The Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) has announced the finalists for this year’s annual IITPSA President’s Awards.
The awards, which have recognised the local IT industry’s leading lights for over 30 years, include the Visionary CIO and IT Personality of the Year awards – the industry’s most coveted titles awarded only to the most outstanding individuals in their fields.
Over the years, the awards have grown in scope, and now also include categories for Technology Excellence and Social Responsibility, with a new category – the Dynamism in ICT Youth Award – debuting this year to recognise outstanding achievements by students, IT entrepreneurs or up-and-coming IT professionals under the age of 35.
IITPSA President Admire Gwanzura says this year’s finalists represent a worthy corps of IT professionals to be considered for the IITPSA’s 65th anniversary President’s Awards.
“As the 65th anniversary is a milestone traditionally associated with sapphires, the IITPSA has themed its sapphire anniversary President’s Awards ‘Brilliance in IT’,” he says. “We believe our finalists are all shining examples of brilliance in the profession.”
He notes that the new Dynamism in ICT Youth Award has been introduced to support the IITPSA’s goals of growing the South African IT skills pipeline and broader ecosystem. “We believe our finalists all promise to become exceptional young professionals, and we trust that being named a finalist or winner will encourage them and raise their public profiles,” he says.
This year’s President’s Awards finalists are:
IT Personality Award
The IT Personality Award recognises a highly respected and outstanding ICT professional who has made a significant technical or academic contribution to the industry, who has been successful in building a highly-respected IT organisation or business, and/or who has made a major contribution to the IT profession over a number of years.
* Queen Ndlovu, CEO of QP Drone Tech and MD of South Africa Flying Labs;
* Lillian Barnard, CEO of Microsoft South Africa;
* Nyari Samushonga, CEO of WeThinkCode;
* Carey van Vlaanderen, CEO of ESET Southern Africa; and
* Johan Steyn, Research fellow at Stellenbosch University and founder of AI for Business.
Visionary CIO Award
The Visionary CIO Award honours a CIO who has demonstrated visionary leadership in using IT to support, grow and transform business and/or who has established best practice in implementing technology solutions in an organisation.
* Karina Geyser, ICT Executive at SAFRIPOL;
* Portia Maluleke, Group Executive: Information Technology Services at Telkom Group;
* Intikhab Shaik, Head: Technology and Solutions Delivery at the South African Revenue Service (SARS);
* Terence Govender, Director and Principal Consultant at Phambili IT; and
* Phokeng Mogase, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).
Technology Excellence Award
The Technology Excellence Award will be presented to a person or team who has made exceptional or innovative use of technology for an organisation and/or who has exhibited technological excellence that has delivered measurable benefit for business/the South African economy.
* Agrikool;
* Justin Thomas, Head: Strategy, Alliances and Digital Transformation at Standard Bank; and
* Riaan D. Mastenbroek, Director at BlackBee Software.
Social Responsibility / Community Award
The Social Responsibility/Community Award will be presented to a person, team or project that delivers the benefits of IT on a not-for-profit basis into the community or brings the community into the IT space.
* Code for Change – CodeJIKA;
* Siyavula Education (Pty) Ltd;
* Education without Borders (EwB); and
* Vuyo Sigauke, Executive Chairperson at the Nelson Mandela University Computer Science Society.
Dynamism in ICT Youth Award
The Dynamism in ICT Youth Award recognises a person younger than 35 for exceptional potential or achievement in ICT. Nominees are nominated by educators, employers, colleagues or mentors and may include students excelling in STEM studies with outstanding bodies of work; young entrepreneurs in the IT sector; and individual up-and-coming IT professionals.
* Faith Mokgalaka, CEO & Founder at Puno Greenery;
* Ayanda Kevin Dladla, CEO & Founder of Mowash and Runtime Solutions;
* Dr Topside Ehleketani Mathonsi, Senior Lecturer and Acting HoD of the IT Department at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT);
* Moss Marakalala, Administrative Support Intern at the Tomorrow Trust; and
* Minkyum Kim, a Grade 11 learner from Reddam House Durbanville in the Western Cape.
The winners will be named at an awards ceremony in Sandton on 29 November 2022.
To support the finalists, click on https://www.iitpsa.org.za/annual-presidents-awards-finalists/.