18 Indian-origin named among top 200 young South Africans

Johannesburg: As many as 18 South Africans of Indian origin who feature in the latest edition of the annual prestigious Mail and Guardian’s "200 Young South Africans" list include pioneers in artificial intelligence, fighting organised crime, and health innovations.

Parusha Partab, 35, in the Film and Media category, cited India as her motivation for working at a number of marketing firms across the African continent.

“I often share this story about travelling to India and looking up at a billboard and, for the first time, seeing an Indian woman on a billboard. At that moment, I was struck with such awe and a deep understanding of why representation and inclusivity matter,” Partab said.

Simmi Areff, 35, was also in the Film and Media Category for being part of an African Union fellowship, through which he interacts with talented people on the continent to find new spaces, voices and stories to share through the medium of podcasting.

In the category Arts and Entertainment, Kiveshan “Jives” Thumbiran, 29, was identified as paving the way for the South African Indian-born diaspora to take part in the South African art scene through his teaching as a lecturer as well as his work as a practising artist.

Five of the 18 were lauded for their work in the category of Technology and Innovation.

Nabeel Seedat, 28, an AI expert, has built tools to improve the safety and trustworthiness of AI tools to help doctors make better decisions. He has also developed an affordable robotic prosthetic hand for amputees.

“South Africa should be at the forefront of AI development rather than mere consumers,” Seedat said.

Avashlin Moodley, 32, is a principal artificial intelligence (AI) specialist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). He is an organiser of the Deep Learning IndabaX South Africa event, which aims to grow machine learning and AI skills in South Africa.

He was the product owner responsible for releasing the first chatbot in Zulu, the country’s most-spoken indigenous language.

Research by Poornima Ramburrun, 32, has produced four patents — in South Africa, the United States, Europe and China — for her artificial peripheral nerve repair innovations, which eliminate the need for donor tissues and which have been lauded as a game-changing development for patient recovery.

At the age of 33, Zubeida Dawood is an experienced cyber-security specialist and research group leader at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Information and Cyber-security Centre. She wants to address the cyber-skills shortage to boost the economy and transform the lives of disadvantaged South Africans.

The thesis by Janesh Ganda, 33, assessed how training load data in rugby can be used to reduce injury rates and better understand injury prevention.

The Education category listed Rukshana Parker, 30, for her extensive research on organised crime in South Africa, focusing on drugs, gangs and assassinations. Her research was also presented at the 14th United Nations Crime Congress.

Karthi Pillay, 34, the first non-Catholic principal at Acudeo College in Soshanguve was also named in the Education category, as was Rishen Roopchund, 32, who is a peer reviewer for international journals and the International Conference on Innovations in Science, Engineering and Technology.

Featured in the Entrepreneurship category was Kiara Ramklass, 28, the founder and director of Marimba Jam, a social enterprise focusing on bridging the gaps in education inequality in South Africa through increased access to African music education programmes.

As a 2022 Mandela Washington Fellow, Kiara plans to replicate Marimba Jam’s hub model in South Africa’s cities and expand into the rest of Africa. Another nominee in this category was Leslie Brenton Naidoo, 27, the chief executive of Brengen Energy. He is also the youngest South African to hold a fuel wholesale licence and have a petroleum company.

“We have a great group of individuals who are focused on achieving the goal of taking over the roles of oil majors … to bring in fuel at a lower rate and supply end users which include mines, farmers and truck stops,” Naidoo said.

In the Health category, Omishka Hirachund, 27, was cited for her work with #KeReady, a free healthcare initiative for the youth where mobile units go into underdeveloped, rural areas to promote primary healthcare.

She joined Tasneem Hassem, 32, a psychologist who is credited with the development of the first set of guidelines for the online screening of mental health locally and internationally.

Other Indian-origin young achievers included Jaimin Patel, 26, in the Justice category and Ebrahim Lambat, 34, in the Sports category.