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MakwaIT: Hitachi Vantara’s 2025 Partner of the Year

Johannesburg, 17 Oct 2025
Pictured left: MakwaIT’s leadership team, Rishi Birbal and Chris Kistasamy, visited Hitachi Vantara’s Global Center of Excellence in the Netherlands to strengthen ESG-driven partnerships. Pictured right: Al Patel, Rishi Birbal, Zandi Ndlovu, Chris Kistasamy, Gerald Painter, and Paul Le Roux at the awards ceremony, where MakwaIT proudly accepted the Partner of the Year Award.
Pictured left: MakwaIT’s leadership team, Rishi Birbal and Chris Kistasamy, visited Hitachi Vantara’s Global Center of Excellence in the Netherlands to strengthen ESG-driven partnerships. Pictured right: Al Patel, Rishi Birbal, Zandi Ndlovu, Chris Kistasamy, Gerald Painter, and Paul Le Roux at the awards ceremony, where MakwaIT proudly accepted the Partner of the Year Award.

MakwaIT is honoured to be recognised as Hitachi Vantara’s Partner of the Year – a milestone that celebrates a partnership rooted in innovation, resilience and market leadership. 

This recognition amplifies our shared commitment to:

  • Delivering enterprise-grade, future-ready hybrid cloud solutions that drive measurable impact and value.
  • Embedding sustainability and ESG principles into technology design and outcomes.
  • Expanding easier access to innovation across geographies, while empowering local talent and communities.

At the Partner Conference hosted at the Thaba Eco Hotel, Makwa led with its sustainability agenda, driven by its global industry expert, Dr Roelof Bruintjes. Bruintjes shared powerful insights on how responsible innovation and climate intelligence can accelerate Africa’s digital and environmental transformation. This was underpinned by his data science-led approach to various weather phenomena that modelled global scenarios and outcomes that we could anticipate.

These types of data-rich insights can be powerfully supported by Hitachi’s 100% data guarantee and a variety of Hitachi ESG-led products.

“Sustainability isn’t a side project – it’s the foundation of long-term resilience. When technology and purpose converge, we don’t just connect systems; we connect futures.”

Bruintjes, Sustainability Expert at MakwaIT, believes technology should serve both progress and purpose.

Through partnerships with global leaders like Hitachi Vantara, MakwaIT continues to build intelligent, secure and sustainable ecosystems that enable its clients to thrive with confidence.

MakwaIT’s Executive reinforced their award by travelling to Hitachi Vantara’s Global Center of Excellence facility in Zaltbommel, Netherlands to partner more deeply on Hitachi’s leading ESG solutions for local impact.

Rishi Birbal, Chief Strategy and Partnerships Officer at MakwaIT, says: “Strategic partnerships, with a focus on sustainability, will be a key enabler of our long-term business goals. Teaming up with a global leader like Hitachi Vantara empowers us to deliver high-quality solutions that meet the evolving demands of our customers' sustainability 2030 plans. We aspire towards innovative outcomes that truly makes a difference – for the planet, its people and the businesses that want to leave a better future for our next generation."

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