The e-Government department presented the 2nd phase of Youth Tech Expo (YTE) Hackathon at the Don Matema Hall in Eldorado Park on Thursday 15 October2026, after the widely successful 1st installment that saw the enthusiastic youth in the ICT space compete yet resolving problems adversely affecting the basic services encountered by communities in which they reside. In the series, the eGov department manoeuvres to host five hackathons across Gauteng’s five regions, starting with the Johannesburg Region.
Teaming up with Microsoft, e-Government facilitated to empower over 1 hundred youth who registered for the program by arming them with the hardware and apps through a 2day hackathon backed by ICT instructors, channeling them to achieve the highest level of competency. The outcome of which will position the outstanding 10 participants per region to stand a chance to be selected for the grand showdown with top achievers from other regions in November that will result in them being awarded the internship at Telkom SA.
With so many challenges affecting our youth in communities currently, e-Government which has the core function to realising Gauteng government services being digitized, positions itself exceptionally with programs such as these by opening up opportunities and uplifting the youth with proven results especially in the technology space, driving digital entrepreneurship and emerging technologies which underscores their vision to place our young performers to shine on a global stage as future tech giants!
Dan Legote, Chief Director for eWaste from Gauteng e-Gov, took to podium and mentioned that “if we are in the 4th Industrial Revolution, young people are eager to work on digital fronts, solve problems and come with better solutions for our Province. He encouraged the youth that if you are the right candidate this is your space to take advantage of. He ignited the youth to chant the affirmations; Discipline! Energy! Commitment! Performance under Pressure! Problem solving!” Leaving their spirits on a high.
Addressing the audience e-Gov MEC Bonginkosi Dhlamini, mentioned that “the drive journeyed all the corridors of the Province and the winner being awarded internship at Telkom for training on becoming Engineers digitally crafting solutions professionally. He encouraged the tech fundis to try and hack out the problem areas that the community encounters in Eldorado Park, their immediate place of residence. I have witnessed from the 1st round that young people are very creative and have potential, and furthermore, we have evidence that big tech world innovators who are now billionaires are from South Africa. Those who don’t win are not lost but remain on our database for more opportunities within the department!”
MEC Dhlamini further mentioned that “reeling from the meritorious success of the 1st phase hackathon, it is satisfying seeing young people being eager when given opportunities, because ours as government is to create an environment where young people can strive and showcase their talents and we must help to nurture such talents and skills. The 10 young people who won in the 1st phase is such an example, who acquired training at Microsoft. In that regard we are calling on private companies in the sector to come on board and take part in sponsoring these hackathons. Technology is the new order and we fall behind manty countries on the global scene. AI has made its presence felt, but it must not be looked at as a threat to the human race, we must just train our people to make use of it to their benefit. We will be rolling out a massive Digital Educational Expo throughout the Province because we cannot only be just digitizing government services and connecting people through Wi-Fi without training them effectively on how to use it, benefitting from it essentially making money out of it.” Concluded MEC Dlamini.
Jerry Sokhupe
Soweto Sunrise News
