Following on the successful story of Vhakhegula Vhakhegula Football Club, the custodians of the biannual Grannies International Football Tournament in Tzaneen’s Nkowankowa township, Limpopo, football fans can expect to watch the team in action in a few months.
This was revealed by Mama Beka Ntsanwisi, the brain behind the well-loved team.
Aptly known in Limpopo as “Mother Theresa”, Ntsanwisi told Sunday World that preparations for the launching of the biannual Vhakhalabje Vhakhalabje are in the pipelines.
“Currently we are sitting with 12 old men clubs. However, we will kickstart their biannual tournament with only four clubs to test the waters before we can think of adding more clubs,” said Ntsanwisi.
Despite the chaos as residents of Nkowankowa went on a rampage, blocking the roads in their quest to shut down the township in protest for poor service deliveries by Greater Tzaneen Municipality weeks before the Grannies International Football Tournament, which was held at the local stadium, the 56-year-old Nkowankowa-born Ntsanwisi expressed her satisfaction with the competition, which she described as an incidents-free competition.
Twenty-two clubs participated in this year’s Grannies International Tournament, with clubs from South Africa (hosts), the US, Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, Togo and Zambia.
The New England Breakers from US successfully defended their title after having won the inaugural in 2023. For their effort, the Breakers took home the floating trophy plus R50 000.
Because of this year’s successful tournament, Ntsanwisi was invited to Kenya to celebrate International Mother’s Day with more than 1 000 grannies from across that country.
Kenya was represented in this year’s tournament by Mutei Grannies FC, which spoke positively about Ntsanwisi’s well-organised tournament, hence the extended invite by the Kenya Masters Football Federation.
