Congratulations to our 2017 Enactus: UMP Team on their Achievement this Year!!!

The UMP: ENACTUS Team, which comprises of a group of students ranging from 1st to 3rd years, have made the University proud this year with their community development projects. The team was amongst the 21 universities in South Africa which made it to the ENACTUS SA National Competitions that took place on 11-12 July 2017 in Johannesburg. Our 2 projects comprised of, firstly, Project Hatching Hope, a project through which the University distributed a set of 17 chickens (15 hens and 2 roosters) per beneficiary to 6 beneficiaries in Msogwaba and KaBokweni. One of the beneficiaries is the Moses Sihlangu Orphanage which the University has supported during the 2015 and 2016 Nelson Mandela days, and secondly, the Informal Traders Management System (INFOTRAMAS), which is an online ICT system developed by our own ICT students, to assist the City of Mbombela Local Municipality to manage, monitor and regulate informal trading. Our 2017 ENACTUS: UMP Team has shown what it means to be a functional and successful Living and Learning Community (LLC) at UMP.

Dr Niyimbanira with the 2017 ENACTUS Team presenters
 

Other members of the 2017 ENACTUS Team

Other members of the 2017 ENACTUS Team

Our Team achieved the following in the 2017 ENACTUS SA National Competitions:

• Our Chicken Project got position 1 in the LED category and won the 2017 Harmony Gold LED Challenge Award.
   

• Our ICT Project got position 1 in the ICT category and won the 2017 MTN SA Foundation ICT Challenge Award
   

• Our ENACTUS: UMP President (Leader), Mandisa Chirwa, won the 2017 ENACTUS Leader of the Year and got an individual leadership trophy as well as the floating trophy for the University.

• Our ENACTUS Faculty Advisor (Coordinator), Dr Ferdinand Niyimbanira, won the 2017 Senior Alumni Faculty Advisor Award.

• The ENACTUS: UMP presentation came 5th out of the 21 universities which participated in the competitions. The winning team that will represent South Africa in the 2017 World Cup Competitions to be held in London, UK, on the 26 – 27 September is Team: UNIZUL (University of Zululand).
• We were also awarded a trophy for making it to the national competitions.

 The University of Mpumalanga, the youngest university, and the newest to participate in the competitions, is the only university that took home the most awards (7 trophies in total). 



The students also had a good time during the competitions as they met fellow presenters from other universities. They also enjoyed themselves as they were collecting trophies during the event.


Members of UMP: ENACTUS in high spirit on their arrival at the Sandton Convention Centre




Members of ENACTUS: UMP celebrating their achievement

Our Team has really made us proud. The University Management, therefore, hosted an achievement celebration function on Wednesday 26 July 2017, at the Mbombela Campus, to recognise the performance and achievement of our team. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Thoko Mayekiso, announced during the function that UMP will be sending Dr Ferdinand Niyimbanira (Faculty Advisor), Ms Mandisa Chirwa (ENACTUS: UMP President) and Ms Confidence Ndlovu (ENACTUS: UMP Secretary), to the ENACTUS World Cup Competition in London as observers. “The University Management is excited about the achievement of our ENACTUS Team. It is for that reason that we are hosting this function this afternoon to recognise and reward the excellent achievement of our Team. I hope that this achievement of our ENACTUS Team will encourage other societies, clubs, living and learning communities and cultural groups to perform better as well in their respective activities”, said Prof Mayekiso.