School Football Mayoral Cup is a huge success
Funwako showed they meant business when they walloped KaMhola High School 5-4 on penalties to book their place in the final.
The Emjindini Trust-based Chief Funwako Secondary School became the inaugural winners of the Umjindi Municipality School Football Mayoral Cup when they upset their rival Emjindini Secondary School 1-0 in a pulsating final match played at the Emjindini Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Funwako showed they meant business when they walloped KaMhola High School 5-4 on penalties to book their place in the final. The encounter had ended deadlocked goalless draw in regulation time.
Emjindini on the other side had an easy passage to the final as they easily made a meal of Barberton Secondary School by defeating them 4-0.
Umjindi executive mayor, Cllr Lazaros Mashaba, congratulated Chief Funwako on their victory and praised the crowd for their decent behaviour during the match. “Council supports these events, since they are an important part of its objective to develop Barberton. This keeps our kids away from crime,” said Mashaba.
Several members of council, including the municipal manager, Pat Msibi, CFO Paul Mpele and councillors, attended the event.
Chief Funwako won a cheque of R2 000, gold medals, new soccer kit, a soccer ball and a floating trophy. The runners up received a new kit, a soccer ball and bronze medal while Barberton Secondary and Kamhola received full soccer kits and a soccer ball each.
Chief Funwako also dominated the individual awards. Their goalkeeper, Nkosinathi Dlamini was voted keeper of the tournament. His teammate, Thami Motha was voted the top goal scorer and Sabelo Lekhuleni the player of the tournament.
Event organiser, Lucky Motha said they were planning a bigger and better tournament for next year that would involve more sporting codes. “This was a pilot event, our way of meeting the goals of minister Fikile Mbalula. We aim to unearth all the hidden talents at our schools with this programme,” said Motha.
