Johannesburg – Apart from her expensive taste and flashy lifestyle, Shauwn Mkhize, better known as “MaMkhize”, is considered a free-spirited individual who speaks from the heart.
But in the football fraternity, MaMkhize keeps her cards close to her chest and declines to share her plans and aspirations about Royal AM, a football outfit that made a dramatic entrance to the elite Premier Soccer League (PSL) with the purchase of Bloemfontein Celtic in a deal estimated to be worth about R50-million.
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“Unfortunately, Shauwn is not doing any interviews at this time. Her focus and priority are on the new team and ensuring that the players are comfortable and adjusting to the changes,” reads her PR team’s response to Sunday World.
The acquisition of Phunya Sele Sele’s PSL status followed hot on the heels of a protracted legal battle in which Royal AM approached the court to be reinstated as the winners of the GladAfrica Championship.
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The team had topped the NFD standings for the 2020/21 season but lost out through an arbitration award of three points to second–placed Sekhukhune United. Royal AM’s several court attempts were, however, unsuccessful, leading to MaMkhize buying the status of the financially troubled Bloemfontein Celtic and relocating the team to KwaZulu-Natal.
MaMkhize’s net worth is said to be about R300-million.
She joins a few women who own football clubs in the professional ranks. Most notable names are Mato Madlala, current acting PSL CEO and owner of Golden Arrows and Ria Ledwaba, who owned the now defunct Ria Stars that created football stars like Teko Modise. MaMkhize is Shauwn’s maiden name, which she reverted to after her divorce with businessman Sbu Mpisane.
She was born in eMbumbulu near eLovu township on the Kwa- Zulu-Natal south coast region. Her parents Florence and Sipho Mkhize were ANC anti-apartheid activists.
Her elder brother Sbu Mkhize was also a fearless freedom fi ghter who died in a shootout with police in July 1992.
In the previous year, her father was assassinated in the ongoing political violence and running battles between the ANC and the IFP in the province. MaMkhize’s mother Florence became an influential ANC councillor in the eThekwini metro and died of natural causes in 2008.
It is believed that MaMkhize amassed wealth through lucrative government contracts awarded to a company they co-owned with her then husband named Zikhulise Construction Group.
The entity was the brainchild of her mother and she inherited it.
Zikhulise is the dominant roleplayer in the building of RDP houses in the province, and over the years has been awarded multimillion-rand RDP projects mainly in the eThekwini region and iLembe.
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Following the success of the business, MaMkhize expanded her wealth portfolio investing into the property development sector. She also bought a football outfit Royal Eagles campaigning in the NFD.
But hostile relations between her and her ex-husband, who was also the co-owner, led her to relinquish ownership.
In 2019, she bought a Durban-based football club Real Kings and renamed it Royal AM. In less than a year she was able to build the club into a force to be reckoned with.
Her parents have various government structures in KZN named after them to acknowledge their role in the struggle.
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