Telkom “Unlimits” Netball with The Youth Month Celebrity Face Off
Telkom, the anchor sponsor of the Netball League (TNL), hosted a Celebrity Netball Face-off, where Mzansi’s favourite stars got together for a Netball challenge at the home of Netball, the Heartfelt Arena in Pretoria, today. The Celebrity Face Off was streamed on TelkomONE, Telkom’s locally curated streaming service. In Telkom’s spirit of leaving no man behind, the winning team, Team Telkom’s partner agencies will donate a netball court to M.H. Baloyi Secondary School with the aim of investing in sports for the youth.
The teams were led by radio and TV personality Khutso Theledi and social media sensation Lasizwe Dambuza, a recently announced Telkom brand influencer partner. The duo captained the teams joined by their celebrity friends – Netball MVPs, Netball Protea legends, soccer stars and fellow Telkom brand influencers partners – Jonathan Boyton Lee, Twasa Seoke, Selby Mkhize, Zizo Tshwete, Marciel Hopkins, Carina Nel and Brian Rikhotso.
As a brand that has been voted the Coolest Telecommunications brand by the youth for two years in a row, Telkom saw it fit to connect the youth of South Africa with their favourite celebrities through sports.
Telkom’s Chief Marketing Officer, Gugu Mthembu, said, “Sports not only brings incredible joy to society and serves as a platform for young people to showcase their skills and talent. Participation in sports can effectively change and imbue values that can be transferred to other spaces. At Telkom, we partnered with Netball South Africa to ensure equal representation of women in sports and to make sure that young women can live life without limits through our support.”
“The Netball Celebrity Face Off spoke to our desire to not only showcase the sport of Netball, but also the enjoyment that comes with participation in sporting activity. Our intent was to draw attention to the sport and educate the youth on how they can turn their passions into careers,” Gugu added.
“South Africa has a lot of talent and we need to produce more high-quality players who will represent the country. What better way to make sure that this is possible than by standing behind our amazing athletes in these respective divisions. We thank our partners, Netball South Africa and South African Schools Netball, for starting this journey with us and are grateful for the opportunity to make history and lead the way in netball development,” concluded Gugu.
Tournaments such as the TNL are a stepping stone for young girls as they will get an opportunity to showcase their skills so that they can be identified and scouted by institutions of higher learning where they can also ply their netball trades and more.
“Games like these are very important in getting netball back to the people and most importantly making it fashionable. The more we have people talking about netball and playing it at this level, we will then be able to tap into a new market and get more fans engaged with the sport and ultimately get them to be part of the sport. If we are to make the sport fashionable, we will need to make sure that we forge partnerships with other stakeholders such as the one’s we are seeing today. It is not the responsibility of the federation alone, we need to all work together to make sure that we reach our goal,” said Cecilia Molokwane, Netball South Africa President.
Telkom put the ball in the net with the Telkom Netball Celebrity Face Off, by bringing together Mzansi’s favourite celebs!
Bongi Sikelo 
Cece Smith 