Dube soccer lads are the kings of KwaMahlobo Games

02 May 2017

 

Sabelo Super Stars Football Club are the 2017 champions of the KwaMahlobo Games, an annual Soweto soccer tournament supported by the City of Johannesburg to help develop talent among the youth, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

 

The City’s Department of Community Development injected R200 000 into this year’s extravaganza to ensure it achieved its objectives. Sixteen soccer teams participated in the spectacular, which took place from Thursday April 27 (Freedom Day) to Monday May 1 (May Day) in Meadowlands.

The Dube-based Sabelo Super Stars FC, known among their foes as Black Poison, smiled all the way to the bank with a R50 000 cheque following their dramatic 2-1 victory over Peacemakers FC in a scintillating final match on Monday. Their striker, Mduduzi Nyembe, received a R500 prize for being the top goal scorer of the tournament with nine goals.

A combined total of 6 000 soccer enthusiasts attended the Games over the five days, passionately rooting for their favourite teams every time they took the field.

Handing out the trophy and medals to the winning team and runners-up at a prize-giving ceremony later, Member of the Mayoral for Community Development Cllr Nonhlanhla Sifumba said it was important for the City to support initiatives aimed at tackling social ills that were destroying the youth.

“Through these Games we’re able to prevent the youth from being exposed to ill-behaviour. In turn, many more young people are encouraged to take up various sporting activities. So, these activities are important for community development because they are breaking the scourge of drug use among the youth, particularly nyaope.

“Through sport, you can achieve a lot, hence we are behind this tournament,” Cllr Sifumba said.

Sabelo Super Stars’ coach, Victor Ramatsi, said his team’s success was the result of hard work. “We’re humbled by this victory because we’ve been beaten before by most of the teams that took part in this tournament. However, we’re saying it was not a miracle that we’re taking the cup this time around.

“We did a lot of work to be where we are today. It was a collective effort. We’d like to thank our sponsors, who always make sure we have a smooth tournament every year,” Ramatsi said.

KwaMahlobo Games Public Relations Officer and Tournament Co-ordinator Patrick Ntenjwa said: “We had an incident-free soccer tournament and for the past five days the community enjoyed the Games peacefully. We had been well-received by the community and we’d like to thank them for making the tournament come alive.”