Vusumuzi Dube
Lovemore Dube
FOR years radio and television personality Lee ‘Sporo’ Mangena has laboured with his women’s football project Street set of Bulawayo.
Now things are beginning to show up and his patience to pay a dividend as he has had a big breakthrough that will see his side play host to Oxford Mansfield Under-15 girls’ team in August.
He said the trip came after their plight caught the attention of the team following a documentary done by the UK Evening Standard which won an award after being put together by some locals.
The visitors have a number of matches lined up and will engage in charity work and cu7ltural activities that will see some of them stay in Tshabalala, Sizinda, Lobengula and Nketa.
“They want the true African experience and will stay with some of the families. They want to indulge in our African cuisine, what a way to go about than have the UK girls stay with some of our players’ families. They want to eat what we eat, have a feel of our everyday lives and even go to class and learn the local languages and interface with our curricula,” said Mangena.
They are expected to play teams like Vengere Juniors, Maningi from Norton, Selonga, Buvuma and Young Sables from Makwandara near Dete. He said these selected teams have a similar background of strife.
Mangena described this as a milestone and hopes to build on this for the future of a project he started in 2009.
He got the girls on board in 2011 after ditching the boys’ project after teams started getting his players without the courtesy of paying him development fees.
Online Reporter