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Banyana sponsors call for support from South Africans ahead of Wafcon
"Our biggest hope is that they pick up from where they left off in the last tournament," says Mbatha.
Sasol group brand and sponsorship manager, Nozipho Mbatha is pleading with South Africans to support Banyana Banyana at Wafcon. Picture: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix
Nozipho Mbatha, the Sasol group brand and sponsorship manager for Sasol, has pleaded with South Africa to support the team ahead of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon ), which will be played in Morocco from 2 to 23 July.
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Sasol have been part of Banyana set up since 2009 when the company got into a partnership with the South African Football Association (Safa) in sponsoring the senior national women’s team, while also running an amateur league over the country for women.
Banyana will be competing in their 12th Wafcon, but they are yet to lift the title with the team. In the last edition, they lost to Nigeria on penalties in the final.
Mbatha says they are hoping to see the team continue with the way they played in the previous edition of the competition.
“We are behind the team again, and having watched them in 2018, our biggest hope is that they pick up from where they left off in the last tournament. I think with that kind of attitude of taking one game at a time, it is a winning formula for them,” said Mbatha.
“We are totally behind them and we encourage all South Africans to rally behind the team and that is going to be our task ahead of the tournament.”
Mbatha added that with Banyana doing well especially at a big stage like the Wafcon, they would like to see more corporate companies coming in to help out in women’s football and says it will be dream to see clubs in the DStv Premiership establish women teams.
“We are invested in women’s football and we want to see more corporates to get on board. Once there is more investment in women’s football, that’s when we will see more viewership and that will also increase the growth for women’s football.
“That would be the dream (PSL teams establishing women teams) and it is something that we will like to see happen. And we hope that with Banyana doing well like at the WAFCON teams in the DStv Premiership will see value in having women teams.”
