The Motsepe Foundation is proud to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Kay Motsepe Schools Championship in Football. Over the years, this Championship has discovered and propelled the talents of some of South Africa’s finest footballers, including our Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams. As the girls u13 Championship gains momentum, we are eager to see new talent emerge for Banyana Banyana as well.

Our vision at the Motsepe Foundation is to build a brighter and better future for all our people.

To achieve this, we embrace the values of ubuntu, teamwork, and compassion. We believe that healthy competition allows learners to realise their potential, striving to be the best in their country and, for some, the best in the world.

Participants in the Kay Motsepe Schools Championship represent their schools and peers while contributing to the broader goal of enhancing the educational environment for all. By allocating prize funds to improve school infrastructure and provide essential educational resources, we highlight our commitment to quality and holistic education to lift the living standards and the standards of living of our people.

Our sports facilities serve as community hubs, uniting learners from urban and peri-urban areas. The Championships offer new arenas for diverse groups of young people to connect and engage.

Through the Kay Motsepe Schools Championship, we aim to initiate a cycle of social cohesion and socioeconomic development. We remain dedicated to supporting South African football and the aspirations of our youth.

We wish all players a season marked by physical, mental, and personal excellence!

At Sanlam, we believe in the transformative power of sport and its ability to inspire young people to dream and imagine a bigger and better life for themselves. Sport is a profound socio-economic catalyst with a reach that expands far beyond the playing field, by contributing to the growth and development of our communities. As a leading pan-African financial services group, our promise is to help people throughout the African continent to live confidently, and we fully recognise the seminal role that sports can play in helping us keep this promise.

Our valued partnership with the Kay Motsepe Schools Championship is a testament to our commitment to making a positive impact in the lives of young people and their holistic long-term development. It is our responsibility to ensure young athletes are presented with opportunities to explore their full potential, while empowering them to develop the necessary skills to set them up for success on and off the field. As a financial services group, it is only fitting that we consider the striking parallels between physical fitness, academic performance, and financial confidence.

Just as athletes set a goal, have a plan, and train relentlessly to achieve peak performance on the field, every day South Africans work diligently to build financial confidence and resilience. All players will have access to interactive and fun filled activations during the championship finals, to help empower them with a basic understanding of financial principles. Our mission is to make a difference in the lives of the learners, their families and future generations to come and we look forward to continuing this journey with them.

Finally, a heartfelt congratulations to all the players schools and coaches that have made it this far, and to the families and friends that continue to support our young people, we thank you. To the players – your hard work and dedication have paid off and we look forward to walking this journey of a life of confidence with you.

The Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Championships for football is one of the most critical programmes within the school sport calendar. The Department has taken a conscious decision to concentrate on encouraging learners to participate in a variety of sport activities. It is through school sport that we will be able to cater for learner needs and improve access and progression of learners, which is fundamental in the Action Plan: Towards the realization of Schooling 2030 of the Department. Driven by Goal 25 of the Action Plan of learners leading a healthier lifestyle, school sport plays a critical role in realising that objective.

Participation in sport has many important benefits. Sport unites people, builds families, encourages communities and allows for positive mass gathering.

It therefore stands to reason that co-operation in sporting activities enables learners to grow and develop in an enabling environment that will teach them genuinely to “believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity”, as we say in the Preamble to the Constitution.

We are sure that in a few years we will see some of you participating and representing our country at the highest level of competition.

It is on this premise that we celebrate the collaboration between the Department and the Motsepe Foundation, in building towards such goals. The Kay Motsepe Schools Championships have become an integral part of the Integrated School Sport Programme which is accessible to all schools in the country.

As the Department we also truly appreciate the introduction of the girls football as well the primary schools into this programme. This ensures that a wide variety of our learners across the education sphere accommodated and catered for by the programme. Our girl learners as well as our primary schools require such opportunies in sport.

Let me appreciate the Motsepe Foundation together with Sanlam for the great contribution into our enrichment programmes. This partnership ensures that all young people access the opportunities that enable them to grow, develop and prosper as fully engaged, responsive and productive citizens.

The prizes that our schools win in this programme from the provincial level up to national level play a significant role towards the development of sport within each winning school. Schools utilise the money for any development project that enhances or advances the mission and objectives of the school and/or its immediate community, e.g. building of extra classrooms, upgrading the soccer or netball pitch, etc. We also appreciate that all the schools that participated at the provincial level received the playing attire.

A special thanks is also extended to the North West Local Organising Committee for the work done in delivering the programme.

Our gratitude also goes to the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, Provincial Departments of Education including the districts, school management teams, school governing bodies, and more importantly the teachers, parents and learners for their selfless contribution towards the success of this programme.

I would like to congratulate all the learners and schools for participating up to this level. You have shown that you are champs. Let us continue to participate in a variety of sport and other enrichment programmes as they play a pivotal role in your development as youngsters. Wishing you everything of the best going forward.

This year marks the 20 th anniversary of a remarkable collaboration between the Motsepe Foundation, Sanlam, the Department of Basic Education, the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture and the South African Football Association (SAFA) which is manifested in the prestigious Kay Motsepe Schools Championship, a nationwide football challenge that today is believed to have the largest prize money for a schools competition in the world.

It is imperative that we increase the number of participants that play the game of football and the biggest potential for growth lies within schools. SAFA wants more kids to be exposed to football at an early age and we also believe it is within schools that the future Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana stars will be identified. Current Bafana Bafana captain and goalkeeper Ronwen Williams, former Bafana Bafana captains Hlompho Kekana and Percy Tau, as well as Khuliso Mudau and Thabang Monare all played at the tournament. Hlompo played in the very first tournament in 2004 and he remembers well the sense of belonging and pride that his participation instilled in him at an early age. The tournament is named after Dr Patrice Motsepe’s mother who was a teacher and SAFA is proud to also be entrusted with the administration and delivery of the ABC Motsepe League which is named after his father, another teacher by profession. Sporting activities in education help to advance social cohesion which is so imperative in our country and the Motsepe Foundation is inherently cognisant of this fact.

We have several members of SAFA’s National Executive Committee who are school principals and they are ensuring that Under-13 boys’ and girls’ teams are being registered for this championship. It is so important now more than ever because FIFA has just announced that the Under-17 World Cups for Men and Women will be held annually from 2025 instead of biennially. FIFA wants annual tournaments to both ensure no age group of players misses out and to accelerate development of National Teams worldwide. Our Technical Director has already identified core groups at the Under-17 level, but this presents a platform to identify talented players at the earlier stage of Under-13. Identifying and building teams from this Kay Motsepe Schools Championship will allow us to eventually have stronger Under-17 teams for participation in COSAFA and CAF tournaments so that we can qualify for the FIFA World Cups.

South Africa has already enjoyed substantial regional and continental success at the schools’ level. Ubuntu Academy School from Western Cape (boys’ category) and Edendale Technical High School from KwaZulu Natal (girls’ category) won the 2023 Winter National School Sport Championships held in Benoni in July 2023 and subsequently represented the country at the COSAFA Schools Cup held last December in Zimbabwe, which they won (completing a double for the second year in a row). The two schools then qualified to represent South  Africa at the 2024 CAF Africa School Championship Cup played in May in Zanzibar with 20 participating teams (10 boys / 10 girls). Edendale Technical High School were crowned African girls’ champion after defeating Morocco on penalties. Our girls’ team was playing in its ‘third’ consecutive CAF Africa School Championship Cup after the competition was launched in 2022 as a pilot tournament by FIFA, the Pan Africa School Champions Cup, aimed at promoting and developing school football in Africa. Edendale High was defeated on penalties by Morocco’s team in the final of this pilot tournament held in Kinshasa while at the second tournament held last year in Durban, our boys’ team from Clapham High School collected silver medals after also losing on penalty kicks to Guinea’s team.

It is also tremendously exciting to see the extent to which this competition is a transformation tool for infrastructure development. The schools that win nationally receive money to build classrooms and quality pitches and improve the overall teaching and learning environment. The school that wins the Under-19 category for boys will receive R3 million and the schools that win the Under-13 for boys and girls will receive R1 million. Total prize money this year is an outstanding R11 750 000, almost double from last year, and the annual sponsorship is worth R24 million that encompasses more than 11 000 public and private schools nationwide.

Well done to all the provincial winners who are through to this week’s national finals at Bergsig Academy in Rustenberg. May the best teams win.