A former correctional officer who once taught young inmates to type letters to their mothers now protects one of Africa’s largest retail operations from cyber attacks.

Edward Adonis (48) spent 14 years working inside Drakenstein Correctional Services before making an unlikely career shift into technology. Today, he serves as a systems vulnerability engineer at Shoprite Group’s technology division, S-Tech, where he helps safeguard the retailer’s digital infrastructure.

From factory floor to prison walls

Raised in a rural community near Simondium in the Boland, Adonis grew up with limited opportunities. His father, a warder in Wellington, would take the family to Cape Town on weekends, giving him glimpses of life beyond their small town.

After finishing matric, Adonis worked in a canned food factory whilst pursuing his passion as a provincial long-distance runner. When correctional services began recruiting sportsmen, he saw a chance to change direction.

“I realised this opportunity could send my career in a different direction, so I seized it,” he says.

The work proved challenging. “I had to control dangerous people,” he remembers.

A computer changes everything

The turning point came during a visit to his former running coach, who owned a home computer. Intrigued by the technology, Adonis sold his Golf Mk1 for R3 000 and financed the rest of a R12 000 desktop computer.

He became the informal IT person at the prison, fixing and building computers. When the prison’s computer educator went on leave, Adonis stepped in despite having no teaching experience.

Working with juvenile offenders showed him education’s transformative power. “I could see how the classes changed them. Knowing they could type a letter to their mother or family outside, made them feel different,” he recalls.

Building a new career

After leaving correctional services, Adonis joined Computacenter in Bellville as a batch analyst. Over 11 years, he worked his way up to deployment engineer, eventually specialising in cyber security and ethical hacking whilst studying part-time.

“You must ask where the world is going and position yourself accordingly,” he says.

Three years ago, he joined Shoprite Group, which continues supporting his development through learning platforms such as Udemy and funding for professional certification exams. He now focuses on cloud security and emerging technologies.

The retailer, which employs around 170 000 people and created more than 8 700 jobs in its last financial year, invested about R1.1 billion in training and development in 2025.

The skills Adonis developed in prison, staying calm under pressure and remaining highly observant, now help him identify and mitigate cyber threats.

“I want to add value,” he says about his work protecting the company from digital dangers, one cyber threat at a time.