With Mandela Day fast approaching, Tangible Africa is looking forward to a vibrant and fun #Coding4Mandela global event throughout the month of July 2025.
In 2024, Tangible Africa reached an impressive 32 000 young people across Africa and Southeast Asia in the biggest Mandela Day interventions to-date. Tangible Africa Plans to expand participation further for July 2025 with youngsters from cities, townships and rural villages competing to become #Coding4Mandela champions.
#Coding4Mandela, established in 2018 by Professor Greyling and his team through Tangible Africa in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, uses foundational block coding and computational thinking to address the mathematics and science achievement gap between high and low-income community schools. The program makes science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education accessible through play-based learning, training educators and empowering coding clubs established by non-profit organisations (NPOs) and schools. Participating schools can win prizes up to R50,000, with winning teams advancing to a national virtual competition in August and potentially representing South Africa in the annual World Championship, which last year attracted over 50 teams from nearly 20 countries.
The initiative extends beyond competitions to include free Coding & Robotics lessons aligned with National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) curricula for Grades R to 9, distributed via Tangible Africa’s WhatsApp Chatbot. “Schools can win prizes for implementing these lessons and sharing their classroom activities, says Professor Greyling, Tangible Africa founder and Head of the Department and Associate Professor at the Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department. The popular #Coding4Mandela Dance Video competition, which attracted over 70 schools across Africa in 2024, offers schools the chance to win Coding Kits worth R5,500 and a cash prize of R6,000 for the most impressive dance video.
“We are grateful to our anchor sponsors, Amazon and Du Toit, who have made it possible for us to keep scaling #Coding4Mandela,” says Leva Foundation CEO, Ryan le Roux.
