-HKD Freeman, Mambo Dhuterere to perform
ASHER MOYO
SPORTS REPORTER
MUTARE-The annual Mai Hondo Junior Football Tournament has rebranded to ‘Love Shouldn’t Hurt Mai Hondo Tournament, organizers have confirmed.
The tournament will kick-off on Saturday and end on Sunday in Mutare.
One of the tournament organizers Blessing ‘JahB’ Mutsaka said they have made three significant changes to this year’s edition.
The tournament is held in memory of the late Gogo Prisca Matimati (Mai Hondo) who passed on in 2005.
“The first change is the rebranding from Mai Hondo Soccer Tournament to ‘Love Shouldn’t Hurt Mai Hondo Tournament’.
“We now have a partnering Population Solutions for Health(PSH)- an NGO which deals with Gender Based Violence, Anti- Early Marriages and Health Services for Youth and the general population.
“PSH will be offering their services on the day. We decided to do a partnership since we gather youths for sports while they come in with technical support of free health services for community members. That is where are partnership is coming from,” he said.
Mutsaka said they have added netball on the tournament.
“We also now have netball to the tournament. We have two categories- juniors (primary schools) and seniors (high school and a tertiary institution).For juniors, we have St Josephs, Zamba, Chisamba and Sakubva Primary Schools.
“The senior teams include Mutare Girls High, Ellis Gladhill, Mavudzi and Africa University. In addition to sport, we now have music sponsored by our partner PSH. We will have Mambo Dhuterere performing on Saturday at 3pm at Dangamvura Beit Hall grounds and Freeman will perform on Sunday at Zamba Primary School.
“These are the three major changes that we have made. We are evolving from a soccer tournament into a youth festival because we are bringing in services and music for the youths,” said Mutsaka.
In boys’ soccer, 16 teams will battle it out for top honours. The top eight teams from Mutare Junior League together with visiting teams from Chipinge, Binga, Masvingo, Rusape, Mutasa and Mutare based academy MAJESA will be part of the tournament.
MAJESA will be participating for the first time. Last year’s winners were La Sakubva.
In the girls’ category, Mutare Girls High and Hartzel will be coming for the first time. The winners of the 2022 edition were Dangamvura based side FaithDrive.
Mutsaka said he is very happy with how the tournament has evolved over years.
“We are happy to be expanding in terms of the services we are offering. We are happy to be expanding in terms of the sports codes.
“We are also excited that we are evolving from being a soccer tournament into a youth festival where youths come and get additional services. We are looking forward to a competitive tournament this year and we are also very strict on age cheating this time around.
“We have put in place new measures to curb age cheating. The measures include working with the schools where the children are coming from,” he said.
