Inspirational Interview With TOPTD Annual Sports Tournament Founder Dumisani Mthethwa

Inspirational Interview With TOPTD Annual Sports Tournament Founder Dumisani Mthethwa. He is one of the most inspirational personalities that young people should look up to. 33-year-old Dumisani Mthethwa, has achieved so much, and uses his expertise to help his community.

Mthethwa is a software engineer at Standard Bank responsible for systems integration. He also runs the TOPTD Annual Sports Tournament, which he founded 10 years ago. This initiative, hosted in deep rural KwaZulu-Natal, is themed “Rural Communities Anticipating 4IR”, and is aimed at promoting technology and data science. He organizes the tournament, fundraises and provides participants with laptops loaded with Python, SQL and HTML programming languages, along with tutorials from beginner to expert levels.

He is one of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans 2024, under the category of Sports. We recently caught up with him, where he spoke about his career, TOPTD, helping his community among other things.

 Can you tell us about your role as a software engineer at Standard Bank and what systems integration involves?

1. But in your first question in relations to the role that I play at Standard Bank, you know, essentially, I specialize in integration. That is actually involves creating methods for different systems to communicate with one another, effectively, ensuring the difference software applications can work together seamlessly. So, as you imagine them, an organization such as big as the biggest lender in the continent, my work is very crucial in maintaining reliability and efficiency of our banking services.

What inspired you to start the TOPTD Annual Sports Tournament, and how has it evolved over the past 10 years?

2. In relation to your second question around inspiration behind TOPTD, personality wise, I would say it is the late Sbungu Seleku former editor of sport. I think it is a citizen newspaper, but we came from the same place. He used to host what is known as the tournament every April. We know we are there as kids, and we are very excited to participate in that. And it will pull people together, another person, again, is late Zanele Mbokazi Nkambule, through her organization known as future leaders. So that shaped us as well, and gave us hope to say, no, we believe that is possible, but in the main. I was saying, to say in the main i was really is just to try and combat poverty and and combat The lack of access to technology and sport facilities in our rural KZN, you know, growing up Emnini, for instance, I saw firsthand the challenges faced by young people, and I wanted to create opportunities for them to engage in positive activities, learn new skills and build hope and confidence. And if I had time i would have went in details why we choose certain specific dates in doing our tournaments. But essentially, it was this burning desire to change the future of our community. Impilo yabo ingafani neyethu.

How do you manage to balance your responsibilities at Standard Bank with running TOPTD?

3. Very funny on balancing between my professional role and this labor of life through TOPTD. I mean, it is difficult. Certainly, there are challenges. So, it requires serious time management and prioritization. But to be quite honestly, do I rely heavily, very heavily, on dedicated team of volunteers who share the same vision for TOPTD, and I think I delegate tasks effectively to ensure that both my work and initiative run smoothly, but more than anything, if not like at this point, even though the vision is to run TOPTD daily at this point, it’s very seasonal, but obviously the impact is huge. 

4. I just posted something, some of the challenges in the reports that were captured for the tournament that we did last year. But I mean the main challenges in organizing the tournament really include funding, managing logistics. I mean, this is attended by kids from even other provinces, and it becomes really difficult, because some of them come with the intention to win. Everyone does that when they are joining competition and becomes a problem when they have to go back home, you know, and ensuring participant safety, as mentioned in the screenshots above. So, we have tried to overcome this by building strong relations with our donors, planning meticulously, and implementing strict, safe protocols. If you can remember how stringent protocols were in terms of healthy in covid, we tried, and I have had those.

Can you share some success stories from participants who have benefited from the technology and data science training at TOPTD?

5. You know, sometimes the way we grew up on the question of the success stories one brought up, in a sense, you able to become humble with your contributions generally life. And I have not really reflected on those but let me tell you this, when the kids greet me in a Python language, print, open bracket codes, Hello, sir, close codes and brackets, I become very happy to see that they are engaging the material for the computers that we give away again, another very interesting success story. If we were on WhatsApp, I was gonna send you one of the songs made by our two times champ using our laptop. And there is one kid who also did a very nice website for us. 

I mean, another one will be recently, another young girl who had joined us many years ago. I think she is going to high school next year. She had went on to be a prolific chess player. She is going to compete overseas in Italy next month, we will be running a campaign to just raise funds for her as well, because her dad did mention that they are having some challenges, but that is the story for another day, but there are too many success stories. Remember, this is a 10-year initiative, and really, if I can start counting i will not finish, but all in all, what excites us is touching that one life, one life at a time initiative.

Why did you choose to focus on promoting technology and data science in deep rural KwaZulu-Natal?

6. In relations to the focus on technology. I mean, I will be biased. I still love social sciences. I started off in social science, and then today I am a software engineer and one of the biggest companies in the continent, I know what technology can does in one’s economic standing. So that is in itself, personally, one of the reasons the economic benefits that comes with this huge revolution that is brought up by technology. 

But all in all, let us be honest, we are talking for 4IR now there are arguments that there is fifth and sixth, even in this context, these are the skills of the future, and to contribute in shaping and in influencing young people to participate is really heartwarming. So the intention, more than anything other than the sentimental value that comes with these and the economic benefits, is that we are very intentional in helping to bridge the digital divide, because even with their cell phones, because these kids, even though they are in rural areas, they have cell phones, and there’s so much you can do from your cell phones to improve your life.

How do you fund-raise for the laptops and other resources provided at the tournament?

7. From the perspective of fundraising. I mean, TOPTD had exposed my talent that I was not aware of, that is off sales. So, I sell accessories during the course of the year, as we build up for our main event in December. Obviously, there are other flagship programs like TOPTD cares in winter and TOPTD Queen check in August, then the final event, TOPTD sports tournament in December. But other than that, they are sponsors that have come on board they are colleagues that believe in so much in what we do as TOPTD. They put through their monies, and we put all those into good use.

What impact do you hope to achieve through the TOPTD initiative in the coming years?

8. On the future impacts of TOPTD, one of our biggest, biggest vision at this point is a Skills Center. So, this skill center, we have named it. We do not have it yet, not we have the funding for it, but we have in mind what is called TOP TD, early childhood development and programming, or coding development skills center, we hope as well to expand our reach, offering more workshops and tournament across various locations. We aim to not only continue our current programs, but also introduce new ones that cater to evolve in technological advancements. So that is the future impact you are looking at.

How do you decide which programming languages and tutorials to include for participants?

9. On the choice of deciding the languages and tutorials is actually based on the current industry standard and accessibility for beginners. We focus on languages like Python, which is very versatile, and work used across different industries, ensuring our participant gain relevant and valuable skills. And for instance, if I can make a case for Python, it is a very Python that is used to develop a big search engine, like your Google, your YouTube, and very easy to learn. I think that is how the decision was made. We look at the effort and the impact. 

What has been the community’s response to the TOPTD tournament and its focus on 4IR (Fourth Industrial Revolution)?

10. In terms of the community response. I mean, it had been overwhelmingly positive. I mean, teachers, parents, and the youth themselves have expressed their appreciation for the opportunities that we offer as TOPTD. They recognize the importance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution skills in today’s job market. But more than anything, we are extremely humbled by the supports that we get from our local chief Inkosi Umadlanduna, Inkosi PP Luthuli so, we are very certain that there is a serious positive response that we get from the community, and to be quite honest, that is what it made us to be this resilient

How do you see technology as a tool for empowering rural communities and breaking the cycle of poverty?

11. I mean, the technology can never be overstated that’s its role, like I’ve shared before, in some of the questions, my own personal story, you know, how changed my personal economic fortunes, you know, but it can be a very powerful tool for empowering our rural communities by providing access that democratize access to information and creating educational opportunities and opening up new job prospects. At TOPTD we are very committed to using technology to uplift and transform our communities. And finally, I am so so optimistic about this, that we can defeat poverty through technology. I mean, there are also number of cases where we have seen technology.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time when you are not working at the bank or organizing the tournament?

12. [laughing]…the one on personal doubts and activities I try to teach my three millican minions. But I love spending time with them when I am not in front of the screen trying to solve problem for the organization that I work for, or thinking about the next big thing for TOPTD, I really enjoy spending time with them, and I think I’ve regained my love for soccer. My son had joined local club. I enjoy meeting parents. They are older than me, some of them, in fact, mostly of them. And you know, these activities allow me to recharge and come back to my responsibilities with the renewed focus and energy. Thank you for your time.