Tangible Africa’s Engagement Manager, Jackson Tshabalala, has been announced one of the winners of the Mail and Guardian 200 Young South Africans.
The awards gala dinner to celebrate the country’s top young trailblazers and achievers was hosted last night [Thursday, June 22]. The prestigious awards acknowledge young people – in a broad range of fields and industries between the ages of 18 and 35 – who are committed to creating a sustainable future.
And this could not be truer for Tshabalala, 30, who knew from a young age that he was going to be a change-maker. At the helm of an award-winning innovation development organisation, Tangible Africa, he is instrumental in shaping young people’s futures across the continent.
Tangible Africa, an engagement project of the Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department and the Leva Foundation, builds teams of people across Africa and South Africa to teach tangible coding concepts. Very little online resources are needed to play the coding games, by making use of Tangible Africa’s flagship coding applications, RANGERS, BOATS and TANKS.
Tshabalala joined Tangible Africa in October 2021, when the organisation was still in its infancy, and since then the coding movement has expanded exponentially – from preschoolers to pensioners learning to code across the continent.
Tangible Africa Founder and Head of the Department and Associate Professor at the Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department, Prof Jean Greyling, said Tshabalala greatly deserved this accolade and recognition.
“I honour Jackson firstly for the fact that he has taken total ownership of the project and our vision to positively impact the children of our continent, and further. Since joining he has played a pivotal role in dealing with day-to-day administrative tasks up to successfully engaging with various local, national, and global stakeholders.
Wherever he goes, he is a wonderful ambassador for the movement,” said Greyling.
Tangible Africa has to date reached over 100 000 learners, trained 20 000 teachers, as well as hosted coding tournaments nationwide, in more than seven other African countries, as well as hosted an international coding tournament between South African and Irish learners.
“I am very proud to see our team members being recognised for their amazing work.
Jackson is a great example of how young South Africans can be part of the solution to solving Africa’s skills gap. His passion for breaking barriers is a major contributor to his success and our growth as an organisation,” said Leva Foundation CEO Ryan le Roux.
It is no surprise that the huge success achieved in such a short amount of time has earned Tangible Africa some high accolades. In November last year the organisation was announced the first runner-up in the African Union Innovating Education in Africa 2022 Awards.
“I got this incredible opportunity to pitch Tangible Africa to the AU in Tunisia… we met so many new partners whom we are now further collaborating with to spread unplugged coding to places like West and East Africa. Tangible Africa has accelerated my personal development, innate leadership skills and I have grown operationally, organisationally, and relationally in the professional sphere,” said Tshabalala.
Since then, he has also conducted Coding Master Training in Ghana and in July will repeat this training in Ireland for representatives from different Europeans countries. Getting to this epitome of success took some incredible mentors, per-chance-meetings as well as hardships along the way to position Tshabalala for the responsibility of his leading role at Tangible Africa.
Born and raised in Gqeberha, Tshabalala completed a BA in Industrial Psychology and English at Nelson Mandela University and was involved in various business ventures before he found the perfect fit with Tangible Africa which resonated with his goals of bridging the digital divide and building capacity and sustainability.
As an alumnus of Nelson Mandela University and the Henley Business School (Post Grad Diploma: Management Practices), his personal goal is to contribute to an Advanced Africa – a First World Africa- and a continent that creates its own solutions. “Coding is an introduction to digital education, and even when all schools in Africa have computers, the learners will still need problem-solving skills to develop the continent. I believe that I have a crucial role to play in the development of the African continent. My time is now.”
Alan Straton
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