Compiled by Dylan Bettencourt
- Banele Mgwevu from Etwatwa built a free phone app called Itsago AI to help youth find jobs.
- Mgwevu created the free app after South Africa reached a massive youth unemployment rate of over 40% in 2026.
A 28-year-old software engineer from Etwatwa in Gauteng has built a free phone app to help young South Africans find work.
Banele Mgwevu created the app, called Itsago AI, to fight the country’s massive unemployment crisis. The app uses artificial intelligence to coach young people for job interviews and fix CVs.
Mgwevu was a naughty kid whose mind was all over the place. A career guidance teacher told him to go into technology and even paid his application fee. Mgwevu graduated from the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in 2021 with a software development diploma.
He interned at BriskFlow in 2021, working with KFC and PG Glass. He later built a superapp for SoftMeet. In January, he started working at Humble Till while still building his own app.
Mgwevu got the idea when his previous company changed its structure, leaving him struggling with job interviews. He built the tool to practise and used it to land his current job. He created the solution mainly for South Africans from underprivileged townships.
The app is on the Google Play Store and is only 70mb to save data costs. It uses an AI tool called Claude to fix CVs for recruitment computers and Google Gemini to voice coach users with real interview questions.
Stats show South African unemployment stood at 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026, with youth unemployment at 40.6%. Over 8.1 million people are jobless. Mgwevu said the app already has 600 monthly users.
Mgwevu promotes the app on TikTok and wants a partnership with TUT next month. He is building a version for businesses to screen candidates faster. Mgwevu said he is optimistic and hopes to find investors to help him grow.
Pictured above: Banele Mgwevu created a free digital app to help young South Africans prepare for job interviews.
Image source: Supplied
