The annual Allan Gray Entrepreneurship Challenge (AGEC) for schools and learners across Southern Africa has named its winners for 2025 – and this year, three Gauteng learners have come out tops among the 40 000 participants from across Southern Africa.
AGEC plays a unique role in Southern Africa by focusing on early-stage entrepreneurial exposure – targeting high school learners and sparking curiosity through fun, gamified learning. Top students get the opportunity to pitch their business ideas to a live audience, with the aim of turning their business plans into real ventures.
The legendary business pitch competition also offered more action-packed games, prizes and opportunities for high school learners to pursue their business dreams in 2025 than ever before. From August to October 2025, the AGEC Business Pitch Challenge gave learners from across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) the opportunity to pitch innovative business ideas to panels of esteemed judges. At the AGEC Summit, held on 4 October at Radisson Blu Sandton, the top 11 participants were present while the top 3 finalists presented their ideas to an audience of educators, partners, non-governmental organisations and government officials, before the final winners were chosen.
Celebrating 2025’s brightest young entrepreneurs
“We’d like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to all our winners this year. Special congratulations are in order for our top winners, Tumela Thanjekwayo of Nigel High School in Gauteng who took first place in our E Cadres Competition, Jürgen Klein of Deutsche Schule Johannesburg who won the High School Game and Buhlebethu Chauke from Curro Secondary in Krugersdorp who won the Business Pitch Challenge. We would also like to congratulate our two top performing schools of 2025, Nigel High School in Gauteng and Etham College in Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal, for achieving record enrolment numbers,” says Mahlatse Tolamo, Operations Lead at the Allan Gray Entrepreneurship Challenge.
Prizes included cash and Allan Gray Unit Trusts. In the final Business Pitch Challenge, the three top students won R35 000, R25 000 and R15 000 respectively, made up of cash and unit trusts, while the Allan Gray High School Game offered a total prize pool of R50 000. Schools could win R20 000 for entering the most participants.
Here is the full list of winners:
| Position | E Cadres winners | School | Prize Amount | Province |
| 1 | Tumelo Thanjekwayo | Nigel High School | R 10,000.00 | Gauteng |
| 2 | Yamihle Dyongo | Tsakane Secondary School | R 7,000.00 | Gauteng |
| 3 | Sibusiso Manzi | Pace Commercial School of Specialisation | R 5,000.00 | Gauteng |
| 4 | Nazeem Thomas | Bergrivier Secondary School | R 2,000.00 | Westen Cape |
| Position | High School Game Winners | School | Grade | Province | Leaderboard Score |
| 1. | Jürgen Klein | Deutsche Schule Johannesburg | 9 | Gauteng | 42400 |
| 2. | Nuraz Tikly | Ligbron Academy of Technology | 10 | Mpumalanga | 41618 |
| 3. | Rumaanah Del Cueto Martinez | Ligbron Academy of Technology | 12 | Mpumalanga | 43620 |
| 4. | Liam Heunis | Stellenberg High School | 11 | Western Cape | 37980 |
| 5. | Pieter Wessels | Stellenberg High School | 11 | Western Cape | 37758 |
| 6. | Yusheel Naidoo | Sutherland High School | 10 | Western Cape | 36832 |
| 7. | Nosipho Khanyile | Deutsche Schule Johannesburg | 9 | Gauteng | 35541 |
| 8. | Bojan Marovic | Deutsche Schule Johannesburg | 9 | Gauteng | 35320 |
| 9. | Keshav Chetty | Deutsche Schule Johannesburg | 9 | Gauteng | 34370 |
| 10. | Gilia Hutchinson | Deutsche Schule Johannesburg | 9 | Gauteng | 32034 |
| 11. | William Mvula | Deutsche Schule Johannesburg | 9 | Gauteng | 31341 |
| Position | Business Pitch Challenge Winners | School | Province | Grade |
| 1. | Buhlebethu Chauke | Curro Secondary, Krugersdorp | Gauteng | 11 |
| 2. | Senzo Zulu and Ntando Mkhwanazi | Acudeo College, Crystal Park | Gauteng | 10 |
| 3. | Ramabele Ashley Sello | St Cyprians, Cape Town | Western Cape | 12 |
* Learners in the Business Pitch Challenge competed for a total pool of R75,000:
§ 1st Place: R35 000 cash & Allan Gray Unit Trust (RSA only)
§ 2nd Place: R25 000 cash & Allan Gray Unit Trust (RSA only)
§ 3rd Place: R15 000 cash & Allan Gray Unit Trust (RSA only)
A unique new competition format
“With the challenge in its ninth year in 2025, the mission was to ignite entrepreneurial thinking among youth across Southern Africa in more schools, more provinces and more neighbouring countries, with exciting new additions to the competition format,” says Tolamo.
The competition’s new features included a brand-new high school game – with a deeper, scenario-based simulation that puts learners in the driver’s seat of real-world business decisions. The popular AGEC digital platform was also made faster, smarter, more mobile-friendly, with added Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered feedback to help learners reflect on their choices.
Always-On Gaming Quests replaced once-off Mini Challenges with year-round quests. A brand-new entrepreneurship card game, the Start-Up Shuffle, was also introduced in July 2025, while the Allan Gray High School Game included a new theme called ‘Fast-Food Frenzy’, which focused on scaling up a small food stall to a wholesale business. In addition, the competition’s Business Pitch Challenge was upgraded with a new theme, “Fix It Gen Z – Africa Edition”, to solve real Gen Z challenges like unemployment, mental health, unsafe transport, and load shedding. The competition was also made more accessible and interactive through the introduction of structured video submissions, finalist coaching sessions and live WhatsApp audience voting.
A significant growth in numbers
More than 40 000 participants from hundreds of schools across all provinces in South Africa and neighbouring countries such as with Eswatini, Botswana and Namibia registered on the AGEC Gaming Hub this year. This marks a significant increase from the 21 000 learners who participated in 2024.
Organisers say the significant growth in numbers reflects the challenge’s expanding footprint across SADC, with both urban and rural schools actively involved. Teacher engagement also surged, with activation workshops and in-school sessions ensuring educators were equipped to guide learners.
This year, a total of 488 590 games were played across SADC, a total of 1948 teachers registered to facilitate the challenge in their schools, 999 teachers were trained in all 9 provinces in South Africa and 31 training sessions were held. Training sessions were facilitated by various partners, including unions and NGOs such as Kagiso Trust, SAOU, NAPTOSA and SADTU.
Country-specific prize communication in currency equivalents helped learners outside of South Africa feel fully included.
What AGEC competitors can look forward to in 2026
“Looking ahead to 2026, AGEC is gearing up for a powerful expansion through strategic partnerships that promise scale, legitimacy and deep community impact,” says Tolamo.
“By aligning with the Department of Basic Education and provincial governments, AGEC will embed seamlessly into school calendars nationwide. Teachers’ unions will help spotlight excellence with a ‘Top School’ recognition programme, while schools and educator networks will offer grassroots reach at minimal cost. Collaborations with youth NGOs and EdTech startups will fuel innovation through co-hosted micro-challenges. We invite all our budding young entrepreneurs to enter again next year – they’ll be glad they did.”
