Can anybody please tell me what ethnicity has to do with lift clubs and car pooling???

Believe it or not, even in today’s new South Africa one is still required to submit this information when registering on a certain lift club site, which shall remain unmentioned. I’ll leave it up to you to discover while you are trying to find a lift – hint, hint, nudge, nudge.

When I saw this, I felt like I had just emerged from a time warp. Even if this can be justified as relevant for what ever reason, it just shouldn’t be done. I was under the impression that all forms of racial classification had been abolished.

Stop the bus – I want to get off.

That’s my opinion – feel free to shoot me down!

Happy lift hunting.

When I first heard about Mowaly on 702, I got quite excited. I thought that it might be a good idea to introduce as a payment option on our website - http://www.eliftclub.co.za .In terms of lift clubs and ride sharing, it seemed like a real godsend - a safe and convenient way for eLiftClubbers to pay one another for services rendered.

I can’t say that I have totally changed my mind, but the concept does have its limitations. At the risk of sounding bitchy, the name Mowaly also takes some getting used to. It sounds a bit like a derogatory word, one might use to describe your irritating next door neighbour – or maybe that’s just me.

Even if you have already heard the advertising, some of you may still be asking the obvious question – ‘what is Mowaly’? Essentially, it is a virtual wallet that holds virtual currency called MiMoney which is accessed via your cell phone. It is targeted at young consumers who do not have credit or debit cards.

The real problem with Mowaly at the moment is the fact that the number of participating merchants is still very small. People can spend their MiMoney at Ster-Kinekor, Kalahari.net and Mr Delivery, and you can also buy airtime and download ringtones from eXact-Music or eXactmobile – all the things that young people like to do.

I think the real benefit is that Mowaly facilitates the cost effective transfer of money, or more correctly – MiMoney, and that’s maybe another problem – MiMoney cannot be cashed in for real money. This probably isn’t a major if you’re able to buy things like groceries and clothes or fuel for your car, but apparently this is on its way. The marketing guys say that they are expecting food chains and the petrol stations to come on board soon.

I guess that we will have to wait and see how long it takes before we can use Mowaly to do everyday things. For example, you give me a lift and instead of paying you cash, I transfer the funds from my cell phone to yours. In turn, you are able to fill up your car or buy the day’s bread and milk.

That’s when things will really start looking up!

For more info, go to http://www.mimoney.co.za .