Bringing solutions to fight Covid-19

During a global pandemic that has not been seen since the influenza pandemic of 1918, Lefa (24) and his sibling Thabang Motloung (31) who resides in Mondeor, took it upon themselves to be part of solutions.

They created Africa’s first and most technologically advantaged Covid-19 data-driven platform covering over 200 countries. It consist of 10 languages including Zulu, Xhosa to French, and Portuguese.

The translations are automated and built into the platform itself.

“We created this platform to bridge the communication gap in the fight against Covid-19,” said Thabang.

According to them, they are the first Africans in history to have built one of the most technologically advanced and data-driven platforms dealing with a global pandemic.

This is a global pandemic because the spread is airborne. The last pandemic of such magnitude was the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 to 1920 of which about 500 million people were infected. Also the Zulu, Xhosa to French and Portuguese, which was in 1957 to 1958. There was no African created data-driven platform such as ours created as there was no internet.”Also, only an African developed platform will have African languages,” said Lefa.

They hope this will inspire every African to believe in themselves no matter where they come from and more importantly, to become active citizens of the globe. Lefa said they have found it very important that Africans are part of not only the narrative but providing solutions.

The narrative means we don’t have to be the end-users of information or solutions.”Africans should be inspired to solve whichever solutions that they see fit,” said Thabang.

With Thabang being an auditor and his brother Lefa working as a business analyst, they use their experience, which doesn’t only range from banking or finance. But they also span from South Africa to San Francisco to inspire every African to play a big or small role in helping to fight this pandemic.

Following protocol and policy, meaning the average reader needs to understand that a vaccine could be six to 12 months away, if not more as it will have to go through the three sequential phases of testing after which it must still be approved by the Data Safety and Monitoring Board (DSMB).

Phase one is a test of people that looks first at safety and whether responses to the vaccine are found.”Phase two goes wider, looking critically at the magnitude and durability of responses to the vaccine.”Phase three is the real test of the vaccine’s efficacy and can involve up to tens of thousands of volunteers,” Lefa said.

Lefa adds with the country in lockdown, a lot of revenue is being lost by 15 percent in a decline from Chinese travel alone which costs the country around R200-million. “We are also forced to integrate technology into our school systems, which was not happening at a rapid rate.”

That is going to make school more affordable, and more accredited online school will be recognised by the Department of Education as a problem to a skills shortage,” he said.

They are doing this to honour their late mother, Angelinah Motloung, who died from cancer in late 2019.”We promised to live a purposeful life to make the world a better place and if ever there was a time, it is now.”