Prisoners play towards a better life

Date: 10 October 2003 By: Frank Mavhungu

According to the Sports and Recreation Officer, Mr Ephraim Singo, all prisoners are now participating in the different sporting codes.

More than 1000 prisoners, according to Singo, are taking part in football, while others are kept busy by doing karate, playing volleyball, squash, monopoly and indigenous sports like mufuvha and muravharavha. There are two football leagues, Matashe Bundas League and the Matatshe High Profile Soccer League.

The Bundas League comprises prisoners who are serving less than a 25-year sentence, while the High Profile League is manned by those who have been ordered to serve sentences exceeding 25 years, including those who will spend the remainder of their lives behind bars.

Cosmos Football Club is currently leading the Bundas League. They are six points ahead of London Beat, who still have a match in hand. The High Profile League is led by City Pillars, while Liverpool are close behind them. To prove that there is competitive soccer behind bars, the Matatshe Prison soccer squad, the "Azania Squad," recently crushed the Techniven Soccer team 4-2.

As if that was not enough, they went on to wallop the VBS/Old Mutual squad 11-2. Singo has appealed to businessmen for donations towards the improvement of the sports facilities in the prison. Singo revealed that they have recently trained 24 referees who are officiating in both the Bundas and the High Profile League.

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Frank Mavhungu

Frank is a Human Resources Manager at the Department of Public Works in Limpopo. He is the longest serving correspondent of the Mirror, having joined us at the end of 1990.  He mainly writes sports reports and resides at Tsianda Village. In 2004, Frank won the National Castle League Award, an award for the best reporter in the SAB league in South Africa.

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