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University
16 August 2020

Reasons to be Proud

Our very own two students take honours in the 2020 Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education Regional Competition.



The Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) is a Division of Universities South Africa (USAf) and is responsible for entrepreneurship development in South African Higher Education Institutions. In 2018/2019 EDHE introduced the EDHE Intervarsity to allow university students to compete in four categories, namely:

Category 1: Business Idea;
Category 2: Existing Technology Business;
Category 3: Existing Social Impact Business
Category 4: Existing business – General.

The 2020 EDHE Intervarsity competition process started in November 2019 and UMP had 34 entrants. Only 17 of the 34 participants qualified to proceed to the Intervarsity Competition Internal Round.

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A total of 8 from the 17 participants made it to the next phase, the Regional Competition, where our Region comprised of 3 universities, the University of Mpumalanga, the University of Venda and the University of Limpopo.

The Regional Competition took place from Monday, 3 to Thursday, 6 August 2020. The Competition was held on virtual platforms due to the prevailing COVID-19 National Regulations. We are pleased to report to the UMP community that UMP was the winner of the Existing Business – General Category as well as the Business Idea Category.

UMP won the Existing Business – General Category through Ms Thandeka Mahlangu’s Ndeka’s Desserts business project. She will now proceed to represent UMP in the 2020 Intervarsity Competition Finals to be held November. Well done Thandeka.

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They lived our Value of Adaptability and adjusted themselves to prevailing conditions and did us proud. The worked very hard on their presentation videos and submitted them in line with the requirements of the competition. All this work was done remotely and online. They simply adapted to the “new normal”
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Thoko Mayekiso, the members of Management, the staff and students would like to thank Drs Ferdinand Niyimbanira and Mazanai Musara for their work in coordinating this project at UMP and supporting these students throughout the process.

We also congratulate Thandeka and Thapelo on their achievement. We wish them well in the finals and we will support them all the way.

The Business Idea Category was also won by UMP through Mr Thapelo Mondli Rudolph Mathonsi’s Planet First Business Project. Thapelo is a 3rd year Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) degree student at our Mbombela Campus.

Thapelo and his Planet First Business Project will represent UMP in the 2020 Intervarsity Competition Finals in November. Well done Thapelo.

These students, all 8 of them who participated in the Regional Competition, did not allow the challenges and limitations brought by the COVID-19 pandemic to stand on their way.
 

We are, indeed, proud of you guys. Well done!!