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Keke Malakele

Uplifting kids through robotics & coding

Keke Malakele in Sandton, Johannesburg - © Thom Pierce, 2023

It’s a story that many people will recognise. Stuck inside the house during the COVID-19 lockdown, the whole family grappling to adapt to a new normal, and the kids being forced to embrace new ways of learning so that school can continue.


Keke Malakele was no different. With three kids and limited resources, she was forced to find a way to keep them from falling behind. Noticing that other children in her block of flats did not have the support and equipment that they needed, she reached out.


When regulations permitted, Keke invited small groups of children into her home to study online, supervising them in Maths and English. She took on a total of 20 children from her block, keeping them moving forward whilst the world stood still. It was this kind gesture that ignited a passion in Keke for bringing modern educational techniques to the most in-need members of society. 


Keke is a 35-year-old tech-savvy innovator who is fascinated by the intersection between technology and education. Although she has a full-time job as an IT support analyst at Baker McKenzie, a large law firm in Sandton, she spends the majority of her time outside work running her not-for-profit company “United Siyafunda” (United We Learn), teaching kids robotics and coding.  


“I am inspired by life itself. I believe that the beauty of life doesn’t depend on how happy you are, it depends on how happy others can be because of you.”


It was during the pandemic that Keke realised that coding and robotics could provide valuable, marketable skills to the youth in a nation that has dramatically fallen behind in its quality of education to low-income areas. She dreamed of providing a way for South Africa to keep up with the rest of the world. 


“This is the time for South Africa. This is the time for us to bring innovative solutions to solve African problems. We have the youth but we need to upskill them because they are the solution.”


The skills that can be learned through these courses are vital to staying relevant in a world that is developing so fast towards a technological future; creative development, engineering, computational thinking and problem-solving.  But one of the biggest challenges is access to equipment. A robotics set can set you back upwards of R13 000.


Because of access to equipment and teachers, it is often only the kids who go to the best schools that will learn these important new skills. Many others have the capacity for this new way of thinking, but few of them have the opportunity to find that they can do it. 


“The limitation for human beings is not knowing. The difference between those who have answers and those who don't is information. From that day, I wanted to share knowledge.”


Keke devised a model to fund the venture that puts access to information for the poorest communities right at the centre. United Siyafunda delivers coding and robotics training to eight schools in total. Two of them are private schools and six of them are government schools. The private schools pay R200 per person. This fee covers the operational costs so that the public schools can get the services for free.


The programme provides an innovative environment where kids are encouraged to come up with real-life solutions to societal problems using coding and robotics. Over a short time, they have achieved a great deal, notably 1st place in the UNISA African Innovation Expo in 2022. 


Today, United Siyafunda offers three different programmes;


A teacher training programme to upskill teachers and help them adapt to the proposed coding and robotics curriculum. 


A kid's programme of coding and robotics clubs for five to 15-year-olds in various locations from Soweto to Thembisa.


A youth programme that upskills young people to train and become coding and robotics coaches, deploying them in schools as coaches and facilitators. 


”We want to become the key enablers in all of our communities, breaking the divide for those that don't have access. We want to be the solution in this country.”


From its very beginning, United Siyafunda has focused on job creation at every level. Through her passion and vision for a technology-rich future, it is clear that Keke Malakele sees a bright future for all South Africans. 

CREATED FOR positive activism © 2025

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