Riedwaan Benefeld is the CEO and founder of Jiracron, a South African consultancy dedicated to providing a platform for historically disadvantaged individuals to succeed in the world of data and analytics. As a co-founder of Sasuka Channel, one of the first channel partners to SAS in South Africa, Riedwaan was instrumental in creating a movement that trained and developed non-white individuals in the post-apartheid era. Through his efforts, they helped hundreds of individuals become successful data professionals. Many of whom have gone on to hold senior positions in large organisations or now run businesses of their own.

Continuing this work, he has renewed his deep partnership with SAS to make a difference to the lives of individuals who otherwise may not have had the opportunity. Together creating a deeper and more diverse talent pool to address the global skills shortage in the market.

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Transcript

Hadley Christoffels: [00:00:00] So Riedwaan, welcome to the show. 

[00:00:01] Riedwaan Benefeld: [00:00:01] Thank you. Thank you. 

[00:00:02] Hadley Christoffels: [00:00:02] What we're going to do today. We ultimately want to understand the essence of you. We want to know who Riedwaan is, and we want to understand how the trait of curiosity has impacted your life throughout whether as a child, as you grew up in your career and where you're going from here, essentially, 

[00:00:16] Riedwaan Benefeld: [00:00:16] I'm the youngest of nine children. I was born in a place called Albertville. Yeah. I specifically mentioned in Albertville and where I was born because I didn't stay there for a long time. Um, as you know, I was born in the heart of apartheid. I mean, the reason why I mentioned Albertville, I remember very little of it. 

[00:00:37] Hadley Christoffels: [00:00:37] Okay, cool. So, so in Albertville, in Johannesburg, in South Africa, and we're in the middle of apartheid ,

[00:00:43]Riedwaan Benefeld: [00:00:43] mid sixties to late sixties, Albertville then was declared as a white area and, 

[00:00:51] Hadley Christoffels: [00:00:51] and maybe the significance of that as well. Right? Cause I think this is actually a key part and maybe this is where you're going, but this seems like a key part of, of, of the future story, which we'll get to. Right. But, but what the impact of that, because my, like when my parents grew up in port, Elizabeth was kind of a similar thing. They lived in what was a coloured area.

[00:01:08] And we do need to get into that because coloured has a different connotation in different parts of the world, right? Not like the way we know it, for instance. So tell our listeners, just like what that means. Being classed from coloured area to a white area, 

[00:01:21] Riedwaan Benefeld: [00:01:21] it means that, um, remember in apartheid, everybody everybody's segregated and it's illegal to actually live in the area that doesn't fall into your classification.

[00:01:33] So if you, you are classified as a coloured, you can't go and live in a black area or you can't go and live in an Indian area or you can go and live in a white area . So by them classifying Albertville as a white area, we had to move out 

[00:01:48]we then moved to the area called Bosmont where I'm talking to you from now. 

[00:01:54] Hadley Christoffels: [00:01:54] Cool. Back to your roots, back to my roots. 

[00:01:59] Riedwaan Benefeld: [00:01:59] Yes. The funny thing is when...