Student entrepreneurship at the University of the Free State is gaining serious momentum – and
Enactus is at the centre of it.
In recent months, three student-led enterprises – developed and coached through Enactus and the UFS Business Incubator – have achieved recognition at the national and global levels.
CartZA has qualified as one of 12 semi-finalists at the 2026
Enactus South Africa National Exposition, with the national champion heading to the Enactus World Cup in São Paulo, Brazil. GreenCycle Feed has been shortlisted in the Top 10 of the
2026 Ford Community Resiliency Student Challenge, receiving R12 000 in grant funding. Varsity Stay has been named among the Top 30 startups in the 2026
Hult Prize South Africa SDG Olympiad.
Nexa-Pals, another campus enterprise, was also recognised in the Hult Prize SDG Olympiad alongside Varsity Stay.
Together, these achievements highlight a clear pattern. With structured mentorship, real-world incubation, and a strong focus on sustainable impact, Enactus not only supports student ideas but also actively shapes them into ventures that compete and win on national and global platforms.
A platform that develops the whole entrepreneur
Enactus is more than a competition vehicle. It is a co-curricular platform through which students learn to identify real-world problems, develop viable solutions, test them in real institutional and community settings, and refine them under the guidance of experienced mentors and coaches.
Through Enactus, students are exposed to business operations, marketing, customer engagement, logistics, digital platform management, ethical decision-making, and leadership. These are not skills acquired solely in a classroom. They are built through the experience of running actual enterprises with actual consequences.
For
Lungile Mbatha, President of the Enactus University of the Free State team, the journey to the national semi-finals has been as much about personal growth as it has been about institutional recognition. "Leadership is not about having all the answers," Mbatha reflects. "It is about creating an environment where students can develop ideas, take ownership, and grow into leaders themselves."
What gives the achievement particular meaning for Mbatha is that it reflects collective effort. "Reaching the semi-finals is not only recognition of CartZA's progress. It is a reflection of the entrepreneurial spirit that exists across our Enactus team and the University of the Free State community."
The
UFS Business Incubator, led by Incubator Manager
Chipo Matambo alongside Dr Jabu Nkosi and Project Coordinator Tebello Leputla, has played a complementary role by providing business coaching and supporting the teams in refining their models, strengthening their strategies, and preparing for the demands of national competition.
"Our role at the University of the Free State Business Incubator is to create an enabling ecosystem where students can move from identifying problems to designing viable solutions, testing those solutions in real markets, and building enterprises that have the potential to grow beyond the university," Matambo explains. "Our work is not only about helping students start businesses. It is about developing the whole entrepreneur."
For Matambo, the recognition these enterprises are receiving nationally affirms what the incubator has long believed. "To see students achieving recognition at the national level is deeply affirming. Their achievements are not only wins for the individual teams. They are wins for the University of the Free State, for student entrepreneurship, and for the broader vision of youth-led innovation in South Africa."
Enterprises solving problems that matter
Each enterprise that has emerged from the Enactus ecosystem addresses a challenge students face every day.
Varsity Stay was built to address one of higher education's most overlooked pressure points – the process of finding safe, reliable, and dignified student accommodation. For many students, the search for a place to stay is stressful, opaque, and sometimes dangerous.
Varsity Stay is working to change that. Its selection among the Top 30 startups in the Hult Prize South Africa SDG Olympiad affirms both the relevance of the problem and the credibility of the solution. The Hult Prize is a global student startup competition that challenges university teams to build viable, scalable, and impact-driven businesses aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with the global winning team receiving US$1 million in seed funding.
For
Makwale Matsimela, founder of Varsity Stay, the inspiration came from personal experience. “As a student, I was once scammed after paying a deposit for accommodation that did not exist. As a result, I had no choice but to settle for accommodation that was not student-friendly, due to limited access and unfamiliarity with the city of Bloemfontein.” Experiencing these challenges first-hand motivated Makwale to ensure that no student faces similar accommodation struggles. From that experience, Varsity Stay was born.
CartZA, which uses technology to allow students to pre-order meals from campus food vendors, has generated close to R100 000 in revenue since it launched in 2025 and has created income-generating opportunities for more than 25 students.
GreenCycle Feed is reimagining sustainable agriculture by developing eco-friendly animal feed from organic food waste, thereby reducing waste and enabling more affordable feeding solutions.
Amkele Diko, one of GreenCycle Feed’s founders, grew up in Tabankulu in the Eastern Cape, where his family managed a small herd of cattle but struggled to afford quality animal feed. At the same time, he observed staggering volumes of organic waste accumulating in landfills across the Alfred Nzo District.
"That contradiction is exactly what inspired GreenCycle Feed," Diko explains. "By collecting and processing this discarded organic waste into high-quality, nutrient-rich, and affordable animal feed through fermentation processes, we are determined to alleviate the financial burden on emerging farmers, boost local livestock productivity, and drastically reduce the environmental footprint of waste in our country."
The bigger picture behind the achievements
Enactus’ work extends beyond just competition preparation. It is building a generation of young people who understand what it means to identify a problem, design a solution, test it in a real market, and take it to a stage beyond campus. That – perhaps – is the most important result of all.
As the University of the Free State concludes Youth Month under the theme Youth in Action: Building the Future Now, Enactus and the students it supports, alongside the UFS Business Incubator, are among the clearest expressions of what that commitment looks like in practice.