Cape Town’s Valhalla Park, Belhar and Ocean View public libraries have made the city and South Africa proud by finishing in the top 10 at the #Coding4Mandela World Championship.
The event was held virtually on 5 December, marking the tenth anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s passing.
The City library teams, supported by coaches, library staff and the public, showcased exceptional skill as they competed against 55 teams from 21 countries.
Ocean View secured a remarkable third place, while Belhar and Valhalla Park earned commendable sixth and eighth places, respectively.
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Councillor Patricia van der Ross, the City’s Mayco member for community services and health, praised the teams’ achievements.
‘What makes this achievement more amazing is that the teams have only been coding for a few short months. They have done the city proud, and we are impressed by their analytical and problem-solving skills. They’ve done well, and I want to encourage more young people to join the coding clubs at participating libraries,’ she said.
Randal Rousseau, a librarian at Bonteheuwel Library, founded the unplugged coding initiative. Key coaching staff, including Ulfah Davids from Ocean View Library and Shadwell Overmeyer from Valhalla Park Library, played a crucial role in the teams’ success.
Participating as part of a South African contingent, the library teams competed against countries like Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Germany and the United States.
This competition, an initiative of the Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department and the Leva Foundation, champions tangible coding through the Tangible Africa programme.
It introduces coding games like TANKS and RANGERS, which can be played offline with minimal resources, thus making coding accessible to communities without expensive resources.
For more information about local coding opportunities, contact the Leva Foundation at [email protected].
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Picture: City of Cape Town