First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.

Giba Mahlangu, a mathematics teacher at Acudeo College Crystal Park in Benoni, is breaking barriers by offering his high school learners an extracurricular class – The Boardroom – which aims to teach them all about entrepreneurship, current affairs and economics.

“I joined the school in 2018 and we started setting up our system in 2019. The Boardroom is largely about improving financial literacy and getting our children to learn about money, finances and the world of economics in a practical way,” he says.

The Boardroom has about 50 participating students from Grade 8 to Grade 11, with each grade electing representatives to sit on an executive committee.

“Sitting on the executive committee is all about honing your leadership skills, learning about succession plans in the workplace and improving confidence. Most of our school prefects and leaders come out of The Boardroom,” Mahlangu says.

The learners are participating in the JSE Investment Challenge 2021.

The Boardroom meets at break time and discusses business-related activities.

“We also have different themes around history each year. For example, this year our theme is the history of hip-hop,” Mahlangu says. This would explain the name of the winning team for JSE Investment Challenge’s income category in April: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5.

The team members are Thabang Phahle (team leader), Tshiamo Lesenyeho, Siyamthanda Sibeko and Amukelani Mathosi.

Mahlangu says the students are extremely competitive and “the writing is on the wall” in terms of their enthusiasm for business studies.

“We had seven teams competing in the JSE Investment Challenge last year and that more than doubled this year,” he says.

He notes that “the wheels turn slowly” in the income category, where teams have to maintain a cash component of R400,000 and can only invest in the JSE Top 40.

Members of The Boardroom also participate in the Allan Gray Entrepreneurship Challenge, and Mahlangu invited Easy Equities to visit the school so that learners could open trading accounts.

Young man with a plan

The Wealth Traders from Rhodes University took the top spot in the speculator university category, with growth of 12.79% for the month.

This team comprises two members – Junior Mahlangu and Mokopu Lephoi – both final-year BComm accounting students.

Junior Mahlangu says they heard about the competition on campus and plucked up the nerve to enter this year.

“I started my investment journey in November last year with an Easy Equities trading account. I started with just R200 and, by the end of the first week, I invested another R300. My return to date is around 30% to 40% and my policy is that for every R100 I make, I reinvest R30,” he says.

Junior Mahlangu is clearly a young man with a plan, saying his investment via Easy Equities will be his reserve savings while he looks for a job after he graduates.

“I might need those funds to start my own business or even a side hustle,” he says.

He says one of the great pleasures of participating in the JSE Investment Challenge has been the opportunity to put his theoretical knowledge into practical use.

“For example, we have been taught about net asset value [the value of a company in terms of its financial shares] and how to compare that to market value [the price the market will pay for the stock].

“Now we are using that knowledge to determine which stocks are trading at a discount. Mokopu and I also closely follow the news and try to predict market reactions to companies featured in the news,” he says.

The biggest stocks in their portfolio are Altron, Brikor, Naspers and Prosus.

“We invested in both Naspers and Prosus because they both have shareholdings in the Chinese company, Tencent. To us, both companies’ market value seems undervalued, and we expect investors to flock into both stocks – particularly in light of the Naspers/Prosus share swap offer,” he explains.

Junior Mahlangu says he would encourage people to start investing as early as possible: “When you are still young, you can make mistakes and learn from them early on. You still have enough time to recoup those losses and take risks that older investors may shy away from,” he says. DM168

April winners

The winners for the month of April are:

Income category: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 from Acudeo College Crystal Park in Benoni with an income of R5,964.13.

Equity category: MP Unshaken Traders from Mpumelelo Secondary School in Bronkhorstspruit, with a portfolio growth of 3.83%.

Speculator category: Fire Fox from Pretoria Chinese School with a portfolio growth of 7.25%.

Speculator university category: The Wealth Traders from Rhodes University in Makhanda with portfolio growth of 12.79%. DM168

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper which is available for free to Pick n Pay Smart Shoppers at these Pick n Pay stores.