TECH TRAILBLAZER: Vukosi Marivate: A top-rate AI scholar with a vision for Africa in the global digital space

Professor Vukosi Marivate, a recipient of the National Order of Mapungubwe in Silver, argues for a deeper, more grounded understanding of AI, along with growing and embedding African languages, stories, places and people in the internet.

Fifty years ago, in 1976, when the youth of Soweto exploded in protest against Bantu education and white oppression, Vukosi Marivate was not yet born. However, in many ways Vukosi is the embodiment and the fulfilment of the ideals and the dreams for which the children of Soweto struggled.

In the morning of 19 May 2026, President Cyril Ramaphosa adorned 40-year old Vukosi Marivate, born and bred in Garankuwa, with the National Order of Mapungubwe in Silver. For “his excellent contributions to data science, artificial intelligence (AI), and natural language processing that have significantly advanced both national and continental technological capabilities”, said the commendation from the Presidency.

At that very moment, there is no doubt in my mind that Vukosi’s late grandfather, Dr Charles Daniel Marivate, a famous medical doctor, who served the people of Garankuwa, Mabopane, Winterveldt in Gauteng and Valdezia in rural Limpopo, was dancing in the sky. Similarly, his late great-grandfather – exceptional pedagogue, pioneering author, newspaper founder and musical virtuoso – the Reverend Dr Daniel Cornel Marivate – was smiling down upon Vukosi from the blue African skies up above.

Armed with a PhD in computer science, focused on reinforcement learning (a subfield of machine learning/artificial intelligence) from Rutgers University, an executive leadership certificate from Harvard Business School, a master of science in electrical engineering, Marivate has one of the most decorated CVs among his peers. Equally impressive is the calibre of institutions he has worked for – from Google to Rutgers University to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and now the University of Pretoria.

Earlier this year, the UN secretary-general named Marivate a member of an independent scientific panel of experts on AI. More recently, Marivate was included in an advisory panel consisting of top South African AI experts to whom Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Solly Malatsi has given the task of redrafting the country’s AI policy after a false start.

There is nothing fortuitous about Marivate’s meteoric rise in stature. He is a prolific researcher of tremendous rigour and influence, nationally, continentally and globally.

On 13 August 2019, at the University of Pretoria (UP), I was in the audience as Marivat