Stefan:
Technology is often spoken about through promises: what it may disrupt, what it could replace and how profoundly it might reshape the future. Mikhial Marimuthu is more interested in what it can do now.
At 30, he has spent close to a decade in the technology sector and with the Empire Partner Foundation (EPF), an organisation that brings young people, businesses and public institutions together to tackle some of South Africa’s most persistent socioeconomic challenges.
Stefan le Roux sat down with Mikhial to speak to him about turning ideas into viable solutions, preparing young people for meaningful work, widening access to technology and why collaboration remains one of South Africa’s most valuable resources.
The Good Business Journal: What drew you towards the intersection of technology and social impact?
Mikhial:
I have always loved technology, but I also genuinely enjoy helping people and being involved in community projects. I want to see technology and impact projects make a real difference in society.
You often hear organisations talking about the great things they are going to do. There is hype on social media, everyone gets interviewed and there is a lot of attention. As time goes on, however, you have to ask: where is the impact? What has actually been achieved?
I believe technology has a much larger role to play in society. People speak about the doom and gloom surrounding artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, but these tools can help businesses scale, strengthen education and training programmes, support community projects and address social challenges.
I studied political science through UNISA, although I did not complete the degree. I was working and studying at the same time, and later completed courses in business management, business execution and marketing. Technology was always the field I loved. I was born in 1996, so I grew up watching it evolve. That love of technology, community work, and helping young entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses is why I enjoy working with EPF.
Stefan: What is the Empire Partner Foundation, and how does it turn that philosophy into practical work?
Mikhial:
The Empire Partner Foundation is a non-profit organisation committed to addressing key socioeconomic challenges through technology, while empowering young people and fostering entrepreneurship.
One of our initiatives is Solve4X, which is our innovation engine and problem-solving methodology. We approach organisations and government institutions and ask how technology can help solve a specific challenge. We can then host a hackathon or innovation sprint, bringing young people from across the country together to develop solutions in teams.
The organisation involved can take a winning solution and develop it internally, or we can help turn it into a commercially viable product.
Visible Social Impact, or VSI, is a platform that helps organisations track and present the impact they have created. Rather than compiling separate spreadsheets and PDFs, they can upload their data and see a visual representation of outcomes, including the demographics reached, investment made and value generated.
Trust Us is our project implementation and management initiative. We work with partners to define the impact they want to achieve, identify the problem and manage the project from implementation through to reporting. Beyond the Bottom Line brings people from government, business and civil society into conversations about the challenges young people face.
Across the wider ecosystem, the Artificial Intelligence Campus develops the software, while the EPF Tech Fund supports technology start-ups. The common requirement is that the work must address a real challenge and create community impact.
Stefan: Can you give us an example of young people using that process to address a real problem?
Mikhial:
One example is a hackathon we held with KFC Add Hope, focused on child hunger. We invited young people from different universities and backgrounds to work in teams and develop solutions to the question: how can technology help address child hunger in South Africa?
One solution created a digital marketplace through which farmers could sell fruit and vegetables that may not meet the visual standards of large retailers but are still suitable to eat. The idea was to make that produce available to local communities, schools, spaza shops and tuck shops.
We also hosted a hackathon with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority focused on gamifying entrepreneurship. One team developed a simulation that teaches people how to run a business, covering areas such as marketing, administration, compliance and commerce. The concept was developed further into an application called Bazinga Biz, which gives aspiring entrepreneurs a practical blueprint and helps them understand the different parts of building a business.
Stefan: EPF reports that it has reached thousands of young people. What does meaningful skills development look like in practice?
Mikhial:
Over the past ten years, EPF has impacted more than 14,000 young people through education and training, support for technology start-ups and hackathons.
Our work-integrated learning programmes are an important part of that. Many IT students from TVET colleges and other institutions need practical workplace experience before they can qualify. When a cohort joins the foundation, we assess their skills and place them on live software-development projects.
They are doing real work. During the programme, we develop their technical abilities to current market standards and help them build business skills, including presentations, writing emails and communicating with clients.
By the time they complete the programme, they have experience of working in a professional environment and contributing to a live project. They are far more prepared to enter the workplace. All our work-integrated learning cohorts to date have gone on to employment.
Our platforms also allow organisations to deliver training at scale. Vodacom, for example, has used our Orca AI platform as part of its Code Like a Girl programme, which provides young women with training in areas such as software development and AI.
Stefan: What does the EPF Tech Fund offer a start-up beyond access to capital?
Mikhial:
We do not simply give a start-up an investment and wait for a return. The fund is structured to support that business from its early stage towards sustainability.
We help with marketing, product implementation and commercialisation, work through the challenges the founders are facing and give them access to our network and technology platforms.
The aim is to walk the journey with them. A promising idea still needs the right support, market access, systems and execution if it is going to become a sustainable business that can employ people.
Stefan: Many young people are concerned about the effect AI may have on their careers. How do you think about that risk?
Mikhial:
I think much of the fear comes from the way AI has been portrayed in films. We grew up watching stories in which it becomes destructive and takes away every job. The technology we have today has not reached that point. At present, AI is mainly a tool.
It can help a business make decisions more quickly, improve efficiency, summarise information and support research. Over the next five years, I think it will become more capable and more deeply integrated into different industries. In medicine, it may assist doctors with diagnoses. In water management, AI combined with the Internet of Things could help identify leaks or maintenance problems much faster.
Technology is already replacing certain occupations, and I would not dispute that. The question people should ask is: how can I use AI to make my work more effective, scale a business or make better decisions?
My message to young people is that they should learn how to work with it. Ask how it can help you build something scalable or create an impact in a community that is already struggling. Those are the questions we need to be asking.
Stefan: What are the biggest barriers to extending these opportunities into rural communities?
Mikhial:
Connectivity and data remain major barriers. Reaching rural areas often depends on the telecommunications companies and the infrastructure available there. We want to build partnerships that can make platforms easier and more affordable to access.
There is also a literacy gap created by unequal exposure to technology. You and I grew up with computers, televisions or mobile phones around us. Even before smart technology, we had some familiarity with devices. There are people in rural communities and townships who have not had that same opportunity.
The starting point is sometimes helping someone become comfortable opening a laptop or understanding what can be done with a smartphone. We have to bridge that gap and show people that technology can be useful and that it is something they can learn to use.
Stefan: You have spent a decade working with young innovators. What makes you optimistic about South Africa’s future?
Mikhial:
It is the talent of our youth. I have met young technology innovators, university students and entrepreneurs from very humble backgrounds who have extraordinary ideas for their communities and for society.
Our country is filled with bright talent, although that is seldom what receives attention. We have people with ideas across software, commerce and business. The best way to understand a problem in a rural area or township is to go there and ask the people living with it what they need. They see the challenge every day. They often already have ideas for solving it.
The difficulty is that they do not always have the opportunity, access or resources to turn those ideas into reality.
I genuinely believe South Africa has some of the strongest innovation, drive and hunger on the continent. South Africans know how to make a plan. When there is a problem, we tend to get up and ask how we are going to solve it. Then we execute.
Stefan:
For Mikhial, confidence in South Africa’s future comes from repeated exposure to the people who are already thinking their way through its problems. Their ideas are grounded in lived experience, but ideas alone cannot change the conditions from which they emerge. They need resources, practical skills, patient support and partners willing to help carry them into the world.
The value of technology, then, lies in what it allows people to build together. EPF’s work offers a reminder that some of the country’s most difficult challenges may already have the beginnings of solutions within the communities facing them. Making progress requires that those closest to the problem are given the opportunity to act.
