Seven young social entrepreneurs from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) competed in the Canadian semi-finals of the global 2016 Enactus competition to raise the standard of living for people in their neighbourhoods.

Comprising of seven students from various faculties, the UJ team was lauded for two multi-stakeholder engagement projects: an urban Farming project and a project aiming to create entrepreneurial opportunities for refugees in South Africa.

The team, Francis Zoghby, Nezaro Novela, Lerato Mpanza, Masonwabe Fuma, Nomvelo Xulu, Kristien Uikerman, and Andile Hlatshwayo, qualified for the global Enactus semi-finals after their presentation on Thursday, 29 September 2016.

Their entrepreneurial acumen, demonstration of reinvented strategies‚ finding of innovative solutions to complex real-world issues and well-executed presentations, won the South African leg of the Enactus competition earlier this year.

WATCH: The team and their qualifying presentation

Team mentors Ms Joyce Sibeko (Lecturer in Business Management)‚ Ms Christa van Zyl (Lecturer in Communication Design), and Dr Naude Malan (Lecturer in Development Studies) guided them in their quest.

As in business, competition in the social sector encourages creativity and rewards results. At the Enactus World Cup, the National Champion team from each of the 36 participating countries have the opportunity to showcase the entrepreneurial action they took to raise the standard of living for others. The attendees include a select group of 3,500 student, business, academic and government leaders from around the world.

Enactus is an international nonprofit organization with 70,500+ student members from 1,700+ universities in 36 countries.

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