Meet the young South African set to launch Mzansi's first 'affordable' laptop
We love reading and hearing about feel good stories, especially when they are about South Africans!
Meet Mpumelelo Mahlangu, the young man from Soshanguve who is about to make history as he launches the first ever entry level South African laptop: Dot Connect.
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This will be the first laptop launched by a black South African company to compete with a range of budget entry level laptops such as ASUS, ILIFE, and Connex.
No road to success is the same. Mpumelelo dropped out of university to peruse his entrepreneurial dreams. After dropping out of UNISA he started what would be his first company, Dot Connect Electronics.
What has been even more unconventional about Mpumelelo's journey is that whilst many businesses were hit hard financially during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was at the beginning of the pandemic and under the very first South African lockdown that he decided to get into the business field.
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Like many entrepreneurs, he recognised a gap in the market and came up with a product that was affordable.
Speaking to IOL, Mpumelelo was quoted as saying:
My inspiration came when I realised that with schools closing and thinking back to how I struggled to get through varsity without having my own laptop and having to depend on Cafés and computer labs. A lot of students like myself are going to struggle even harder with now the school setting being changed.
So, what does the Dot Connect laptop offer and how much would it set you back? The laptop will offer you 64GB of storage space, 128GB dual hard drive, SSD port, 14inch Screen, 400mah Battery, and a 6GB RAM.
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It will cost R4,999, which is a massive price difference to what is currently on the market.
The only thing standing in the way of the Dot Connect latops being available for purchase is approval from ICASA (Independent Communication Authority of SA). Once that has been cleared, you can purchase your very own proudly South African laptop.
What a rockstar!
This could just be the beginning of what is to come for Mpumelelo. Hopefully his efforts will also help thousands of South Africans who are unable to afford laptops to be able to have access.
You can follow Mpumelelo's journey here.
Main image courtesy of Mpumelelo Mahlangu Facebook page.
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