Byline: Refeloe Letsoisa

26 October 2022

Promise Shabalala came out victorious at the spelling BEE competition which was hosted by Greater Heights Youth Empowerment (GHYE) for the Primary Schools in Leandra on Friday, 02 September 2022 at Osizweni Special School based at Leandra (Leslie).

Four (4) schools participated in the competition, namely: S.S Mshayisa Primary School; P.E Maziya Primary School; Mpumelelo Primary School and Sidingulwazi Primary School.

Founder and chairperson of GHYE, Mr. Themba Ntombela mentioned that the purpose of the event is to promote reading books and education amongst the youth and children.

“We believe education is still key to success,” said Mr. Ntombela.

The competition was a success as each primary school selected fifteen (15) learners from grade six (6) and seven (7) which resulted to a total of sixty (60) learners participating in the competition.

Learners were nervous but also excited to be there as they were learning new words.

GHYE intends to host big annual events every year and at every school.

“We will continue hosting these kinds of competitions and host some in a small scale which will be hosted in schools,” said Mr. Ntombela.

The empowerment also intends on hosting another competition just before the end of the year at Embalenhle, inviting all the other schools which could not participate on the last competition held at Embalenhle.

“We are enrolling our programs slightly growing with schools as we are growing too.
We are looking to host a debate competition for high schools in October 2022,” said Mr. Ntombela.

Out of all the learners, Promise Shabalala from Mpumelelo Primary School went back home with the winners’ title.

The winner received a grand prize of certain amount of money, a bag, trophy, medal, a diary and a participating certificate.
Promise’s teacher also received a boutique spa voucher, a champion trophy, embroidered bag and an card holder.

“I’m grateful that my mother pushed me to enter for the competition as she believed in me,” said Promise.
The learner had mixed emotions about the title because she did not expect winning the competition and getting so much credit from the other learners.

Promise also mentioned how excited she was to be able to get new kitchen utensils for her grandmother and how she is also going buy new accessories to fix her room.