Tiyani is a Computer Engineer by background and a social development activist. In 2019, he was named as the 41st IT Personality of the Year by the Institute for Information Technology Professionals of South Africa (IITPSA). In his career, he has developed over 300 tech solutions, used by thousands of people including for presidential and internationational programmes. He has led and facilitated a number of hackathons in South Africa, Lesotho and other countries. As an IT professional, he has given a number talks at conferences and a TEDx Talk, earlier in his career.
As a leader of the Geekulcha internship programme, he has mentored over 120 young starting IT professionals and helped them kickstart their careers. Mr Nghonyama sits on advisory boards of various institutions including the University of Johannesburg, Vaal University of Technology, Tshwane University of Technology, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and others.