Mpheni Home Defenders emerged as the champions of the Mambila Driving School Top 8, after they beat Mukondeni Ratanang 5-3 in a penalty shoot-out at Vleifontein on Saturday.

The sponsor, Mr Walter Mugwena, manager of Mambila Driving School, said that the donation clearly indicated that his company wanted to serve members of the community in order to bring development of sport in the area. "We are part of this community and we are doing this to support local people," he said. He concluded by saying his company would continue to sponsor the tournament.

The organiser, Mr Norman Ramutsindela, said sport without education meant nothing. “You can be a star today and be written off the following day. Education will never forsake you, and you can bank on it,” he added.

Ramutsindela said young ones must regards stars as role models, irrespective of whether they were educated or not.

He criticized teachers who are involved in drugs. "Imagine the teacher who is supposed to be role model is selling dagga to the pupils. What type of future leaders are we expecting from that generation? We are also seriously concerned about community members who sell alcoholic beverages to school kids."

He said the players had trained hard in order to excel at their activities and mentioned the names of several national and intertantional players with roots in the Vhembe district.

A prize of R2 500 and a trophy went to the champions, Mpheni Home Defenders. The runners-up, Mukondeni Ratanang, received R1 500 and the two teams that lost in the semifinals, Mukondeni Shooting Stars and Mpheni Young Stars, received R500 each.

The tournament will be cater for teams from around Vhembe next year and it is expeected that more than 30 teams will participate.