By Nkhensani Mthombeni
- Beka Ntsanwisi will travel to Kenya, Japan and China to help start more granny teams.
- She is also planning a tournament for grandpas in Tzaneen and has already formed 12 teams in South Africa.
Beka Ntsanwisi, better known as Mama Beka, is battling cancer, but that hasn’t stopped her from changing lives through football.
Beka is the founder of GIFT, a soccer competition for women aged 50 and older from around the world. Teams meet every two years to compete for the title.
Now the rest of the world wants to join in. In June, Mama Beka will travel to Kenya after being invited by the minister of sport and the office of the president.
She’s going to help them run granny teams, and she’s already helped set up 32 teams in Kenya and 25 in Zambia.
When she’s done there, she’ll fly to Japan and China where they also want to start granny soccer teams. In China, she’ll even meet a team of grandpas already playing the sport.
“Kenya wants to host GIFT in 2027, and Japan is also very interested. I’m amazed at how much the world is in love with grannies soccer,” she said.
Her friend from the United States, Jean Duffy, is also spreading the word. Jean, who plays granny soccer herself, wrote a book about Mama Beka and the soccer grannies.
The book was launched in the US, has been translated into Japanese and is now being sold in Japan. Last month, Jean launched the book in Cape Town with support from local granny teams. It’s now available at Exclusive Books.
Back home, Mama Beka is already planning a grandpa soccer tournament in her hometown of Tzaneen. She plans to challenge Mopani District mayor Pule Shayi and other local mayors to join in.
So far, she’s set up 12 grandpa teams in South Africa and hopes to add more around the world.
Many call her the “mother of the nation” because she’s helped build homes for struggling families and paid off study fees for poor students.
She’s also a former radio presenter at Munghana Lonene FM. She lost her job during the SABC retrenchments a few years ago.
Now, even while going through cancer treatment after her colon cancer returned, she says nothing will stop her.
“My purpose is to touch people’s lives,” she said.
Pictured above: Mama Beka on the left.
Image source: Supplied
