The State IT Agency (SITA) has hosted an internal Hackathon that addressed SA’s top socio-economic issues with clever tech solutions.

The Hackathon took place over three days, which culminated in eight teams presenting their digital solutions to a panel of judges.

“Through this Hackathon, we hope to light the spark at SITA,” says SITA CEO Dr Setumo Mohapi.

“The answers to South Africa’s most challenging issues sit within us, and the solutions presented during this Hackathon prove that we have the power to change our country.

“We wanted to wake SITA up to the possibility and our inherent potential to change things using the creativity inside us.

The teams were made up of members of various backgrounds, some with no IT or programming experience, and were assisted by experts from SITA’s third party partners.

First prize was awarded to  Team Education For Less, sponsored by Software AG, who looked at reducing the cost barriers for education by replacing costly infrastructure with Cloud Varsity, a high-quality online education portal.

“Education For Less was considered to be the underdogs because they are all from the Procurement Centre Of Excellence, and they had no technical know-how but were dedicated and willing to learn more,” said Mohapi.

“Their solution was to develop a workable, recognised quality online education that is on par with the traditional universities which would allow a typical South African child who would have been otherwise excluded from the education system due to financial barriers.”

Team Stargate, was sponsored by Accenture, was awarded second prize with their web-responsive solution called My Connected Government that allows the government to address citizens individually via the app and give members of the community access to essential services.

The My Connected Government solution allows for a single point of entry for South Africans to access a living learning e-Government, which provides users with an enjoyable experience throughout the various phases of their lives.

Third prize went to Team Vigorous Musketeers, sponsored by A2D24, who created Funza Learner Connect, a solution that improves the pass rates of learners in South Africa, by addressing issues such as teacher absenteeism, lack of resources, and low self-esteem, morale and support.

Vigorous Musketeers was made up of two ladies, one from Advisory Services and the other one from SITA Gauteng Province (SMS, e-Gov and PSS).

The portal provides e-live tutorials, webinars, access to information about study funds and access to an e-library.

The other teams presented the following solutions:

  • Team SITAvarsity, sponsored by Gijima, presented a learning portal that empowers learners with practical knowledge on IT services and programming.
  • Team Go Big Go Digital, sponsored by BCX, considered the long queuing times in public hospitals and clinics and developed the Patient Information Transfer System (PITS),  a web and mobile app to capture patient information.
  • Team Light of Information, sponsored by BBC, aimed to address the lack of ICT infrastructure in rural areas by providing a platform that provides a wireless, smart network to facilitate the delivery of information.
  • Team VM2, sponsored by A2D24, presented SMME Rater, a solution that aims to extend the lifespan of SMME in South Africa by focusing on key insights for customers that business owners can use to improve their offerings.
  • Team Hacking Squad, sponsored by Huawei, developed a platform called Service on Demand to assist municipalities in supplying better service delivery to South African citizens.
  • “SITA aims to provide services to South Africans and aims to provide solutions to the country’s socio-economic problems through IT,” concluded Mohapi.

“We’re hoping to create a bigger space for larger companies to work with SMMEs, while also making coding more attractive to varsity students who will see a fulfilling career at SITA.”

For more information, visit the SITA website.