Where it started
The Economics Excellence Association began in 2024 at Tshwane University of Technology's Garankuwa Campus — in the Faculty of Economics and Finance. It started as an idea: that economics students deserved more than passive attendance. They deserved a structure that challenged, activated, and connected them to the world beyond the lecture hall.
But the vision was never limited to economics students. From the beginning, EEA was conceived as a platform for any young person willing to grow — a space where curiosity, discipline, and a commitment to community could find a home regardless of what you studied.
What we built
Across 2024 to 2026, EEA established a constitutional framework, a Branch Executive Committee (appointed through formal interviews), an ambassador network, and formal CIPC registration as the Centre of Economic Excellence NPC. These are not administrative details — they are proof that EEA is built for permanence, not performance.
We have run Beyond Matric outreach events at three schools across two provinces — starting at Madiba A Toloane High School in Jericho, North West in late 2025, our inaugural visit, then expanding to Soshanguve South Secondary and Seageng Secondary in Gauteng in 2026, reaching over 150 Grade 12 learners in total. We drafted a disciplinary policy, a code of conduct, and fundraising accountability procedures. We created the governance architecture that most student organisations never think to build.
Where we are going
We are now developing the Community Economic Participation (CEP) framework — our most ambitious programme, designed to take the learning and leadership skills built on campus into township communities. We aim to establish enterprise clusters, support informal traders, and create structured pathways to economic participation for people who have never had access to them.
We are also building our national architecture — a framework that will allow EEA to establish branches at universities across South Africa, each operating under the same governance principles, each contributing to a shared national mission.
We are not there yet. But we are building — methodically, with integrity, and with a long-term vision that does not depend on any one person to survive.