When Marlboro businessman Tinos Mbedzi joined his Limpopo homeboys for an afternoon chill, little did he know that this would eventually give birth to his sponsorship of Ma Afrika FC.
Mbedzi is currently the main sponsor of the Alex outfit which recently blasted its way into the SAB League following a dramatic 3–1 win over fancied Norwood Young Stars in the Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association Promotional League at the Alexandra Stadium on June 12.
Ma Afrika caused one of the biggest upsets of the league, with their opponents already having organised a fully-laden bakkie with champagne and meat for a braai to celebrate their win. However, what was widely viewed as a walk-in-the-park victory for Stars over the whipping boys of the league since their formation in 2012, was not to be.
Speaking in an interview with Alex News as the 15th Avenue Ma Afrika side celebrated their entry into the SAB League by parading their trophy through the potholed streets of Alexandra, Mbedzi said he got a call from the chairperson of the club Ramovha Khathu, inviting him to join them for an afternoon chill.
“Little did I know that my homeboy was up to his mild shenanigans, as he and his team then persuaded me to join the team as the main sponsor and also become a board member of the side as well.
“Since I was not much of a football fanatic, I somewhat reluctantly agreed to the proposal but when the chairperson put his case and vision forward, I was completely swept off my chair and bought into the vision of taking the African child off the Alex streets and away from mischief and drugs,” Mbedzi told Alex News.
Since then, Mbedzi, who runs a welding business between 2nd and 4th streets in Marlboro, Steel and Engineering Company, and has a training workshop for welders with his business partner Sylvester Lukota, has never looked back as he swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker.
“I am even more buoyed now with this noble project of taking our children off the streets as the chairperson has a strict selection criterion for his players, topmost being a penchant for non-smoking and drinking players in his team.
“It’s alcohol on the topmost of all the bad things that destroy players and if we can get rid of that and other associated ills, half of the task is done and then we can concentrate in moulding them to be better citizens.”
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