What if every South African learner could have a personal tutor that spoke their home language in their pocket?
My name is Tshaamano Mabuba, and I just won the MTN Youth Hustle Hub 2025, I am a Duke of Edinburgh President Awardee, and founder of BuddyAI, Africa’s first multilingual AI tutor accessible via WhatsApp. But my journey began far from here.
Growing up, English was not my first language … it was TshiVenda. My mother sold scones and pesticide atachar just to make ends meet. Eventually, we moved to Johannesburg when my mother finally got a job, but my school journey began very roughly because I struggled to communicate in English. Over time, I practiced and overcame this challenge. However, this language barrier in education always stayed with me. How is it possible that only 8% of South African learners speak English as their home language, yet it is the dominant medium of education?
At 19 years old, with only R50 in my pocket, I took a leap of faith and built Buddy Learning. Three years later, it has grown into an education platform impacting hundreds of learners, and we are now launching BuddyAI, set to transform education across South Africa and beyond.
This journey was not without challenges. In 2022, I was diagnosed with CIDP, a rare autoimmune condition that nearly ended my dreams. Through resilience, I recovered and channeled my energy into creating a tool that breaks barriers, tackles inequality, and empowers learners with affordable, on-demand learning in their home language.
BuddyAI is not just an innovation; it is a movement that could change the future of education in South Africa and across Africa. I would love to share my journey with your audience and show how a single idea can change countless lives. Only 8% of South African learners speak English as a home language, leaving almost 1.8 million learners learning in a medium that is not their mother tongue. BuddyAI is a revolution in education, breaking barriers, tackling inequality, and empowering millions with affordable, on-demand learning. Our BuddyAI pilot, implemented across four schools with over 4,000 learners, has proven that high school learners perform better when they have access to a tool that explains difficult concepts in their home language. The results speak for themselves , learners whose home language is not English improved their averages by 9.6% on average in only 3 terms. This is more than innovation; it is transformation for South Africa and the rest of Africa.
