Zensar sets up South African venture

Partners with Kapela Fund, Tomorrow Trust

RPG groups IT services business Zensar, announced partnership with Johannesburg-based equity fund manager Kapela Fund 1 and Tomorrow Trust, provides academic support to children in South Africa, to set up a company focused on skill development. 

 

Zensar will be the majority shareholder of the company. This will also expand Zensar’s presence in South Africa.  The Board of the Company will have representation from Zensar, Kapela and The Tomorrow Trust. 

 

“This venture will help us expand our footprint into Government contracts and also enhance our standing in the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) code of the Government,” said Ganesh Natarajan, Vice-Chairman and CEO of Zensar Technologies.

 

The South Africa program is part of Zensar's Centre of Excellence (COE) initiatives around the world focused on training local students to join the workforce.  

 

Zensar’s Learnership Development Program primarily equips students with IT skills, such as software development and testing to ensure they are eligible for quality jobs. Sarvesh Batta who heads the initiative said, “Our aim is to home grow skills to service local Zensar clients in South Africa and also across Africa and increase our global capacity. By building a globally competent IT workforce, we can be part of the development of a world-class IT industry in South Africa.”

 

Natarajan said, “The objective of the COE programme is to enable IT workforce development and facilitate the creation of global clusters of services-oriented competence across the world. We are expanding the initiative to UK and USA in the current financial year. The programme is not just about local skills development, but it is also a strategic initiative given Zensar's future plans in South Africa. We see this country as a potential centre for research, education and software development, and plan to invest significantly in developing global delivery capabilities here. This will be an important hub of development activities for all our new markets in the coming years.”