01
Where stokvels come from
Stokvels grew up in South Africa as a way for workers and families, often shut out of banks, to save and support one another. The idea travelled across the region with people who moved for work, and today you will find stokvels among Zimbabweans in Johannesburg as readily as in Harare.
At heart a stokvel is a club of people who pool money on an agreed schedule and agree, in writing, what the money is for.
02
The main kinds
Most stokvels fall into one of these groups, and many mix two of them.
- Rotating (savings) stokvels — the whole pot goes to one member each month, in turn. This is the same model as mukando, and it is the type Money Club runs today.
- Grocery stokvels — members contribute all year and buy groceries in bulk together, usually in November or December, splitting them at the end of the year.
- Investment stokvels — money is pooled and kept, sometimes for years, towards a shared goal such as property or a business. These need more careful governance, because the pot grows large and nobody receives it for a long time.
- Burial stokvels — a pooled fund that pays out when a member or their family suffers a death. See the burial societies guide.
03
Why a constitution matters
Successful stokvels almost always have a short written constitution that every member signs. It does not need to be a legal document; it needs to answer the questions that will otherwise become arguments.
- How much each member pays, when, and how.
- What the money is for and who receives it when.
- What happens when someone pays late or stops paying.
- How new members join and how members leave.
- Who keeps the records, and how often members see them.
- How decisions are made — usually a vote at a meeting.
04
Running a stokvel on Money Club
Rotating stokvels work on Money Club today: set the amount, the rhythm and the number of members, and every contribution and payout moves through members’ Safely wallets in US dollars with a shared record. Grocery, investment and burial stokvel types are not available yet — we will say so in the app on the day they are.
Put it into practice
Run your club with every dollar on record.
Rotating clubs are live today, with contributions and payouts moving through Safely wallets in US dollars.