Winnie Madikizela Mandela local municipality Mayor, Cllr TD Mafumbatha opened the match at Mphuthumi Mafumbatha sports field yesterday, September 10, 2022 where the Bizana football team FC Ravens and Mount Frere’s FC Siyanda played for Nedbank Cup. FC Ravens won against FC Siyanda by two goals(2-1).

Making her speech she said,

“We meet here today in this facility that will contribute to the development of football and sports in general. This  Sports field has reached the practical completion stage as can be seen it is not 100%complete. They are services like water that are not yet connected.”

She said the sports field has reached the practical completion but it’s not 100% complete. There are services like water that are yet to be connected. She went on to say as the municipality they have allowed only Nedbank matches to be played in the field.

“I think it is a very good gesture that our municipality is able to improve things related to football more especially here in Bizana, our players used to go to Mount Ayliff where fields would be fully packed with fans or people from Mount Ayliff, obviously people from Bizana would going but few of them. But now starting from the supporters, you can see how crowded the field is, and that is very encouraging to the players because they have supporters they know. In terms of development, when young people in Bizana see how much the standard has gone up, they will be interested in football and that will make them stop going to those places where they get up to no good, places like tarvens and come back to football because they can see teams that play in the PSL. So for the development of football and bringing the children back from the street to sports that is a good thing.” said Former Jomo Cosmos football star and coach Phikolomzi “Ree” Noqazo.

He said, as a coach seeing the teams they are developing at the villages playing in the PSL shows that there is something progressive they are doing. The coaches at Alfred Nzo are doing something right, like growing and coaching a team from the bottom up to the top and that makes him very happy.

“As a football lover and fan, I am very happy that we have our own sports field in Bizana because football is popular in Bizana and now I will not spend money to go to places like Mount Ayliff or Mount Frere to watch Bizana football teams. But I wish there were more seats in this area because this corner is small and is for VIP,” said Mr Mgewu who is a football fan