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05/10/2026

Before we officially put September in the rear-view, we’re turning the spotlight to a group of people who made the month especially meaningful for us.

From first years to nearly a decade, each person has become part of our story in their own way, through the work they do, the people they support and the perspective they bring to the team.

, Elizabeth Gerdie Becker , Taetse Durand, , Lebo and Katleho, thank you for everything you’ve brought to Monkey and River so far.

We’re proud to celebrate each of you 💙

Swipe through to meet the people behind the milestones.

25/09/2026

Give developers a clear challenge, a few unexpected constraints and the space to get creative, and you get to see a very different side of how they think.

We recently hosted the MoyaApp Datafree Dev Jam here at the M&R offices, bringing people from MoyaApp, Datafree and M&R together for a day of building, experimenting and having a little fun with their craft.

The challenge was simple: build a mobile web game in one day.
A spin of the wheel added the parameters. The teams landed on idle/idol as the theme, no AI for generating ideas as the restriction, and a friend bonus as the requirement.

From there, the same set of constraints quickly led to very different ideas. Different approaches were tested, versions were built and compared, and each team found its own way of turning the brief into something playable.

By the end of the day, everyone came back together for demos, with duncan-cosser playing through each of the games and giving the room a chance to see just how differently every team had interpreted the challenge.

There was pizza, plenty of laughs, a lot of problem-solving and, most importantly, a day spent using familiar skills in a completely different way.

And for one of the prototypes, the Dev Jam may only be the beginning, with the opportunity to be developed further and published on MoyaApp.

We had a great time, as always. We love having the MoyaApp team at our offices and we’re already looking forward to the next one.

18/09/2026

When you look back at Hackathon 2026, it is easy to remember the big moments.

What is harder to see is just how many people it took to make those moments possible.

Behind every part of the experience were people giving their time, expertise, care and attention to making sure the event ran as it should, the teams had the support they needed and the work they produced was given the consideration it deserved.

Hackathon 2026 was the result of a lot of people bringing their best to the same two days, and we are incredibly grateful to every person who played a part in making that happen.

To our suppliers, crew, mentors and judges, thank you for the time, care, expertise and effort you gave to making Hackathon 2026 what it was 💙

Entertainment: JaCobus GJ Visser
Media: Max_Media

11/09/2026

AI in South African public services is moving beyond the hypothetical.

A new SAPS tender calls for body cams, dash cams and embedded AI, with technology designed to support everything from evidence collection and livestreaming to facial recognition, number plate recognition and event detection.

But whether a system like this works in practice will depend on far more than the technology itself. The data behind it, the systems it needs to connect to and the realities of how it will be used all matter.

What do you think will be South Africa’s biggest hurdle in making a system like this work in practice?

01/09/2026

There are fast product teams, and then there are South Africans with a fresh national controversy and access to a code editor.

The Airlink flyover happened, the world started debating it, and somewhere in South Africa someone apparently opened their laptop and thought, “This needs to be playable.”

A couple of days later, we have Flappy Link Game , one of the most appropriately unnecessary browser games to grace our screens since the golden age of Miniclip.

While the rest of the world still seems to be somewhere in requirements gathering, South Africa is apparently already in prod.

The question now is simply: can you beat our high score?

28/08/2026

The best part of good work is often the people you get to do it with 😌

This month we celebrated two people who bring so much creativity, care and character to the M&R team.

Happy birthday to Katherine and Tenaya. We hope you both had a fantastic birthday and wish you a wonderful year ahead 🥳

27/08/2026

You know what comes with an unforgettable event? A whole lot of moments worth looking back on.

Hackathon 2026 may be over, but we’re still revelling in the energy, the people and everything that happened over those two days.

Luckily, we captured plenty of it along the way 😏

For now, here’s a little taste of what’s still to come 👀

13/07/2026

Our Top 20 teams have officially locked in their submissions and we are beaming with excitement! 🔥 The caliber of talent this year is genuinely impressive and we can’t wait to see what the Top 10 bring to the final.

Next stop: an 18-hour coding sprint at Momentum’s offices in Centurion, 31 July - 1 August, with R50,000+ up for grabs.

Hackathon 2026 is built for the bold - and the bold have officially arrived 🚀

10/07/2026

The decisions that shape a software platform are aren’t always the obvious ones.

More often, they are the small, reasonable calls made under pressure: the feature that cannot wait, the shortcut that keeps delivery moving, the workaround everyone intends to revisit later.

None of these decisions necessarily feel wrong at the time. The problem is that software has a long memory.

Over time, those compromises begin to show up elsewhere. Releases slow down. Risk increases. New features become harder to estimate. Eventually, the business starts adapting to the software instead of the software adapting to the business.

That is where the value of an experienced software partner becomes clear. It’s not just about adding more development capacity. It’s about knowing which decisions will create momentum, which trade-offs are worth making, and which quick fixes are likely to become expensive constraints later.

The quality of the software depends on the quality of the decisions behind it.

09/07/2026

Happy birthday to Ane van Zyl - UX Design Lead and an artist through and through, whether the canvas is a screen or a wardrobe 🤩

Ané brings a considered eye to everything she creates. She notices the details that matter, asks the questions that help shape better experiences, and puts real artistry into everything she does.

The same is true of how she shows up for her team. Her humour, perspective, style, and considered way of thinking make her a deeply valued part of the Monkey and River team.

Happy birthday, Ané 🥳 We hope you’ve had a wonderful day!

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