Pertunia Tladi has spent the past four months developing a computer application she hopes will protect vulnerable South Africans from property fraud.

Tladi, 25, a BCom IT graduate from Polokwane in Limpopo, said her idea came as a result of the high numbers of people being defrauded of their property and title deeds.

Yesterday, Tladi was among a group of 36 of the best information technology minds at the second annual Geekulcha Hackathon in Midrand, north of Johannesburg.

A hackathon is a technological marathon where people build solutions that are relevant to ensuring data security.

"There have been multiple cases of properties and title deeds being stolen or being forged," Tladi said.

She said her application will be accessible to the public to ensure they buy houses from the actual owners.

She intends to approach the government and banks with her innovation.

Another participant, Mabu Manaileng, 27, who holds a master's degree in computer science and applied mathematics from the University of Limpopo, said he was building a fraud management system called Fraud Intelligence.

"Simply put, we're feeding . data of past fraudulent transactions to make it able to detect fraud as it happens," he said.

Nithen Naidoo, a mentor to some participants, said because of a shortage of skills in SA, hackathons were important gatherings to develop such critical skills.