Nyari Samushonga, CEO of WeThinkCode, was named IT Personality of the Year; and Intikhab Shaik, Head: Technology and Solutions Delivery at SARS, won Visionary CIO of the Year award. The Technology Excellence Award went to Justin Thomas, Head: Strategy, Alliances and Digital Transformation at Standard Bank; the Siyavula MSDF team won the Social Responsibility/Community Award, and Ayanda Dladla, CEO and founder of Mowash and Runtime Solutions, was the winner of the new Dynamism in ICT Youth Award. Christopher Guy, IITPSA fellow and membership/critical skills assessor, received a Distinguished Service in ICT award.

With a history spanning over 40 years, the awards have continued to evolve over time, and this year introduced a youth award for exceptional achievement and promise among IT professionals under the age of 35. The new Dynamism in IT Youth Award, launched to support the IITPSA’s efforts to encourage and raise the profile of emerging IT professionals, was well supported, with a corps of strong nominees.

IITPSA president, Admire Gwanzura noted that this year’s awards also demonstrated progress in efforts to encourage more women to enter the IT sector. “This year, for the first time, we saw a 50-50 split between men and women among the finalists,” he said. “We see this as an encouraging sign that gender gaps in the sector are finally closing.”

IITPSA CEO Tony Parry added that the number of outstanding candidates being nominated for the President’s Awards has been impressive. “We are gratified to see the sheer numbers of brilliant and deserving candidates being put forward for recognition every year. This may make selecting winners a difficult task for our panel of judges, but it indicates that South African IT is world class, populated by scores of visionaries, strong leaders and innovators.”