Inspired Testing brings the software testing community together in Cape Town and Durban this June

22 Jun 2026

Community meetups in Cape Town and Durban to tackle AI-native testing, chaos engineering, and the human side of quality assurance.

Inspired Testing, a leading specialist in software quality assurance and testing, is hosting two community meetups this June in Cape Town on 18 June and in Durban on 25 June, bringing together QA engineers, test leads, developers and technology leaders for an evening of knowledge sharing, practical insights and networking.

The Cape Town event takes place at the Shoprite Academy, while the Durban meetup marks a significant milestone: the first-ever Software Testing Community Meetup in KwaZulu-Natal, hosted at BET Software. Both events run from 17:00 to 21:00 and are free to attend, though seats are limited and works on a first come first serve basis.

Unpacking the real challenges of modern software quality

The Cape Town meetup opens with a session that will resonate with any engineering team that has ever been caught off guard by a production failure.

Hennie Francis, AWS Technical Account Manager at Silicon Overdrive, presents Mayday! Monkeys on the Loose in Production! – an exploration of chaos engineering and resilience testing that challenges the assumption that perfection is the goal. The session argues that controlled failure, rather than its avoidance, is the foundation of genuinely robust systems.

Following this, Willem Mouton, QA Engineering and Testing Practice Lead at Shoprite Tech, shares hard-won lessons in From Automation-Centric to AI-Native Testing: Lessons from the Field. Mouton takes attendees through what AI-native testing actually means in practice, covering the decisions, enablement strategies and guardrails his team developed, and what they would do differently if starting again today.

The evening closes with a panel discussion, Testing in the Age of Complex Systems, facilitated by Leon Lodewyks, Chief Technology Officer of Inspired Testing, and joined by Mouton, Jéhan Coetzee (Head of Technology and Innovation, Inspired Testing) and Francis. The panel tackles a question that keeps QA leaders awake at night: how do you build release confidence when your system is a web of APIs, cloud services, legacy dependencies and third-party platforms that none of your tests can fully simulate?

KwaZulu-Natal gets its first dedicated testing community event

The Durban meetup, hosted by MC Karmen Pillay from BET Sofware, opens with a session that takes a deliberately different angle. André Barnard, drawing on his experience in Rugby Operations Effectiveness with The Sharks, presents Courageous Curiosity: Staying Human in an AI World, a timely reminder that adaptability, not any fixed skillset, is a professional's greatest long-term asset. The session challenges QA practitioners to respond to AI not with anxiety, but with curiosity.

Mathew Zungu, Senior Solutions Consultant at Inspired Testing, then delivers a frank, practical session on model-based test automation: Codeless but Not Brainless: What Model-Based Automation with Tosca actually looks like. Zungu unpacks the real mechanics of Tricentis Tosca, including where the "codeless" promise holds and where it quietly creates new maintenance challenges, an honest evaluation suited to any tester or QA lead considering or already working with the platform.

Rounding out the evening, Kim Johnston, Head QA Programme Manager, presents The Journey of Stakeholder Management: Should We Lose or Use Governance? – exploring how QA teams can leverage governance frameworks to strengthen stakeholder relationships and work alongside audit functions rather than against them.

Why these meetups matter

South Africa's software testing community is navigating a period of rapid transformation. AI is reshaping automation, complex distributed architectures are outpacing traditional testing approaches, and the role of the QA professional is shifting.

These meetups provide a space for practitioners across experience levels to engage with these changes through real-world examples, honest conversation and the perspectives of peers working through the same challenges.

"Software testing is about more than following the software development cycle, it's about continuously learning, adapting and improving," says Nadine du Toit, Managing Executive at Inspired Testing. "By sharing insights from our peers, we can collectively strengthen the QA profession."

Register now

Attendance is free, but spaces are limited. Both events are open to QA engineers, SDETs, automation and performance engineers, test leads, QA managers, heads of quality and software testers at any stage of their career.

Cape Town | Thursday, 18 June 2026 | Shoprite Checkers Academy, Brackenfell| Register TODAY
Durban | Thursday, 25 June 2026 | BET Software, Umhlanga| Register TODAY

Software Testing Meetups will also take place in Centurion on 2 September and Johannesburg on 3 September as part of the celebrations leading up to Software Tester’s Day on 9 September. Registration opens on 30 July.

The quality assurance profession is evolving at pace — join the conversation that is shaping its future.

Karin van Blerk

Marketing and PR Manager, Inspired Testing

Karin is a seasoned Marketing and PR Manager who has been integral to Inspired Testing's journey since its inception in 2019. Initially serving as the Group Marketing Manager for Dynamic Technologies, she transitioned to Inspired Testing, bringing her extensive experience in the Information Technology sector. Karin plays a crucial role in managing both internal and external communications and marketing strategies, positioning Inspired Testing as a credible and authoritative leader in the market. She holds a B. Tech degree in Town and Regional Planning from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, as well as Business Management and Digital Marketing certificates from Stellenbosch Business School. Her expertise and dedication are key to Inspired Testing's ongoing success.