Stars defend mayoral title

GIYANI All Stars successfully defended their greater Giyani mayoral trophy for the fifth time after beating N’wamankena All Boys FC 3-0 at the Giyani Stadium on Saturday.

They walked away with a R15 000 prize, soccer kit and three balls.

The tournament, which had a prize of R15 000 for the men’s category and R10 000 for the women’s category, attracted many spectators from across the municipality’s 30 wards, including several soccer team owners who wanted to scout players to boost their teams.

Giyani All Stars added some excitement to the tournament by fielding two young players in the last 20 minutes of the match.

Asked about this, the coach, Nil Twala said they wanted to give their u/12 players a taste of a big tournament.

“We knew we had won the game because we were leading 3-0, so we thought we should give our u/12 players a chance on the field,” said Twala.

In the men’s category, second place winners received medals, soccer kit, two balls and R10 000 prize. Third place winners received soccer kit, two balls and R8 000. The fourth place winners received soccer kit, two soccer balls and R5 000 in prize, while the fifth place winners walked away with R1 500 plus soccer kit.

In the women’s category, the second place winner received medals, soccer kit, two balls and R8 000, while the third place winner walked away with R5 000, soccer kit and two balls.

According to the Greater Giyani mayor, Pat Hlungwani, the aim of the tournament “was to promote sports development in the Greater Giyani Municipality through nurturing and supporting of talent among young people”.

“Unlike in the past where we used to give soccer kit to the top four teams only, this year we decided to give out the kit to any team that participated and won at any level in the tournament. This was aimed at reaching more young people,” he said.

Hlungwani said the tournament could not be used as a sole tool for developing sports as it was held once a year.

“The municipality came up with a sports development programme where we identify a village and supply young people in that village with sports kit of any sporting code,” he said, adding that the municipality was also building sports centres in all its 30 wards to ensure the promotion of sports.