A South African Team to take part in the 2008 International Olympiad in Informatics in Egypt has been announced. 

The team will compete with young people from 80 other countries for Gold, Silver and Bronze in computer programming.

After winning through a rigorous four-stage selection process which started in April 2007 with 34 000 participants in the First Round of the Standard Bank/CSSA Computer Olympiad, four of the best young programmers have been selected. They are:

Mark Danoher from Pearson High School, Port Elizabeth (now at the University of Cape Town)
Schalk-Willem Krüger from Ferdinand Postma High School, Potchefstroom (currently in Grade 11)
Haroon Moolla from Rondebosch Boys’ High, Cape Town (currently in Grade 12)
Saadiq Moolla from Rondebosch Boys’ High, Cape Town (now at the University of Cape Town)

The reserve is:
Robert Ketteringham from Rondebosch Boys’ High, Cape Town (currently in Grade 12)

The Standard Bank/CSSA Computer Olympiad which serves as the selection vehicle for the team to take part in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) invites participation from all high schools in South Africa. The four team members and reserve were part of the close on 34 000 participants in the First Round, 3 300 participants in the Second Round and 22 participants in the Third Round in 2007. The finalists from 2007 received further training during 2008 before the team of four was selected to go to the International Olympiad in Informatics.

The Team Leaders will be Peter Waker, Manager of the Olympiad and Marco Gallotta, of the Committee that sets the Olympiad questions.

For the first time ever two brothers have made it to be selected for the IOI team. They are Haroon and Saadiq Moolla both from Rondebosch Boys’ High and sons of Dr and Mrs Moolla from Cape Town.

Mark Danoher was the winner of the Standard Bank Trophy for the highest score and the Gold Medal in the 2007 Computer Olympiad, while he was a Grade 12 learner at Pearson High in Port Elizabeth. He also won a R30 000 prize for being the highest scoring Python user that year. He entered the Computer Olympiad for the challenge and for the development it offers. This year he is participating in his second Olympiad in Informatics. He was a member of his school’s 1st Squash team and among his other interests is juggling. Mark has started his studies for BSc, Computer Science at the University of Cape Town.

Schalk-Willem Krüger won a Bronze Medal in the 2007 Computer Olympiad – as well as a R10 000 prize as a Python user. He is currently in Grade 11 at Ferdinand Postma High in Potchefstroom. Schalk-Willem, who took part in the Olympiad to develop his programming skills, was the youngest finalist in 2006 and again in 2007 – in fact he is the youngest finalist this century.

Haroon Moolla won a Silver Medal in the 2007 Computer Olympiad while in Grade 11 at Rondebosch Boys’ High. He has a string of Olympiad experiences in Maths and Science. He is a regular chess player, a runner and part of his school’s Community Service society.

Saadiq Moolla older brother of Haroon, was a finalist in the 2006 Computer Olympiad and won a Silver Medal in 2007, while he was a Grade 12 learner at Rondebosch Boys’ High. Saadiq is a veteran of about every Olympiad there is: the Inter-provincial Maths Olympiad, the South African Maths Olympiad, the Pan-African Maths Olympiad, the International Maths Olympiad and the National Science Olympiad. While still at school, he was also a Western Province Chess player, an A-team Table Tennis player and had interests in Soccer, Squash, Swimming, Cycling and the Piano. This year he started his MBChB at the University of Cape Town.