Mxit's founder Herman Heunis has passed away

In 1997, Namibian-born Heunis founded a consultancy specialising in software development called Swist Group Technologies.

Clockspeed Mobile, a research division of Swist, launched Mxit based on Heunis' concept. Following the launch, Clockspeed became an independent entity and was named Mxit Lifestyle.

"Initially beginning as a multiplayer game based around SMS’s, Mxit became a popular social network app that peaked the interests of financial backers like Naspers in 2007," Memeburn reported.

By 2012, Mxit had over 10 million active users and recorded between 35,000 and 50,000 daily registrations. Heunis sold Mxit in the same year to World of Avatar.

Heunis stayed away from the limelight after selling Mxit and focused on various hobbies including endurance bike races such as the Absa Cape Epic, according to Africa-Me.

Heunis explained that he was too burnt out in 2011 to take Mxit further:

Pity I was so burntout in 2011 to take mxit further.Had all ingredients to become major success story. The missing catalyst was new energy

— Herman Heunis (@hermanheunis) October 27, 2015

Mxit was shut down in 2016 following a public statement that indicated a dramatic drop in user numbers. The app had around 88 million users at the time.