There was a moment on the evening of 11 April 2026, inside a Bulawayo banquet hall, when Matida Pelemba, a Part 4 Computer Science student from the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT), stepped away from the podium having just outpitched competitors from across the entire country.

Matida Pelemba, the Projects Director of Enactus HIT, had done it; she was Zimbabwe’s JCI Creative Young Entrepreneur 2026 winner.

The announcement came at the end of the CYE Pitch Event and Dinner, organised by Junior Chamber International (JCI), before a panel of judges drawn from Zimbabwe’s business and civic leadership. Pelemba had taken the stage to present eMukoko, Enactus HIT’s flagship technological innovation, a student-conceived solution that transforms a real community challenge into a commercially viable, technology-driven enterprise. Her pitch didn’t just impress the judges; it swept the room. Enactus HIT walked away with a gold medal, a certificate of recognition, and the national title.

But the road to that stage was anything but straightforward.

Enactus HIT’s journey began at the JCI Bulawayo local chapter competition, where the team first put eMukoko before judges. Advancing from there, they survived a multi-chapter elimination round that included JCI Harare and a field of entrants from across the country. From that field, they muscled their way into the national top 10, then the finals, and ultimately to the top of the podium. It was a campaign that required sustained excellence at every stage, and they delivered it.

The JCI Creative Young Entrepreneur programme is one of the most credible young entrepreneur competitions in the world. Open to individuals aged 18 to 40 who have built operating businesses with demonstrable, measurable impact, the competition moves through local, national, regional, and global stages, with the Africa and Middle East regional conference offering a first-place prize of USD 5,000, and the JCI World Congress offering a USD 10,000 global grand prize to the eventual champion.

As Zimbabwe’s national winner, Pelemba will now represent the country at the JCI Africa and Middle East Regional Conference, a platform that includes professional mentoring, a live pitching session before independent judges, and a prestigious awards ceremony. The three top regional finalists will earn the right to compete at the World Congress. Enactus HIT has set its sights firmly on that outcome: to win the USD 5,000 first prize and secure a place in the global top three.

For HIT, the significance of this win runs deeper than a trophy.

“This achievement directly advances HIT’s core mandate to design, develop, incubate, and commercialise technology,” said Thabani Dundu, Faculty Advisor for Enactus HIT. “The eMukoko project exemplifies how student-led, technology-driven solutions solve real community problems and compete internationally.”

Dundu described the JCI CYE win as validation of exactly what HIT exists to produce, a technology-based, commercially viable, socially impactful innovation developed entirely by HIT students. “Matida Pelemba and the Enactus HIT team have proven that our graduates can move beyond theory to become competitive social entrepreneurs on a national stage, and soon, a regional one.”

The Heritage-Based Education 5.0 philosophy insists that the laboratory, the workshop, and the entrepreneurial arena are extensions of the classroom. Pelemba’s performance at the JCI CYE finals is a living demonstration of that philosophy at work: a student who didn’t wait until graduation to build something real, pitch it nationally, and win.

As the regional conference approaches, Enactus HIT is preparing by refining the pitch, mobilising resources, and building on what got them here. The club is calling on the entire HIT community to get behind Matida Pelemba as she prepares to carry the HIT flag onto the continental stage.

Zimbabwe has its representative. HIT has its champion. The next stop is Africa.