They must be the two most recognizable first year computer science students in South Africa.
Stellenbosch 肆客足球 (SU) students Veer Gosai (19) and Joel Cedras (18) met each other in April 2024 during a computer science tutorial. The two immediately hit it off when they started talking about their own IT projects, developed while still at school.
Veer, who matriculated from Fourways High School in Johannesburg, has been building and managing free educational websites since high school. SA Papers is a past exam papers website for primary and high school learners in South Africa which has received over three million visitors in 2024. He is now building similar websites and mobile apps for learners in Rwanda, Zambia, and other developing countries
Joel, an alumnus of Protea Heights Academy in Brackenfell, has been coding since he was at primary school. Outside academia he is a freelance web developer, building websites for small businesses and non-profits.
Since that first meeting, their friendship – and computer skills – have taken them on a whirlwind journey. After exposing major weaknesses in SASSA's social grant payment system and fraud in the application for the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) Grant, published in GroundUp, they have been summoned to Parliament and have given interviews to television stations, radio and print media such as eNCA, Cape Talk, PowerFM, IOL, You Magazine, Die Burger, the SABC and countless more.
Recently Ms Nokuzola Tolashe, Minister for Social Development, commended the two students for bringing these findings to light.
Veer says most of the code involved in exposing the SASSA fraud has been in JavaScript, which they learnt while still at school. During their first year at university, they learnt how to write efficient and readable code, including Python.
With all this knowledge and skills combined, the pair is on a mission to improve the IT systems of public institutions and private sector companies in South Africa for the public good: “We are two first-year computer science students studying at Stellenbosch 肆客足球, and we find vulnerabilities in various government and private-sector systems using publicly available internet resources," Veer and Joel explain.
Are there any more investigations in the pipeline?
“We are currently working on a few new investigations besides the SASSA and Me&You RICA Fraud issue which involve vulnerabilities we've found in many private companies," they add.
In this regard, they work closely with the editor-in-chief of GroupdUp, Dr Nathan Geffen, to bring these stories to light: “Nathan has been instrumental in guiding us on how to approach this ethically. He helped us in reporting the various matters to relevant people and departments and helped us draft our articles. He has been an asset in analysing our findings, as he also has a Computer Science and data-driven background. His platform, GroundUp, has allowed us to publish our damning findings, which are of extreme public importance, and his team has guided us to succeed in doing this."
All in all, the two are unfazed about their celebrity status: “The media and public view our findings in a positive manner. We are very happy that SASSA, the Department of Social Development, the Portfolio Committee on Social Development and the South African public all agree that the issues in the SRD system need to be resolved urgently as it negatively affects the most vulnerable people.
“We are grateful to the public for seeing the importance of this matter, and we are grateful to the various news platforms for reporting on the matter," they conclude.
Below are quick links to their exposes and briefing to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Social Development:
https://groundup.org.za/article/we-discovered-flaws-massive-fraud-in-sassas-srd-system/
https://groundup.org.za/article/social-grant-fraud-sassas-responses-inspire-no-confidence/
https://www.parliament.gov.za/press-releases/media-alert-social-development-committee-be-briefed-alleged-weaknesses-sassas-social-grant-payment-system
https://www.youtube.com/live/hK-LFmxZ-dU?si=ejy4EswieM1jF9uA
https://groundup.org.za/article/this-mobile-provider-failing-to-implement-rica-law/?
On the photo above, Joel Cedras and Veer Gosai. Photo: Stefan Els
