POLOKWANE – Limpopo continues to show that world-class skills and enterprise can grow from rural soil, with a local entrepreneur named a finalist in the 2026 Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

Jerry Tjale, founder of Bokamoso Farmers Academy in Ga-Matlala, is competing in the Emerging Entrepreneur category of the 38th annual Business Partners Limited competition, which honours businesses operating for one to five years.

He will compete for top honours in his category and for the overall title of South Africa’s 2026 Entrepreneur of the Year, with winners to be announced at an awards ceremony in October.

Training thousands every year

The academy is based on a 30-hectare working farm outside Polokwane and trains between 3 000 and 5 000 people a year in agriculture, business management and occupational qualifications, both on campus and online.

Learners come from seven of South Africa’s nine provinces, and employers such as ZZ2 and Indigo Fruit Farming send staff there for training.

It has also run a commodity-based mentorship programme with the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture.

A commercial farm and training hub

Bokamoso is not only a training institution but a commercial farm in its own right.

It runs pigs, Peppadew peppers and cabbages commercially alongside the training, and teaches regenerative methods that students practise daily, including:

• Composting
• Drip irrigation
• Biogas digesters that heat water for the student residence

Growing enrolment and community income

Tjale has grown enrolment from 60 students to 130 and built a 20-bed accommodation block, placing the overflow with households in the surrounding community, which now earn income from hosting students.

A bursary programme awarded seven places to local students this year, up from four in its first intake, with two of the current cohort already placed into a tutorship programme at the academy.

“Employers cannot find skilled people, and Tjale built the institution that supplies them, in a rural community, from a working farm,” says Gugu Mjadu of Business Partners Limited.

What happens next

Finalists will now compete for top honours in their respective categories, with the Job Creator, Innovator and Impact Entrepreneur of the Year titles also to be conferred at the judges’ discretion.

Winners will share in award prizes designed to accelerate business growth, including funding, mentorship, technical assistance and business exposure opportunities.

Read more in next week’s Bonus.