Mpumalanga host their under-12 Danone Nations Cup provincial finals

Three schools have already qualified for the under-12 Danone Nations Cup national finals happening in Gauteng in September, and this week Mpumalanga will be holding their provincial finals with four teams competing for the spot to represent their province at the nationals.

The participating schools comprise a mixture of those that have competed regularly and a couple of newcomers:

Gert Sibande district: Shapeve Primary School

Ehlanzeni district: Maqhekeza Primary School

Nkangala district: Makhathini Primary School

Bohlabela district: Daniye Primary School

Daniye Primary, from Bushbuckridge, has been very successful in the tournament, even making it to the world finals in London in 2013 where they finished 29^th. Since then they have competed in the provincial finals every year.

The team has a new coach in Sunnyboy Nkuna who has been coaching the under-14’s since joining the school three years ago. This year he was asked to take over the under-12’s, which is exciting for the coach as he prefers to teach younger development players.

“I enjoy grooming these young players because they pay attention and are determined to excel. I do not have a formal coaching qualification but have been coaching for the past 15 years and I have attended many SAFA and SASFA coaching workshops” he said.

He was a good player at school, he said, but never quite made the professional level so opted to coach instead. The key to success, he believes, is watching soccer all the time: “I watch as many matches as possible to gain insight into new tactical and technical strategies, different formations used by clubs both local and international. It’s important to keep up with how styles of play are evolving.”

Daniye have a strong squad and Nkuna is hoping that momentum will carry them to the next phase of the tournament. 

“The pressure is on to do as well as the boys in 2013, but I also want the boys to enjoy the experience, to meet people and, most importantly, to learn a lot about soccer,” he said.

Daniye met nine other hopeful schools on their road to the final. It was not easy admitted Nkuna, but having made it this far they feel confident they will get to the nationals.

Among the first-timers at the provincials will be Shapeve Primary, who have been competing since 2009 but have never made it to this stage before. 

Their success is due their new coaching staff. Coach Xolani Ngubane and manager Andries Muthupi joined this year. Ngubane has a SAFA D coaching licence and has attended coaching seminars at Orlando Pirates and Supersport United.

Muthupi believes they can give Daniye a run for their money and could well emerge as the Mpumalanga champs. “We have the coaching experience and this team has been preparing for this tournament since 2017,” he said.

The school has over 2 200 pupils as it is the only township school in the area that offers English as a first language (the others only offer education in the Nguni Languages) and therefore the coach has a large squad of players to select from.

At the Gert Sibande regional finals there were 6 schools, divided into 2 pools. Shapeve lost their opening game to Isifisosethu Primary before beating Vusimuzi Primary School and Ndawonye Primary, the defending champions, to make it into the provincials.

Games begin at 10am on Saturday.  Entrance is free and all those that attend will get to sample some of Danone’s healthy product range including NutriDay, DanUp and YogiSip.