D9 champs head to inter-district elimination round

Sandown High School U19 soccer team has progressed to the next round of the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup.

This comes after winning the District 9 (D9) cluster-level group winners round against Eastbank, Kensington, Noordwyk, and Ponelopele Oracle at Midrand High on September 2.

They will represent D9 in the inter-district elimination on September 9.

Zenzeleni Primary School U14 boys and Bonwelong Primary School U14 girls will also represent D9 in the competition after topping their groups by 8 and 10 points respectively, on September 1 at Rabie Ridge Stadium.

The competition was in partnership with the Department of Education, the Motsepe Foundation, and Sanlam.

The Sandown boys faced a tough challenge in their first match, drawing 1–1 with Alexandra’s Eastbank.

They dominated in the second game, securing a 4–0 victory over Ponelopele before triumphing over Noordwyk and Kensington.
Nkosinathi Buthelezi, the Gauteng Department of Education school sports soccer chairperson for the Joburg East district, said the teams that participated in this round were selected from winning the clusters, which included Alex, Midrand, Ivory Park, Central Cluster 1, and Central Cluster 2.

The tournament, under the auspices of the South African Schools Football Association, is the biggest school football tournament in the country, with prize money of more than R3m.

It starts at the cluster level and proceeds to the regional level, then to the provincial finals, and finally to the national championship.

Zenzelani, Bonwelong, and Sandown will compete on September 8 and 9 against other top schools in Gauteng to earn the honour of representing the province at the national championship.

The provincial champions and runners-up will participate in the national championships.

The winner will take home R1m, R600 000 will go to the runners-up, and R500 000 and R400 000 will go to third and fourth place respectively.

Each school that wins its provincial final receives R100 000.

The prize money will be used for school-related development projects, such as the improvement of school infrastructure, office blocks, libraries, classrooms, ablution facilities, and sporting facilities.

Buthelezi concluded, “We would also like the opportunity for children at the district level to benefit from this funding. The current system of winner-takes-all is unfair, and we believe that there should be equal opportunities for all. At the district level, we suggest providing prizes as a form of motivation for children’s success. We will be sending our suggestions to the sponsors.”

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