Ward 21 residents under the Thulamela municipality had a fun-filled day, when the local ward councillor, Cllr Maria Ramanala, and other structures in the community joined hands and hosted a soccer tournament in the area.

On Saturday, hundreds of soccer lovers gathered at the local All Blacks Soccer grounds for what turned out to be a most memorable day in the community. Four teams, Maniini All Blacks, Wisdom Academy, Block F FC and Block K and R Portions, participated.

The final was between Maniini All Blacks and Block F FC, where Maniini All Blacks emerged the champions after beating their opponents 2-1.

For their efforts, All Blacks took home a trophy, R750 cash, gold medals and two soccer balls. Block F FC were consoled by a soccer ball, R450 cash and silver medals. In addition, all teams received R200 for refreshments.

Speaking during the tournament, Cllr Ramanala said besides being good for one’s health, sport had the potential to unite the community. “There is no better way of coming together for a good cause than sport. We are meeting today as a community and while here we can think of something good to improve the living conditions in our areas. We are also happy that many youths participated in the tournament and we have seen that there are many with talent here."

Patson Ramuntshi, who coordinated the tournament, said they were happy with the way things went. “We did achieve our objective of bringing people together and taking the youth off the streets at least for a day. We aim to make this an annual event, but this will depend on businesspeople coming on board and assisting in the logistics of the day," Ramuntshi added.