By Everson Luhanga
- Ontiretse Fortune Ganetsang, 24, from Northam in Limpopo spent months teaching himself to code while facing financial pressure in his rural community.
- SafeShieldApp tracks a user’s live location every 30 seconds for up to two hours and stores information to help emergency workers reach people in danger.
A 24-year-old from a small town in Limpopo taught himself to code and built a safety app for South Africans. He did it with no formal training, no institution behind him and very little money.
Ontiretse Fortune Ganetsang is from Northam, under the Thabazimbi Local Municipality. He started building SafeShieldApp in June 2025 while dealing with the same financial pressure that keeps millions of young South Africans stuck. He finished it on 1 January 2026.
The app is designed to help people facing gender-based violence, kidnappings, drug addiction and mental health struggles. It also aims to help emergency workers respond faster.
Its main feature is a live location tracking system. Users can share their location with people they trust for up to two hours. The location updates every 30 seconds using GPS and VPS technology. The app can also store personal information that may help emergency workers or authorities reach a user who is in danger.
Ontiretse did not do it alone at the end. His friend Thabo Gershon Jack came in after the app was finished and helped fund the process of getting it onto the Google Play Store.
SafeShieldApp is in closed testing while it waits for Google Play approval. Once it launches, it will be free. Ontiretse says it complies with the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia).
For Ontiretse, building the app was not just a technical project. It was proof that young people from small towns can create something that matters.
Pictured above: Ontiretse Fortune Ganetsang created SafeShieldApp while facing the financial struggles experienced by many young people in rural Limpopo.
Image source: Supplied
