SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR

ZANDILE MKWANAZI GirlCode girlcode.co.za

It’s clear that the world is undergoing a revolutionary change with advances in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, blockchain, and more. The Fourth Industrial Wave is here, and the founder and CEO of GirlCode is making sure that women aren’t left behind.

When Zandile started her career as a coder back in 2014, the one thing she couldn’t fail to notice was that there weren’t many other women – let alone many other black women – in the tech space. “I was either the only woman there, or one of a few. It was disheartening.”

Zandile knew women wanted to be in this space, so, with the help of her manager at the time, she held her first female-only hackathon. It was a huge success – and GirlCode was born. “The GirlCode hackathon became an annual event, attracting more and more women each year – mostly university students who were studying towards an IT-related degree.” Pre-Covid, the NPO grew to host the largest annual all-women hackathon, with more than 300 participants. “It was then that we realised that GirlCode could grow beyond just the hackathons and be a platform that engaged women in tech, facilitated the advancement of their skills in the industry, and encouraged others to join the tech revolution.”

To date, GirlCode has reached and taught more than 62 000 young girls in South Africa through its various initiatives and programmes. Zandile believes that GirlCode can introduce girls to technology from an early age and support them to upskill themselves in programming, coding and design, “thereby giving girls and women the confidence to insert themselves in the labour market as skilled software developers. We can bridge the gender participation and inequality gap in the technology sector.”

Winning the Women of the Future Social Entrepreneur Award has affirmed the hard work Zandile has put into GirlCode, but she knows there’s still a long way to go to close the gender digital divide in South Africa. However, GirlCode is up for the challenge. “We’ve zero-rated our website [providing access without cost] so that any girl or woman who belongs to GirlCode can access our site to learn coding without needing data, and we’ve partnered with several tech companies, which have donated their old devices to us. We distribute them to our students.” One of their goals is to be able to teach 10 million girls how to code in 10 years.

Zandile believes it’s time for women to claim a place in the tech industry. “There’s never been a better time for women to take ownership of whatever they want to achieve in life, because nobody is coming to save us. We have to be advocates for ourselves, and we have to stand up for each other,” she says. ■