Tebogo brings fun to coding in song

Matlou created the song for Tangible Africa as part of the global build-up to Mandela Day. “The global coding tournament aims to get 30 000 learners coding on the day, to celebrate 30 years of democracy in South Africa,” says Matlou. Tangible Africa, a project of the Leva Foundation and Nelson Mandela University (NMU), provides training and awareness about unplugged coding through the flagship coding games, Boats and Rangers.

Its founder and professor at NMU’s computing sciences department, Prof Jean Greyling, says demystifying coding is critical in preparing teachers and learners for the planned coding and robotics curricula. Matlou is passionate about introducing learners from schools in the Mopani region to coding and robotics. Some of his teams have done him proud in First Lego League competitions, including winning trophies.

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Driven by a vision to empower the youth in his community, he established a company aimed at hosting electronic and gaming activities. This initiative, known as Royce Electronic Games and Olympiads, gives young learners access to essential skills in coding and robotics. Creating the catchy song for Tangible Africa’s Mandela Day event, was a passion project for Tebogo.

Schools are now challenged to perform their own dances with the song. To show what can be done, a group dance of Sadtu, Unplugged Coding Master Trainers, was recorded in East London and Adrian Tony, a Tangible Africa coding facilitator in Loxton, also recorded a video with suggested dance moves. For more information, contact Greyling at jean.greyling@mandela.ac.za.