Sewagodimo Matlapeng

This North West native's interest in computer science started when she was still in high school in Rustenburg when she opted to take up IT as a subject even though she knew nothing about computers. After getting the feel of the subject, Sewagodimo Matlapeng, 21, eventually began teaching underprivileged children in the community of Phokeng how to code as well.

When she moved to UCT to study a BSc Honours in computer science, she simultaneously ran community projects focused on teaching coding to young people, particularly young, black women and girls.

Sewagodimo created an educational app called Buza Answers, to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access assistance and resources that aren’t immediately available to them.

Sewagodimo is passionate about using technology and programming to solve problems faced by South Africans and is also a women's rights activist, focusing much of her community work on women and girls. She founded the groups Indoni Space and Women@DevC as a result of this.

Indoni is a mentor-mentee group for black womxn developers in South Africa and has more than 40 women from Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban. Women@DevC is an inclusivity group for the women developers who are tech community leaders in 15 sub-Saharan countries.