Lwazi Ngcungama is the designer of the kit that Banyana Banyana will wear at the upcoming World Cup. Picture: Supplied
When the Fifa Women’s World Cup kicks-off next month, a number of South Africans will be watching eagerly to see how the ladies will fare at the global showpiece.
But designer Lwazi Ngcungama will probably be more interested in how the kit he designed will be looking on the ladies as they warm-up before a game.
The 30-year-old Ngcungama won the design competition to design the shirt for South African senior national teams. The jerseys will be used in 2023/2024 season by both Banyana Banyana and Bafana Bafana.
The competition was headed by French brand Le Coq Sportif, who are the technical sponsors for the South African Football Association (Safa).
“I won’t lie, it still feels unreal. I don’t know when it’ll sink in. Today was my first time wearing it and it feels good,” Ngcungama tells The Citizen. He was attending the 30 day countdown to the World Cup which was hosted at the SuperSport studios in Randburg.
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The kit pays homage to the class of 1996, who are the only generation to life the African Cup Of Nations (Afcon). At the top of the jersey on its back, it features two stars that represent the 1996 Bafana Bafana win and Banyana Banyana’s continental triumph last year.
“I could say I did this design in a space of about a week, through trial and error,” he says.
“The people have decided. Massive congratulations to Lwazi Ngcungama on these concepts that clinched 1st place in our ‘design campaign’. We cannot wait to start working with Lwazi on delivering the final jersey for the 2023/24 season,” said the brand in a statement.
Ngcungama saw the announcement of the competition on social media but had no intentions of entering, but it’s people who had seen some of his designs that encouraged him to enter.
“At the time, I didn’t even have a laptop, I didn’t think I was going to enter the competition. I borrowed from a friend after a number of people who have seen some designs I posted on social media encouraged me to enter,” Ngcungama.
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The designer, who hails from the village of Gcilima near Port Shepstone in KZN, said he started playing around with designs when he was still in high school, but the passion increased post matric.
He is a self-taught creator that studied Environmental Management at the University of Zululand and has a degree.
“I received a laptop when I got to varsity through Nsfas and obviously there’s free internet on campus, I downloaded softwares and taught myself more about graphics. I would also see other guys from overseas posting their work and explaining how they did it and I was able to teach myself those skills,” he says.
He defines himself as a sport designer because all his designs are for kits. “That’s my main focus because I design jerseys, logos and branding for soccer teams and tournaments. Anything you can think of in the context of sport,” says Ngcungama.
“I’ve also made another jersey that paid tribute to the class of 1996 which people liked,” he says. The jersey he speaks of was requested by Safa.
2021 marked exactly 25 years since South Africa won the Afcon and Safa wanted to host the Golf Day event with the generation of players from 1996. One of the organisers of the event came across Ngcungama’s designs on social media and got in contact with.
After a few months, golfers at the Bryanston Country Club were donning jersey designed by Ngcungama.
Working with the national association on the kit project has risen his stock and demand for his work seems inevitable.
“If things go according to plan, the following season there’s a PSL [ Premier Soccer League] team that will be wearing a kit designed by me,” Ngcungama says without sharing too much.
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