The Medical Years
He graduated MBChB from the University of Cape Town in 1977. Hospital posts in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth followed, then eight years as a general practitioner in Athlone, from 1982 to 1989.
About Hasmukh Gajjar
The Pivot, the
Philosophy, the Thread
How a Cape Town doctor ended up in technology, the saying he tries to live by, and the three themes that run through his work.
Portrait — Dr Hasmukh Gajjar
Cape Town, South Africa. Doctor, technologist, activist.
MBChB, UCT 1977
Chairman, Vodacom 1997–2000
President, Black Business Council 2001–2002
Founder & CEO, Mobilearn
The Human Story
A doctor who strayed into business
Hasmukh Gajjar qualified as a doctor at the University of Cape Town in 1977. After an internship at Somerset Hospital he worked as a medical officer at Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth and at Groote Schuur Hospital, then ran a general practice on Belgravia Road in Athlone from 1982 to 1989 — twelve years in medicine in all.
In 1985, as the students of Belgravia Road rose against apartheid, the injured came to his surgery — and not every doctor in Cape Town could be trusted not to hand them to the police. The practice computer took on a second, unspoken purpose: a register of doctors who could. Through the Concerned Doctors Action Committee, which he helped found, and the UDF, that list found its way into the communities that needed it.
In 1987 he and a patient, Rasheed Hargey, started a software import company, HNR Computers. In 1989, while waiting to take up a registrar post in Groote Schuur's Department of Medicine, he sold his practice and joined the business full time — by accident rather than design, as he puts it. "I stayed on in the business for a cause and not for economic reasons," he says: a Black-owned company was a way to challenge the mostly white-owned businesses of the time.
He has worked in technology and business ever since — at WordPerfect and Novell, as chairman of Vodacom, in business and industry forums, and since 2010 in his own small ventures, Mobilearn and Medilearn Africa.
The Pivot
From medicine to technology
Three dates that mark where his working life changed direction.
A Business With a Patient
"A patient and I started a software import company… the rest is history, as they say." The patient was Rasheed Hargey, and the company was HNR Computers, which went on to distribute WordPerfect, Symantec, Aldus and Lotus software. In 1989 he left medicine to run it full time.
A Democratic South Africa
After the 1994 election he was Marketing Director at Novell South Africa, which had bought WordPerfect. In 1995 he became the first chairman of the Western Cape Black Information Technology Forum, and in 1997 he was appointed chairman of Vodacom Group.
The Core Philosophy
"Spin the wheel for others with no expectations — it always comes back with interest."
This is the saying he tries to live by. In practice it has meant giving time to trusts, forums and committees alongside his paid work: seventeen years chairing the Thabo Mbeki Education Trust, fifteen years on the executive of the South African Communications Forum, and a long stretch with the Black Information Technology Forum.
It also covers smaller jobs, such as chairing the fundraising campaign committee of UCT's Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine from 2001 to 2005.
"I stayed in business and strayed from medicine as causes found me."
The Thread Through Everything
Democracy, transformation, justice
The three themes he chose for this site, and some of what each has meant in practice.
Democracy
In 1985 he kept the list of doctors injured students could safely go to, shared through the Concerned Doctors Action Committee and the UDF. In May 1990 HNR Computers supplied the ANC delegation with desktop and laptop computers for the talks with the government that produced the Groote Schuur Minute.
Transformation
HNR Computers was one of the early Black-owned businesses in the IT industry. He chaired the Black Information Technology Forum in the Western Cape from 1995 and nationally from 1999, was President of the Black Business Council from 2001 to 2002, and served on the task team that drew up the ICT sector's BBBEE (broad-based black economic empowerment) codes.
Justice
Much of his later work is about access. From 2011 he spent almost two years based in Khayelitsha, helping build digital stores for people whose only device was a mobile phone. Mobilearn's how-to videos are made in English and isiXhosa, and Medilearn Africa shares medical knowledge among health workers.
Career by the numbers
In numbers
12
Years as a practising
medical doctor
medical doctor
15
Years on the executive, SA
Communications Forum
Communications Forum
12
Years as Chairman,
.za Domain Name Authority
.za Domain Name Authority
17
Years chairing the Thabo
Mbeki Education Trust
Mbeki Education Trust
Credentials & Appointments
The formal record
A selection of his qualifications and appointments.
MBChB — University of Cape Town
1977 — followed by twelve years in medicine, 1978–1989
Managing Director — HNR Computers
1987–1991 — co-founded with Rasheed Hargey; software distributor
Managing Director — WordPerfect Corporation South Africa
1992–1994 — headed the South African office
Chairman — Black Information Technology Forum
Western Cape 1995–2002; National Chairperson 1999–2003
Chairman — Vodacom Group (Pty) Ltd
1997–2000 — non-executive chairman, working full time for 27 months
President — Black Business Council
2001–2002
CEO — Consilience Technologies
2001–2003 — a J&J Group initiative in partnership with Tata Africa
Executive — South African Communications Forum
2001–2016
Deputy CEO — Faritec
2003–2010 — representing J&J Group's 30% stake
Chairman — .za Domain Name Authority (ZADNA)
2003–2015 — the body that manages and regulates South Africa's .za domain names
Director — ZA Central Registry, Registry Africa and TENET
ZA Central Registry 2015–2018; Registry Africa 2017–present; TENET 2017–2023
Chairman — Thabo Mbeki Education Trust
2002–2019
Founding Director — Medilearn Africa
2024–present — a small non-profit company for health workers
Current Work
What he does now
Today most of his time goes to two small organisations, Mobilearn and Medilearn Africa.
Both grew out of work he was already doing: Mobilearn from how-to videos he began making in 2012, and Medilearn Africa from running the online side of a UCT refresher course for doctors since 2021.
See the Full Career JourneySince 2010
Mobilearn
Turn your smartphone into a classroom. What began as a digital-literacy project — how-to videos in English and isiXhosa — became a business in 2017 when Vodacom asked for videos. It is now a boutique digital media company, with Vodacom still a key client. Hasmukh is its founder and CEO.
Since 2024
Medilearn Africa
A new, small non-profit company that aims to connect health workers and advance health care through knowledge sharing. It grew from his work, since January 2021, running the technical side of UCT Department of Medicine's online refresher course for the Fellowship of the College of Physicians. He is its Founding Director.
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Whether you are a collaborator, researcher, journalist or simply curious, you are welcome to get in touch.
Based in Cape Town, South Africa.