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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
FOUR teams will battle it out in the second edition of the Madlangombe Football Tournament set for the end of this month. Madlangombe is located about 25km from Tsholotsho business centre in Matabeleland North and the tournament is being bankrolled by a Zimbabwean based in South Africa, Mthabisi Dube, who hails from the same area.

“I believe there’s untapped talent in the rural areas and only through such tournaments like ours can those talents be exposed. Youths will also be taken off such social ills like drug and alcohol abuse,” said Dube.

He said with friendly tax laws, more Zimbabweans based outside the country would find it easier to sponsor such tournaments.

“It’s a bit of a hindrance to export sports equipment to Zimbabwe because of the heavy duty that you pay but if we’re exempt from paying taxes for equipment meant for communities, many will be willing to sponsor such tournaments,” said Dube.

He said as a show of respect to the late Adam Ndlovu who played his last match in Tsholotsho with other Highlanders legends colleagues before that fateful accident on December 16, 2012, all the teams have been asked not to use jersey number 13.

“To us, we don’t care that Zifa reneged on their promise to permanently retire the national team’s jersey number 13, we’ll honour our own heroes and Adamski is one such hero to us”, said Dube.

Local outfit Bhulubisa FC are the inaugural winners of the tournament and will be the team to beat again this year.

“It’ll be a day full of fun as we welcome 2015. It’ll be nice for scouts to also pay us a visit,” said Dube.