Soccer players treated to training equipment

McCarthy Kunene in their Corporate Social Investment (CSI) presented different items to Witbank City Charlton, a local soccer amateur team.

The presentation was held on Wednesday, August 3.

Chairman of the team Joseph Lefefe formed the team in 2005 and in total he has about 66 players under him.

The academy has four divisions, the u.13s, u.15s, u.17s and the u.19s playing in the Local Football Association (LFA).

McCarthy Kunene official Mr Mishack Mtsweni presented the team with 30 soccer balls, eight agile poles, 16 cones and refreshments.

Mtsweni said they were supporting what Lefefe is doing in keeping the boys out of the streets and doing something positive.

He added to say they were happy to see the boys being focused and that they were happy to be associated with the team.

“Giving back to the community just past Mandela Month is part of the company’s corporate social investment and will try to put resources to help the team. We hope this will make them do their best to be successful, as we believe that eMalahleni has talent, and we will support that talent. With proper guidance and our support, we believe they can go very far. Emalahleni has produced players like Innocent Mdledle, Tsepho Masilela, Percy Tau and Innocent Maela who played professionally and represented the country at a national level. Before that, we had players like Junior Ngobe, Cyprian Maimane, Dumisa Ngobe, Steve Makua (late) and many others in other sports as well. This is the start of better and bigger things to come,” Mtsweni said.

Lefefe thanked McCarthy Kunene for the kind gesture and also believe that it will go a long way to make his job easy.

He says that most of the talented boys need support as they came from poor backgrounds, and they lack basics like soccer boots.

“We have now established a partnership with McCarthy Kunene and my team players are always taken to tournaments to give exposure so that even scouts can see them. In June, my u.15s and u.19s played in the Siphiwe Shabalala soccer tournament in Gauteng, as well as the Joseph Makhanya tournament. We always play in the Discovery Tournament in December in Soweto, the biggest soccer tournament in the country.”

Lefefe added to say that he has taken about 15 players to different teams, like Jomo Cosmos, Mamelodi Sundown, Orlando Pirates and Supersports United.