

MASERU

Katiso Moalosi, 26 is the founder of one of the booming cab businesses in Maseru, Smart Cabs that he founded in early 2022 before venturing into Phethahatso Logistics in November the same year.

Moalosi is a member of the Finite Magazine Lifestyle club which he says is essential for small business owners like himself as members support each other’s businesses at discounted prices as well as get discounted prices at selected club partner businesses.

Moalosi was born in the Quthing district, but grew up in Maseru, Ha Matala. For his educational background, he went to Lithabaneng primary and Itekeng high school where he developed a passion for design. To fulfill his passion, he applied for a Professional Design course at the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology in 2014 and was enrolled for two months but unfortunately had to drop out due to not making the National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS) cut. Moalosi describes this as his first real heartbreak.

“I was totally shattered when I had to drop out of school, out of a programme I totally loved due to not being sponsored by the NMDS. I had to go back home to Quthing because my widowed mother could not afford university tuition fees,” he said.

Getting back to Quthing, Moalosi worked at a supermarket in his village where he alternated between the shop and the owner’s farm. He said carrying mealie meal sacks to load them on drugs while his peers were enrolled in universities was a painful experience which he did not want to endure for the rest of his life.

After two years of living and working in his village of Masitise, Quthing, Moalosi then tried his luck with school again and applied for Bachelor of Education at the National University of Lesotho where he got admission and was successful with the NMDS. Even though teaching was not his passion, Moalosi says he at that point just wanted to get enrolled and escape the out of school life he had been living.

However, two years later he learned that he would make for a very terrible teacher, therefore leaned more to the entrepreneurship side of thing. He says he would spend the night at the campus WI-FI spot downloading movies and series instead of doing school work, and sell these to his schoolmates. This then became his main focus and his school work suffered to a point where in second year he failed and was discontinued from faculty.

He says this was a relief as he had been meaning to drop out but his mother would not allow him. Moalosi’s savings at the time amounted to over M20,000.00 which he bought a car with. The initial intention was to turn it into a taxi but the paper work proved to be expensive, therefore he opted for the cab option.

In November 2022, Moalosi ventured into another stream of the transport business, being Phethahatso Logistics which he says is a parcel shuttle between the Maseru, Mohale’s Hoek and Quthing districts.

The idea came about as a way to cut petrol costs in his trips to visit his wife who works in Mohale’s Hoek. He would advertise available space for parcels on social media and got a very positive reception. That is when he learned that there is a gap in the parcel delivery business in between the highland districts and Maseru.

He says this is now his most passionate business that is growing rapidly and positively impacting lives of such districts residents as Quthing where he is now doing logistics for businesses like motor spares, hair salons and restaurants. He describes his business to the people of Quthing as a savior they gave been longing for.

Moalosi has plans to expand to other districts as well, and starting from March, there will be parcel transportation to Butha Buthe.