After hours of persistent grind and sweat, the duo Talhah Patelia and Adela Bootha emerged as the winners of the 2021 edition of TADHack South Africa held this past weekend, September 24 to 26 for their solution called Mafhuta app. Mafhuta is a single secure application in all aspects of schooling using facial recognition, image processing, identification and sentiment analysis.
The theme for the 2021 TADHack South Africa was: “emerging from the pandemic – collaboration and monetisation towards the 4IR”. Where the 2020 TADHack hackathon focused on solving problems when the pandemic hit, twelve months later the entire world, along with all South Africans, are trying to emerge from the previous year’s challenges. Therefore, the aim was to challenge participants to see how South Africa can emerge from the pandemic by solving local COVID-19 related issues by using the ayoba messaging app and a multitude of local and global sponsor technologies.
Mafhuta solution pocketed the prize of $1000 (approximately R15000.00), and entry into the global TADHack competition.
“Hackathons such as the TADHack serve as an invaluable incubation hub where innovative and scalable solutions that address some of the socio-economic challenges are created, particularly now during covid-19. At MTN, we are proud to provide young people with the platform to showcase their creative talent and to leverage the power of technology to develop home-grown solutions. We believe that by supporting initiatives such as TADHack, we are contributing positively to the growth and development of the app development industry, and we are positioning our youth to play a meaningful role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
Phinda Ncala, Executive: Information Technology, MTN
The submissions were evaluated by a panel of judges with industry experience, this year’s edition attracted a wide variety of participants who submitted 60 entries vying for the top prize.
TADHack runs simultaneously in more than eight locations and encourages young creative minds to build solutions to problems using telecoms and other Application Programming Interfaces (API).
Furthermore, the ayoba challenge saw Gentech solution, a Kasi (township) food delivery service for underserved areas, walking away with R30 000 courtesy of ayoba.
The first ayoba challenge runner up is Marketplace app “Stoko” walked away with R20 000 and the second runner-up is Maftuha Edtech app, walking away with R10 000.
“For a digital platform company such as ayoba, the developer ecosystem can make or break its success. Ayoba is therefore exited to see several microapps developed for the platform over the weekend and will be working closely with the teams to ensure they will go live as soon as possible.”
Eero Tarjanne, Head of Ecosystem, ayoba
“Participants needed to bring ayoba messaging app and a multitude of local and global sponsor technologies brands together and show that together they can achieve even greater outcomes. We would like to thank ayoba, IBM, TCS, Huawei, Contactable, CSGi, and Globetom for playing a critical role in the year’s edition and we hope such collaboration will be ongoing as we continue to showcase the talent and skills our youth has.”
Phinda Ncala, Executive: Information Technology, MTN
