The SA Data Science whizz who wants to solve Africa’s ‘tough problems’ with AI – Vukosi Marivate

Loading player...
University of Pretoria's Vukosi Marivate, the holder of the ABSA Chair of Data Science, has been chosen for the 2023 World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders Programme. Prof Maravati wears many hats, including heading a Data Science for Social Impact research group focusing on Artificial Intelligence and languages, especially African languages. He is the Chief Technology Officer at Lelapa.ai, a start-up with Big Tech investors. Prof Marivate also helped launch the Deep Learning Indaba that brings the African AI community together. He has received recognition for his Covid-19 ZA Dashboard, which is still the only source of aggregated data on Covid-19 in South Africa. He told BizNews why he moved back to South Africa from the US and how he wants to solve some of the African continent's significant challenges with machine learning.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
23 Mar 2023 7AM English South Africa Investing · Business News

Other recent episodes

Rubio’s visa move a blunder: FW de Klerk Foundation appeals to Washington to reconsider

The Trump administration has escalated its pressure on South Africa, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio announcing new visa restrictions over land expropriation laws and racial discrimination against the Afrikaner minority. Christo van der Rheede, executive director of the FW de Klerk Foundation, calls it a profound strategic blunder, one…
18 Sep 9AM 17 min

How Alec Hogg's 45 years in journalism culminated in BizNews and its loyal "tribe"

This interview was livestreamed on Conscious Caracal on 11 September 2026. Find Ernst van Zyl's Conscious Caracal Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@UCeNFLCUJ2lM1S_H32ICVs4w Before BizNews, there was a bank job Alec Hogg quit within three years, a company called Moneyweb he built from a room above his garage and then lost control of,…
18 Sep 9AM 49 min

Corné Mulder says SA could have a new government before 2029

South Africa just joined a short and unflattering list of countries facing individual US visa restrictions, and Freedom Front Plus leader Corné Mulder says he saw it coming from a manifesto launch stage days before it happened. He tells Alec Hogg why he thinks Cyril Ramaphosa's habit of avoiding decisions…
17 Sep 10AM 28 min