Bidvest’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) Nomonde White-Ndlovu and Cinga Nyangintsimbi, Founder and Managing Director of Batsamayi Software Development, are among the winners of the prestigious Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) President’s Awards this year.

IITPSA President Pearl Pasi said the theme is particularly relevant, given the growing importance of the role of information and communication technology (ICT) professionals in the new digital world. “As ICT professionals, we are building and deploying solutions that run the world and impact the lives of every citizen and we must do so ethically. We must be always aware of the impacts of our technology and ensure the digital world is accessible, unbiased and fair to everyone. The world we build should uplift – not exclude.”

Pasi said the finalists in the 2024 IITPSA President’s Awards are all shining examples of ethical, innovative ICT professionalism in action.

Women finalists outnumbered men in most categories

She also noted that this year was the first in the President’s Awards’ 46-year history that women finalists outnumbered men in most categories – and overall.

“Women dominated in terms of nominations and finalists in the Visionary CIO and IT Personality categories. And, in our Dynamism in ICT Youth category for people under the age of 25, all of the finalists are young women. We take this as an encouraging sign that more young women are entering the sector and the gender gap is really closing in South African ICT.”

This year’s awards and winners:

• IT Personality Award – This accolade was presented to Nyangintsimbi who established Batsamayi as a third-year group project while studying at Nelson Mandela University. He later became a student assistant and final year IT lecturer at the university. Under Cinga’s leadership, Batsamayi has experienced exponential growth from a dream of six young software engineers in 2015 to a 50-strong team specialising in software engineering, quality assurance and cloud services for international clients.
• Visionary CIO Award – White-Ndlovu received this recognition as a seasoned technology executive. She has served on the Absa Group technology executive team and headed governance, risk and compliance for Absa Group’s IT office. She was also Joint-CIO of Absa's infrastructure services. White-Ndlovu is a speaker and moderator and Chairperson of Wired4Women with an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and a BA (law) degree from Wits.
• Technology Excellence Award – Cornelius Greyling of Fibertime received this acknowledgement of his work as a dynamic entrepreneur and technology leader. Greyling co-founded Avocado Chocolate in 2015 with Martin Stolk. The company developed mobile apps, games, websites, web services and reward platforms. In 2021, Greyling launched VulaCoin – a micro-payments and business support services platform for pay-as-you-go fibre connectivity in South African townships. In 2022, he sold the platform to Fibertime where he is now an executive overseeing product development.
• Social Responsibility/Community Award – For supporting women’s and family health and wellness with virtual consultations, a community chat forum, resources and a shop/pharmacy where members can purchase products and medication, Zoie Health received this award. The digital platform also offers a business-to-business, WhatsApp-based employee benefits product, EasyDoc, for frontline employees.
• Dynamism in ICT Youth Award – This acknowledgement went to 24-year-old Matshepo Soto, CEO of MoveMates, who developed instant quotes and on-demand moving services. With a background in software engineering at WeThinkCode, she won first place in five prestigious hackathons and the Rising Star in Coding award. She was also listed among ITWeb's "100 Influential Women in Tech" and Geekulcha's top 15 geeks. Additionally, Soto founded the non-profit Thuma Mina Tech Foundation, which teaches autistic children about technology.
• Member Ambassador Award – Constandious Takura Munakandafa, a member of the IITPSA Social and Ethics Committee, who has served as Secretary, Treasurer and Vice Chairperson of the Gauteng IITPSA Chapter, received this award. He regularly writes IT articles published in the IITPSA newsletter. He is Agile Systems Analyst at Glacier by Sanlam and holds a BSc (Hons) degree in information systems from Midlands State University in Zimbabwe.
• Distinguished Service in ICT Award – Jason Jordaan, a digital forensics, incident response and cybercrime investigation specialist, and Founder and Principal Partner of DFIRLABS, received this accolade.
• IITPSA Fellowship of the Institute Award – Thabo Mashegoane, Past President and Non-Executive Director of the IITPSA, former Chair of the Africa Information & Communication Technologies Alliance and Eskom’s Chief IT Architect, was honoured with this award.

The IITPSA President’s Awards 2024 were presented by the IITPSA in association with ITWeb and GIBS and sponsored by SoftwareOne Experts SA. The Distinguished Service in ICT Award was presented in association with EngineerIT.