Street-smart computer scientist figures it out
‘A’ student makes full use of his talents to eke out a living
TALENTED computer scientist and entrepreneur, Xolisile Yoni’s intellect shines like a rough diamond in the dusty streets of Nemato. Across the street from the police station, in a building owned by Stenden South Africa, Yoni shares an office space with Grahamstown crafter Thembinkosi Butani and his drums, beads and leatherwork.
Sitting amid his computer, cellphone, hardware and repairs for local clients, Yoni explained how he came to be where he is today.
Yoni was born in Port Alfred in 1976 and attended Dambuza Primary, Mtyobo Higher Primary and Nomzamo High Schools where he studied maths, biology and physics – passing matric with several distinctions in 1999.
“I was always fascinated by numbers and things around me, atoms and microscopic realities, and the big picture”, Yoni said.
He studied business English at School Leavers Opportunity and Training, started his own computer repair business and put himself through university, while working as a computer technician.
Studying at Vista University (later merged with the University of Port Elizabeth), he obtained a BCom in Economics in Computer Science.
He continued working as a computer technician and a contractor for many clients including Smart Byte, General Motors South Africa, Transnet, Eastern Cape Training College and Stenden.
But everything changed for the better when he met Rob Crothall earlier this year. Crothall came to the Robert Veenstra Centre where Stenden has a computer lab with 30 desktop computers. The centre offers free computer courses to local residents.
“Crothall came to train people to do business on a global scale”, said Yoni.
A member of Sunshine Coast Tourism, Crothall has been living in Port Alfred for several years and was concerned that the youth in the area were not being schooled adequately and not prepared to take an active part in the economy or to thrive after leaving school.
Crothall has an IT background, and decided to encourage young, unemployed people in Nemato to study computer programming via the internet. “By studying on the internet and using the internet as a market, the youth can get meaningful work without necessarily leaving town,” he said.
Crothall introduced Xolisile to the www.zacs.co.za website and Harvard University’s “CS50x – An Introduction to Computer Science” course which is available on www.edx.org.
Yoni completed the course which is free, takes just 15 hours to complete and offers the opportunity for employment afterwards.
Yoni was then offered a unique opportunity. Crothall had been raising funds through the internet society (ISOC) when he met president of the Gauteng Chapter, Gabriel Ramokotjo who worked for .zadna, the South African domain name registry.
Zadna was interested in providing websites to a certain number of schools in each province and asked Crothall to pick five schools and find a previously disadvantaged webmaster to do the work.
Crothall chose Yoni, who had hands-on knowledge of HTML and was learning Word Press for the task.
“Word Press is like Word, but is an HTPP language, with HTML underneath it,” Yoni said.
“All you need to know is end-user computing, how to use the internet, uploading and download videos. You don’t need sophisticated things, just a notepad and a code,” he said.
Crothall said: “The course is from Harvard University and it assumes that you know very little about computers. Anyone who can handle e-mail or browse the web should be able to do the course.”
After completing the course, Yoni interviewed the school principals, gathered the information and photographs and built the websites. Zadna paid him at roughly R100 per hour, which is quite good going in Nemato, said Crothall.
The five websites are www.kuyasacs.co.za, www.nomzamoss.co.za, www.mtyobops.co.za, www.dambuzaps.co.za, and www.portalfredps.co.za.
“As a result, they gave me a profile. I am not coming from nowhere, and people who are serious about business know that they are in the right hands,” Yoni said.
In the future, Yoni wants to write a programme and sell it as an APP.
Yoni said he would like to contribute to the community around him and would like to get more computer equipment to the people. “This is a hybrid area of rural and town, and people need education and training from basic to advanced,” he said.
“Digital emigration means computers affect everything.”
Yoni is inspired by love of music, maths, new technology, apps, and various discoveries and is a regular visitor to the local Forum for Astronomy, Science and Technology (FAST).