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Twiga Stars, Bongo Movie stars to honour Kanumba

THE late Steven Kanumba.

SENIOR national women soccer team, Twiga Stars, is expected to clash with the domestic film actors’ team ‘Bongo Movie’ in a friendly match at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Saturday.

Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) Information Officer, Boniface Wambura, said the match aims at raising funds for Twiga Stars, which is currently preparing for the Women African Nations Cup (AWC) Qualifiers.

“Two per cent of the match’s gate collection will be presented to the family of prominent domestic film actor, Stephen Kanumba, who passed away on April 7, this year,” added Wambura.

He said the entrance fees will be 10,000/- for each of the fans that will opt to watch the match from the VIP A seats, 5, 000/- for each of the VIP B and C seats respectively, while fans that will opt for orange, green and blue seats will have to pay 2,000/- each. The match has been scheduled to kick off at 4pm.

Twiga Stars are expected to confront Ethiopia in the forthcoming AWC Qualifiers, in which the first leg will take place on May 26 this year and the return leg will be played at the National Stadium two weeks later. Twiga progressed to the second round of the AWC Qualifiers after dispatching Namibia by 7-2 aggregate win.

The Tanzanian ladies garnered a 2-0 win in the first leg match in Windhoek before breezing past their opponents with a 5-2 win in the return leg. With Twiga Stars having no permanent sponsorship to support the team’s participation in continental and international assignments, TFF decided to call on domestic soccer stakeholders to support the squad financially and a section of them have started heeding the call.

Deputy Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sports, Fenella Mukangara, launched a special account through Tigo Pesa on March 10, this year, with a view to enabling people to contribute funds to the team. Wambura said all domestic soccer stakeholders and well wishers could deposit cash for Twiga Stars through number 13389.

According to the TFF official, the highest amount for a single transaction will be 500, 000/-. During the account’s launch, Fenella, who is of late one of Twiga Stars’ avid supporters, contributed 1m/-. In an interview with a domestic media on Thursday, Wambura said he was not in a position to mention the amount of cash that has so far been deposited in the account because the whole task is supervised by a domestic firm.