A netball and soccer tournament on Saturday, August 27 was a way for Old Mutual to promote healthy lifestyles and give back to the community .
Held in partnership with tournament organisers, PA Masters Football Club, Old Mutual Port Alfred branch manager, Xolani Mangesi, said the company’s involvement in last weekend’s tournament followed a post-Covid revival of a long-standing successful sponsorship.
“The tournament is a way of giving back to the community. This is our branch’s first sponsorship after Covid-19 and we decided on sponsoring a sports tournament again to focus on the wellness of our communities,” he said.
Old Mutual sponsored the trophies and medals that were awarded to the winning teams and they are planning on making this an annual sponsorship.
Five soccer teams participated in the soccer tournament and five netball teams participated in the netball tournament.
The Rosehill Spar soccer team won the final after beating the Pick n Pay soccer team by four goals to two. Vintage Navy netball club from Marselle emerged victorious in the netball tournament on soft points after Aloes Netball Club left before the game finished.
Mangesi noted the importance of giving back to the community.
“It is so important to assist our communities in any way possible to make sure we reduce the social ills that they experience. We also have staff community builders where we sponsor local NGOs, children’s homes, farming co-operatives and also sport teams,” he said.
Apart from funding sports tournaments, another division of the bank goes out to different areas to provide financial education workshops to groups such as community work programme (CWP) employees, churches, unions and the markets they operate in.
“We do this to empower the community with financial literacy,” Mangesi said.
Participants are taught about budgeting, debt handling and how to draft a will. In July, the branch held a programme at Jauka Hall to encourage people to be financially savvy. For this, they collaborated with Ndlambe Municipality and the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).
Tournament scores:
Soccer
Port Alfred Masters 2 – Rosehill Spar 2 (Rosehill Spar won on penalties 6-5)
Maselle Legend 3 – Pick n Pay 3 (Pick n Pay won on penalties 12-11)
Gqushwa Municipality 2 – 5 Rosehill Spar
Soccer Final:
Rosehill Spar 4 – 2 Pick n Pay
Netball
Aloes 18 – 10 Young Chiefs
Vintage Green 27 – 6 We are One
Vintage Navy 41 – 2 Young Chiefs
Aloes 13 – 19 We are One
Vintage Green 16 – 11 Vintage Navy
Vintage Green 25 – 4 Young Chiefs
Vintage Navy 18 – 6 We are One
Aloes 8 – 27 Vintage Green
Young Chiefs 4 – 22 We are One
Netball Final: Vintage Navy got soft points from Aloes because they left before the game finished
