Team Buff Bytes, made up of students Ndivho Shilling, Alton Maseko and Paballo Bopape, won the University of the Witwatersrand and AdaptIT Social Good Hackathon with Blockfix, a community app for reporting small infrastructure problems such as illegal dumping, potholes, neglected parks and blocked stormwater drains.
In the app, residents can log a problem with its location, a description, photos or video, pool money towards the repair and hire registered local workers, with proof of qualifications required for more specialised jobs. Afterwards they can view images of the completed work, while administrators track issues on heat maps and can export data for municipalities.
Second place went to Team Ketnip, with a tool that uses fault reports to help Johannesburg prioritise water network repairs. Third place went to Team Code // Bear for Mira, a patient–doctor communication platform that also works via SMS and USSD for people without a smartphone or reliable internet.
Now in its seventh year, the hackathon brought together more than 300 Wits students and was supported by the Springboks, South Africa’s national rugby team.
