SA’s spelling bee team triumphs in Africa, eyes global championship

Team South Africa put in a brilliant performance at the 8th African Spelling Bee competition that took place in Harare, Zimbabwe. The team finished first in the overall rankings, followed by Nigeria in second place and home team Zimbabwe in third place.

This ultimate test on the African stage comes after the South African team battled it out at the prestigious Sun City Resort in North West Province on 11 December 2025, where South Africa’s top junior and senior spellers, who have triumphed through local competitions, district eliminations and provincial championships, earned their place among SA’s elite word warriors.

Read more

A triumph of words — SA crowns its champs at the National Spelling Bee finals

December 14, 2025

Winners from the South African National Spelling Bee finals, Mbulelo Tolom, George van Wyngaard and Ashton Singh (juniors), along with Xilombe Xivuri, Ifeoma Osondo and Rhyle Adams (seniors), represented SA in Zimbabwe.

The competition tested the spellers’ abilities not only with English words but also with words from 21 African languages, including words such as “griot” (pronounced “gree-ho”), “Moshoeshoe” (pronounced “mo-SHWE-shwe”), and “Ouidah” (pronounced “wee-dah”). Daily Maverick spoke to the South African spellers, who explained how tough and brutal the competition was. Ashton Singh, who secured second place in the junior division, said that he was proud of the team.

“I definitely say that they did the different languages pretty well since they were able to exhibit most of the languages while still making it not too much to learn; that way, they could test more English. It was definitely a good way to show the cultural heritage of Africa… I was definitely very proud of coming in second place. It was a reflection of the effort that I put in, with help from my parents. I was thankful to the Department of Basic Education for sponsoring this trip. So I was very proud of it,” said Singh.

Meanwhile, Van Wyngaard said that his preparations were very different from last year’s competition.

“The change in the competition definitely made things, I want to say, harder. There was a much higher density of English. The preparation for me personally revolved around tongue twisters, weirdly enough, especially for the speed rounds, just so that your enunciation is Wyngaard.

Tolom said: “It obviously got harder, not only because we went from languages that we are more familiar with to languages from regions across the continent. In my opinion, it made things a little bit harder. And I never memorised specific words for this competition. I memorised the word patterns and etymology so that I could realise word origins and the different tricks in words to spell them correctly,” said Tolom.

SA National Spelling Bee CEO Roger Dickinson said he was proud of what the team managed to do, and said the task had been difficult.

“When one of our spellers gets up to spell, the whole team goes intense. Like in the speed rounds, you count how many words they got right, and that excitement is quite incredible,” said Dickinson.

Explaining the toughness of the competition, he said: “It was a bit brutal. There are only two rounds. We didn’t have a written round, and we didn’t have sign language. This issue is something we’re bringing up with the African spelling bee guys: we need to give spellers more chances to exhibit their skills, rather.”

The spelling bee team will be meeting with the Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, in Pretoria to present their trophy. Daily Maverick spoke to the Director for Reading at the National Department of Basic Education, Dr Nompumelelo Mohohlwane, who said the department was proud of Team South Africa – from the teachers and schools that enabled them to have a rich literacy environment to the parents who encouraged them and, of course, the learners who not only participated, but won first place.

“Fun-filled activities such as Spelling Bees, read-alouds and book clubs are ways to make reading fun. They engage learners in thinking about how words are formed and what makes words tricky or easy in each language, along with giving them an opportunity to build their vocabularies,” said Mohohlwane.

She added that. “The DBE has incorporated best practices on how to set up and participate in Spelling Bees in what we are calling a Literacy Promotion Toolkit.” The Toolkit will be published later this year, as the department says it is considering the invitation to China and the required funding based on internal and partner collaboration.

What next?

After coming first, the South African team has now booked a spot for the World Spelling Bee Championships, set to take place in Shanghai, China, in mid-July 2026. Dickinson said this would be another wonderful test and experience for the South African team.

“This will be the first world championship. So it’s exciting for us to be right there on the ground level. More than that, we’re looking forward to taking the guys to the Great Wall of China, and to ride on a speedy bullet train and eat Chinese food,” said Dickinson.

Meanwhile, Singh said: “I’m definitely looking forward to it. It’s obviously going to be a new challenge, but it’s going to be some new words, too. It’s going to help me expand my vocabulary. Hopefully, I can apply some words I learned, and it’s going to be a really good experience.” DM