Some journeys are about winning.
Others remind you how much you are capable of becoming.
My Mister Global South Africa 2025 journey did exactly that.
In July 2025, while competing as a Mister Global South Africa finalist, I had the privilege of joining Graeme Richards on the Expresso Show to talk about the competition, the journey that had brought me back onto the pageant stage and some of the things that matter to me beyond it.
For me, Mister Global South Africa was never simply about walking onto a stage.
It was about challenging myself again.
Returning to pageantry years later
My relationship with pageantry started many years earlier.
In 2009, I competed in Mr South Africa, finishing in the Top 5 and receiving the Businessman of the Year Award.
Then life moved on.
My corporate career developed through communications, public relations, media, marketing and business. My work as a professional Master of Ceremonies grew, and new opportunities and challenges arrived.
Years later, I found myself facing the opportunity to step onto the competition stage again.
This time I was older.
Hopefully wiser.
Definitely more experienced.
And far more comfortable with who I was.
Mister Global South Africa 2025
Returning to a national competition after so many years required discipline and a willingness to become uncomfortable again.
That was part of the attraction.
It’s very easy to tell people to keep challenging themselves.
It’s another thing entirely to do it yourself.
The journey ultimately ended with me finishing in the Top 3 as second runner-up at Mister Global South Africa 2025.
But the value of the experience went far beyond a placing.
It reminded me that growth doesn’t have an age limit and that sometimes the best way to discover what you’re capable of is to put yourself in a position where you have something new to prove — mostly to yourself.
My Expresso Show interview with Graeme Richards
One of the memorable moments of the journey was appearing on the Expresso Show with Graeme Richards.
Our conversation touched on the Mister Global South Africa journey and the broader experiences that had brought me to that point.
For someone whose professional life involves communication, presenting and connecting with audiences, sitting down on a national television programme offered a very different perspective.
It was also a chance to talk about something I believe strongly:
Success needs to have purpose beyond yourself.
Watch my Mister Global South Africa interview on the Expresso Show
More than appearance
Pageantry is often viewed from the outside as being largely about appearance.
For me, the experience represented much more.
It was about discipline, communication, confidence, personal growth and purpose.
It was also about the way we use whatever platform we’re fortunate enough to have.
Community upliftment has remained important to me throughout my personal and professional life.
I believe influence carries responsibility.
Whether that means supporting community initiatives, creating awareness, helping where you can or encouraging someone to believe that their current circumstances don’t have to determine their future, there should be something beyond the title or the photograph.
That belief affects the way I approach community projects, speaking engagements and my work as a Master of Ceremonies in South Africa.
The value of starting again
There is something powerful about starting again when you’re no longer a beginner.
You arrive with experience, but you also arrive with expectations.
You have to be willing to put those aside.
Mister Global South Africa reminded me that there will always be another challenge to take on, another area in which to grow and another opportunity to become better at what you do.
From returning to the pageant stage, to appearing on the Expresso Show, to eventually standing among the Top 3 of Mister Global South Africa 2025, the journey became one of the highlights of an already unexpected career.
And perhaps the biggest lesson was simple:
You are never too established, too old or too far down another road to challenge yourself again.
Sometimes your second act surprises you.
From the competition stage to the event stage
Today, Bennum works as a Master of Ceremonies, wedding MC, presenter, moderator and facilitator, hosting corporate and private events across South Africa.