Fighting for women’s football on and off the field
"That's one of the biggest challenges we face in women's football" - Nolwazi Mathebula.
When she’s not spraying passes from the midfield of the Wits University women’s football club, she’s organising tournaments that boost the promotion of women’s football in the country or running a talent management company – it’s all in a day’s work for Gauteng Sasol Women’s League star Nolwazi Mathebula.
“I think a lot more still has to be done in women’s football in the country. We need our structures, to support grassroots football, we need our competitive tournaments and we need sponsors to involved,” she said.
Mathebula caught the football bug while in primary school and has never looked back, plying her trade for Mondeor Meteros. Soweto Fabulous, University of Johannesburg (UJ), and currently, Wits University. Mathebula is also as educated as they come, boasting a Bcom degree in Sports Management from UJ and currently enrolled for Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration at Wits University in Johannesburg.
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On balancing sports, studies, and business, Mathebula said time management was key.
“I’ll be honest it was very difficult at first, but over time I have grown used to it and found that it’s all doable and that planning was vital.”
The 26-year-old is the founder of Minerve Sports Management and has been hard at work in setting up the Minerve Solidarity Cup. The tournament, she said, would offer a much-needed alternative form of competitive football from the league.
“I mean the question is ‘what about the teams that are not in varsity and cannot compete in competitions like the Vartisy Cup?’ and so that is one of the things we wanted to address, but also to provide a competitive alternative to the league. In men’s football, you have competitions like the MTN8 you know? why can’t we have something like that for women’s football? That’s how the idea of this tournament came up,” she said.
Mathebula admitted, though, that while support has been positive, sponsorship for the tournament had been hard to come by.
“The feedback has been great, people are excited and looking forward to it. But in terms of sponsorship, we’ve not had much support and that’s one of the biggest challenges we face in women’s football. We are optimistic though and we hope to see that improve. We are still open to organisations or companies that can come on board can and we’re confident that the tournament will be a successful project for years to come,” Nolwazi said.
The official date for the tournament has not been revealed due to covid regulations but Mathebula hinted that it could be scheduled for December this year (subject to adjusted government regulations).
For more info, find Nolwazi online:
Instagram: nolwazi.8
Facebook: Nolwazi Vilakazi
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