About
A developer who treats software like infrastructure for people.
I'm Thabo Pali, a full-stack developer and system integrator based in Bloemfontein, South Africa. For the last 15+ years I've been writing software for the kind of organisations that don't usually get the careful, considered builds: small attorneys, growing businesses, universities, and people running real operations who deserve real tools.
How I work
Substance over style.
Most of the projects I take on share a pattern: someone has grown past the spreadsheet, the WordPress template, or the inherited internal tool, and they need something that actually fits. My job is to build that, without making it more complicated than it needs to be.
I'm not interested in trendy stacks for their own sake. I'm interested in software that holds up: clear data models, sensible architecture, real testing, and honest trade-offs documented along the way. The goal is always to hand you something you can run, extend, or hand to the next developer without inheriting a mess.
The work splits roughly into three buckets: client websites and applications (under NexusHub), enterprise integration work at Central University of Technology, and side projects that scratch a specific itch , most recently a SaaS quoting platform for SMBs and a Pomodoro/AI planning app on Google Play.
A theme has emerged in the client work over the past two years: I've become a go-to builder for learning management platforms serving South African professionals , environmental health practitioners, compliance trainers, regulated-industry training providers. If you're a trainer or institution wanting to take your courses online without inheriting WordPress sprawl, that's the work I'm happiest to take on.
Currently
What I'm working on now.
The work splits across a day job, freelance projects, side builds, and research. Here's what each looks like right now.
Day job
System Integrator
Central University of Technology, Free State, building internal tools, integrations, and data pipelines that connect Oracle, MongoDB, FastAPI services, and Azure AD.
Freelance
NexusHub
Custom websites and applications for attorneys, professionals, and small businesses across South Africa. See the selected work.
Side project · SaaS
Invoicing and quoting platform for South African small businesses. Self-hosted on a VPS with Docker Compose, .NET 8 backend, React/Vite frontend.
Side project · SaaS
Compliance assessment platform for SMBs, POPIA, B-BBEE, and regulatory readiness checks powered by AI. The first product in a planned suite of compliance tools.
Research
Masters in IT, NLP for SA academic archives
Designing a user-centred NLP platform for processing historical South African journal articles (1900s–1980s). Bridging archival research and modern language models.
The stack
Tools I reach for.
Not a comprehensive list, just the ones I use enough that I actually know their sharp edges. I pick technology to fit the problem, not the other way around.
Languages
What I write in day to day.
- TypeScript
- JavaScript
- C#
- Python
- SQL
- HTML
- CSS
Frontend
For interfaces that load fast and feel right.
- React
- Next.js
- React Native
- Flutter
- Tailwind CSS
- GSAP
- Three.js
Backend
For the work users never see but always feel.
- .NET / ASP.NET Core
- FastAPI
- Django
- Node.js
- REST APIs
- Background workers
Data
Where the truth lives.
- MongoDB
- PostgreSQL
- Oracle
- Redis
- SQL Server
Infrastructure & DevOps
Shipping, monitoring, and keeping things running.
- Docker
- Docker Compose
- Nginx
- Linux (Ubuntu)
- GitHub Actions
- Vercel
- Fly.io
- VPS administration
Enterprise integrations
Making different systems agree to talk to each other.
- Azure AD / MSAL
- SharePoint
- Nintex Workflows
- OAuth / SSO
- Webhooks
- API design
Tools
The rest of the kit.
- Git
- Postman
- WordPress
- Power BI
Let's build something
Got a project that deserves more thought than a template?