Springbok rugby formula can boost SA’s digital talent

The local cybersecurity sector urgently needs a green-and-gold makeover. Unlike many global sporting giants that rely on foreign player imports to bolster their squads, the Springboks remain a 100% homegrown team that dominates the world stage. Even as wealthy international clubs dangle massive foreign-currency contracts to poach South Africa’s finest rugby players, the national team never runs out of world-class talent because of a deeply entrenched, grassroots scouting and development model.

Dale Simons, CEO of MiDO Academy, argues that corporate South Africa must adopt this exact developmental logic to defend the local economy from an escalating wave of cybercrime.

Currently, South African organisations face a compounding crisis: a 60.9% youth (aged 15-24) unemployment rate, a 56% national cybersecurity skills shortage, and a relentless onslaught of cyber threats, with an average of 12 281 ransomware attacks hitting local borders every month – a figure growing by 22% annually.

The solution, Simons says, is not more technology, though, but more South Africans. However, trying to solve this vulnerability through traditional recruitment is becoming a losing battle.

“The traditional corporate hiring model isn’t working,” says Simons. “Organisations are constantly hunting for expensive, university-educated professionals with five-plus years of experience. They are chasing a tiny pool of elite talent that doesn’t exist in the volumes we need. And when we do find them, they are quickly snapped up by multinational corporations in Dubai, London, or Europe, who can offer massive foreign-currency salaries.

“South African talent, grit and excellence fills cybersecurity (and other industries’) offices the world over. It’s becoming a lot like watching international rugby matches,” Simons notes. 

The grassroots talent pipeline

Simons compares the corporate talent drain directly to the one South African rugby had to overcome. “It is exactly like our sports landscape. Our top 1% of players are always going to get snapped up by French or British clubs offering contracts we cannot match. But the ultimate strength of the Springboks does not rely on elite private schools. The real bread and butter of our national rugby success is found in the grassroots. There is incredible talent and grit in underserved communities – they just have not had access to the right system.”

MiDO Academy, co-founded by Simons and Anna Collard, SVP of content strategy and CISO advisor at KnowBe4 Africa, provides a SETA-accredited NQF Level 5 Cybersecurity Analyst qualification designed to act as an “old-school vocational apprenticeship” – as Simons puts it. The programme is built to transform raw talent from underserved backgrounds into highly loyal, immediate-return operational assets.

“We are not just handing out certificates or running quick online courses here,” says Simons. “An apprenticeship teaches a genuine vocation, responsibility, and operational resilience. Because we focus on the holistic development of these young people – guiding them from their communities into structured professional environments – they bring an immense level of loyalty and longevity to the organisations that employ them. It is a long-term strategy to train and retain.”

Connecting the dots for youth employability

Operating within a social enterprise model, the broader MiDO Group physically connects the dots for youth development through three distinct phases:

• Phase 1: Sourcing and Nurturing: The MiDO Foundation identifies and develops digital literacy at school level up to matric.
• Phase 2: Accredited Qualification: MiDO Academy provides the formal, accredited NQF Level 5 cybersecurity training.
• Phase 3: Workplace Integration: MiDO Technologies provides immediate, practical work experience, delivering secure digital services to local small and medium enterprises.

For corporate South Africa, getting behind this model offers a direct commercial return. Through the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) accreditation, organisations can utilise their skills development and enterprise development spend to fund these learnerships. This unlocks substantial tax incentives under Section 12H of the Income Tax Act, recovers Skills Development Levies, and boosts B-BBEE scorecards.

“Compliance is a checklist, but actual cyber resilience is a long-term business strategy,” Simons concludes. “By investing in grassroots talent, corporate South Africa can build an internal defence force that actually secures their systems. The ultimate return on investment is the mix of providing a pathway out of poverty for a local family, and a highly resilient, loyal talent pipeline for the business.”

MiDO Academy currently partners with industry leaders across the technology sector, and has also served as a key provider for the UK Government’s Africa Cyber Programme. 

“It’s time we stop talking about more technology before we start talking about (and investing in) the people who will actually defend our economy,” Simons concludes.