From Community Classrooms to the National Stage: Golden Walk and Maponya Mall Celebrate Young Spelling Champions
Golden Walk Shopping Centre and Maponya Mall are proud to celebrate the achievements of young learners from their communities.
When opportunity meets talent, remarkable things happen. Golden Walk Shopping Centre and Maponya Mall are proud to celebrate the achievements of young learners from their communities who took their place on a national stage at the National Spelling Bee Finals, held from 10th to 12th December at Sun City.
Both center’s Social and Economic Development (SED) strategies are rooted in community empowerment, with a strong focus on education, youth development, and creating access to opportunities beyond traditional classroom settings. Through the National Spelling Bee initiative, Golden Walk Shopping Centre and Maponya Mall continue to play an active role in nurturing academic excellence and building confident, inspired future leaders.
In the lead-up to the national finals, each mall hosted its own spelling bee competition to identify top-performing learners from the communities they serve. The winning spellers earned the opportunity to represent their malls at the prestigious national event, which brings together South Africa’s most talented Junior and Senior spellers.
The National Spelling Bee is an annual competition aimed at identifying the country’s leading spellers, with winners progressing to represent South Africa at the Africa Spelling Bee Championships in Zimbabwe next year. The competition unfolded over two days, with day one focusing on a written round testing learners across South Africa’s 12 official languages, as well as Shona. Day two featured the finals spelling rounds, including a sign language component and oral spelling challenges.
A total of 50 Junior spellers and 60 Senior spellers from across the country competed in speed and accuracy-based rounds designed to test confidence, focus, and performance under pressure.
Golden Walk Shopping Centre proudly celebrates the outstanding achievements of its representatives. Lethabo Mositsa advanced to the Top 16 in the Junior category, while Tsholofelo Magano delivered an exceptional performance by reaching the Top 7 Senior spellers nationally.
Maponya Mall is extremely proud of Lethabo Lethabane and Lance Mtomba, these learners showed incredible growth, bravery, and progress during their participation. The experience highlighted the incredible talent that exists across South Africa and reinforced the importance of providing learners from diverse economic backgrounds with exposure to competitions of this calibre.
Beyond rankings and results, the competition delivered lasting impact. Participating on a national platform strengthened the learners’ confidence, courage, and self-belief, reaffirming the value of initiatives that unlock potential and inspire excellence within local communities.
Golden Walk Shopping Centre and Maponya Mall remain committed to investing in programmes that uplift youth and create meaningful opportunities for growth and learning.
For updates on upcoming community initiatives and events, visit:
Golden Walk Shopping Centre: www.goldenwalk.co.za
Maponya Mall: www.maponyamall.co.za
