2025 tested our emotional resilience, reshaped our business landscape, confronted global power shifts, and prepared us for a bold, disciplined and unapologetic 2026.
The year 2025 has been one of the most emotionally charged periods of my professional journey and one of the most defining moments of our national consciousness. It has been a year that tested our resilience, our discipline, and our emotional stamina. It reminded me, and reminded many Black entrepreneurs, that growth rarely happens in silence. Real growth demands storms. It demands discomfort. It demands the courage to sit with the noise around us without allowing it to enter us.
When I look back over these twelve months, I recognise that this was not an ordinary year. It stood at the intersection of global political shifts, deep domestic transitions, new opportunities and a resurgence of old distractions. It was a year that forced us to confront who we are, why we work the way we do, and what legacy we intend to build.
For me as a young Black woman navigating the business landscape, expanding the influence of the BBQ brand, strengthening and holding space for Black excellence in boardrooms and government corridors, 2025 required both emotional intelligence and emotional endurance. There were moments when the noise around me echoed louder than the truth inside me. Moments when retreating felt easier than rising. But there were also moments of pure clarity where the magnitude of our mission revealed itself.
This reflection is an honest look at the emotional terrain of 2025, the challenges we faced, the global shifts that shaped our local realities, the relationships we formed, and the vision that must carry us into 2026.
The Emotional Weight of 2025
Emotions have shadows. They follow us into meetings, negotiations, proposals, public engagements and late nights where sleep becomes a luxury. For many Black business owners, 2025 felt like carrying a heavy load while pretending the weight was featherlight. We had to remain visionary and composed in environments that did not always see us or understand the depth of what we carry.
There were days when doubts of others arrived disguised as advice. Days when unsolicited opinions from people who have never built anything tried to disrupt our confidence. Days when the noise around us grew louder than our own intuition. And in this world, especially when you are young, female and Black, that noise becomes a familiar companion.
But emotional strength grows in silence. It grows in private moments when the world is not applauding. It grows when we wipe our tears, realign our focus and walk back into the room with dignity. 2025 taught me that shutting out noise is not avoidance. It is survival. It is strategy. It is leadership.
Challenges That Reshaped Us
The challenges of 2025 came from every direction. Economically, politically, socially and internally. The business environment did not always move at the pace we needed. Opportunities felt close but still somehow out of reach. Meetings with the right people brought hope, yet decisions moved slowly. Investors wanted stability before commitment. Partnerships demanded more negotiation and more patience.
We battled external pressures but also internal ones. Imposter syndrome. Exhaustion. The burden of carrying our communities on our backs. The emotional labour of constantly having to prove ourselves in systems that were never built for us.
But challenges do not mean failure. They mean elevation. They mean you enter spaces where your presence was never anticipated but is now absolutely necessary.
The People We Met and the Business We Fought For
2025 introduced powerful relationships and strategic encounters. Some supported our mission with unwavering conviction. Some underestimated us. Some attempted to box us into their limited ideas of who young Black women should be. And some, sadly, were simply not aligned with where we are going.
But every business engagement taught us something. Some deals closed. Some remain in negotiation rooms waiting for maturity. Some require more time and more relationship building. Some taught us redirection. And some taught us to release.
What became clear is that business is not only about profit. It is about values. Vision. Alignment. Timing. Leadership. And the courage to say no when your spirit says no.
South Africa on the Global Stage: What 2025 Exposed
This year placed South Africa under a global spotlight. The G20 and B20 engagements opened conversations about Africa’s position in global trade, investment, climate transition and inclusive development. These were not only diplomatic events. They were mirrors reflecting our evolving economic identity.
The political theatre around the Trump negotiation with President Ramaphosa intensified global interest in South Africa’s alliances and economic posture. It revealed the delicate balance between diplomacy, global power, and national interest. It forced us to interrogate what we truly want from the world and what the world expects from us.
The continued influence of business leaders like Johann Rupert also sparked necessary debates about economic concentration, racial equity and the direction of local investment. These debates, though uncomfortable, remain central to our national transformation agenda.
If 2025 taught us anything, it is that South Africa cannot be passive in global or local negotiations. We must claim our space with confidence. And we must demand that Black businesses take their rightful place in every economic conversation.
Learning to Silence the Noise
Noise has become one of the biggest threats to progress this year. Noise from social media. Noise from rumour. Noise from political commentary without context. Noise from those who profit from the disunity of Black professionals. Noise from people who fear a confident, competent Black woman.
And I learnt this truth:
Noise distorts vision. Silence restores it.
Silence is not weakness. Silence is protection. It protects our purpose, our teams, our strategy and our peace. It protects what we are building and shields us from those who want to distract us from the bigger picture.
In 2025, silence became my armour.
What 2026 Has in Store
If 2025 was about endurance, 2026 will be about elevation. It will be a year of execution. A year of maturity. A year of stepping into spaces not as guests but as equals.
For South Africa, 2026 will demand strategic unity and disciplined implementation. We must accelerate reforms, strengthen local industries, rebuild investor confidence, expand industrial capacity and centre Black business in every transformation agenda.
For me personally, 2026 is a year of expansion. Expansion in media. Expansion in events. Expansion in automotive transformation. Expansion in youth empowerment. Expansion in economic development. Expansion in the influence of the BBQ brand. And expansion in the legacy we are building for future generations.
It is a year to serve boldly. Lead purposefully. Create access intentionally. And show young Black women that they belong at every table they choose to sit at.
A Parting Thought
2025 was not easy. But it prepared us. It sharpened us. It forced us to grow in silence and rise in our own strength. If you survived this year, you did not survive it unchanged. You are stronger. More grounded. More courageous. More aligned. More ready.
The story of Black business in South Africa is far from finished. We are still writing it. And we are writing it with clarity, courage and conviction.
Silence the noise. Walk tall. Build boldly.
The future is ours.
Linda Top is the BBQ Awards Project Manager
