Chapter I · The Person
Engineer · Debater · Distance Runner
BEng Mechatronic Engineering at Stellenbosch University. Five years at Michaelhouse ending in six distinctions and second place in the country at debating. I build things, argue about them, and run a long way while thinking it over.
BALLITO & STELLENBOSCH · SOUTH AFRICA
01
Joined TG Tracking in 2023, at sixteen, and built a live dashboard pulling API data off coal-truck tracking units. Three years on, still building for them. Now reading BEng Mechatronic Engineering at Stellenbosch and working with a PhD team on how digital environments shape students.
02
Second in the National Debating League and first in KwaZulu-Natal. Trialled for the South African schools team. Chairperson of debating at Michaelhouse, and holder of the Contribution to Debating Community Trophy for five years of it.
03
Seven half marathons in a single exchange semester in Virginia. Dolphin Coast Marathon at seventeen. Durban City Marathon and the Ultra-Trail Drakensberg in matric year, among the youngest to finish either. Comrades is the next one.
Six distinctions. Second in the country at debating. One of the youngest to finish the Drakensberg ultra.
All in the same year.
Matric · 2025 · Michaelhouse
Five consecutive years of academic colours matters more than any single result. Top ten every year, from Grade 8 to matric. The record is the habit, not the highlight.
Five competitive debating seasons teach you that the strongest position is the one you have already tried to break yourself. That habit transfers directly to engineering: assume the design is wrong until it survives being attacked.
Nobody is fast at kilometre thirty-five. Ultra distance is decided long before the start line, in the unglamorous weeks nobody photographs. Most hard problems work the same way.
A logistics dashboard at sixteen. A ticketing system that moved R150 000 in an hour. Both went into production before they were elegant, and both got better because real users found the holes.
Six months at a boarding school in Virginia, seven half marathons, a hundred hours of service, and a country's worth of assumptions rearranged. Leaving is how you find out what you actually believe.