DUC

General information

DUC was started as a Dream by Sanjeev Singh and a few good friends, to build something that could be fun to work on and help people within the Community, this was the Challenge, 6 years ago when we started this Small effort to become more Socially responsible and help more people in more ways. Social Media in South Africa was just taking off at the time and we saw an opportunity to find like minded people and start a revolution of some sort. We began by sending 1 broadcast message per week via BBM and pasting that same post on to FaceBook, it was just taking Jobs that were in papers, online and that were sent to us by friends, summarizing them and then broadcasting and posting them at once to thousands of people.

The problem at that time was the same as it is now, people did not have the resources, time or the know how to search for opportunities and so we became their eyes and ears, and in order to fit more information into messages we summarized most, shortening them just enough for people to understand and be able to action it.

In this way, people began to rely on us for accurate information not just for jobs but community alerts, clearing up hoax messages, referring them to businesses that they could trust for best services and products, pretty soon we were also advertising for businesses and sending out specials for shows, club events and discounts on comedy festivals.
This slowly became a business, but we never intended to go in that direction, we were just in the company of good people and doing good made us feel even better, DUC soon grew to a size that made it impossible to run on a part time basis, this needed constant work and a full time hands on person, so we monetized our services but chose our advertisers very carefully and our times of advertising, because we did not want to spam or flood our subscribers, neither did we want to send people broadcasts at odd hours of the day and that same guide line that we initially started with, still lives on today.

We do not spam our subscribers, Every member of DUC must opt in to our services, we will never steal or buy details and use them, even though we have moved now to Whatsapp, we still only accept people who save our number first, we only send a maximum of 3 broadcasts per day and not a single message more. Just because DUC has become a business does not mean we should ever forget what we stand for and what made us who we are.

Today, here we are with over 115,000 subscribers on 5 social platforms from across Kwa-Zulu Natal and over 3000 monthly readers of our website. Ask at your work, home or community, somebody you know has heard of DUC, our work and our Job Alerts.

In this memoir of our experiences, we would like to remember the many people who assisted DUC in our endeavors, often with no actual reward beside a thank you or smile. People that shaped DUC and brought us to where we are now.

A special thanks needs to go out to one person in particular – Suraya Mohamed

This list is in no particular order, each person deserves his or her own credit…

Masood Boomgaard (DUC would never have existed without you)

Mani Kaliray (Encouragement and Support from miles away – DUC’s 1st mother)

Ravigesan Govender (There at the Toughest times)

Shaun Papi Naidoo (We would not have a Logo without you)

Amith Baboolal (Time, Effort & Courage)

Hajara Naseem (Invaluable advice and Immense support)

Sherald Rajaram (Awesome contribution throughout)

Farhaard (RIP brother, always a ray of hope)

Amina (Always there to back us up)

Aradhna (Always willing to put in the time)

Savesh Pather (A reservoir of Comedy and Intelligence)

Quiton Naicker (A smile when you needed it)

Ruaan Scheepers (Always made you think twice)

Nash Gouri (When ever you needed a favour)

Kelly Hadden (Always ready to help)

Dhivashni (Assisted with so much and grew our base)

Dhush Woodumbu (Appreciate your contributions)

Rakhi Parbunath (Shining ray of help when needed)

Viven Reddy ( Business man with a Big Heart)

Vernon Reddy (Didnt Forget you, Thanks)

Amanda Govender (Always smiling and making everybody else smile)