Morongwa Manamela has become a key player in the Tuks women's football team. She is one of the few, maybe the only one, who can say they have been playing for Tuks for seven years. Manamela debuted in 2018 while still at TuksSport High School. Please don't ask her how many games she has played, as she doesn't know. But she is sure that it is more than 100 games.

Undoubtedly, one of the biggest highlights was in December last year when she captained Tuks to beat the UWC in the USSA Football Championships final. It was a long time in the making. 2023 was Manamela's breakthrough year. She was also part of the Banyana Banyana team that played in the COSAFA Women’s Championship. She debuted against Malawi. 

From Friday at TUT, a new challenge awaits Manamela when she captains Tuks in the Varsity Tournament. Since the tournament's inception in 2013, Tuks has only contested the final twice. Manamela was the captain in 2021 when Tuks lost to UWC in the final.

As captain, Manamela believes it is high time that Tuks brings the cup home. To her, only playing in the finals is not good enough. 

"I see it as an achievable goal. Playing in the Hollywoodbets Super League for the last two years has been a confidence booster. We are now beating teams against whom we tend to lose in the past when we played Varsity football. What helps is that quite a few players who played in the 2021 final are still in the squad."

Looking at the current standings of the Hollywoodbets Super League, UWC, UJ, Tuks, and TUT will be the teams to watch. UWC is second, UJ third, Tuks seventh and TUT tenth. Tuks kicks it off against the host, TUT on Friday, 26 July. 

Captaincy is nothing new to Manamela.  She has led South Africa's under-17 and under-20 teams. To her, the role of a good captain is to lead by example and not by force.

"Any team is only as good as its leader; therefore, my role as captain is to be the one that holds the team together. In other words, I inspire my teammates to play to the best of their abilities. The mark of a great captain is not just winning games but creating a winning culture."

Manamela plays as a defender. Getting to foil the opposition's chances of scoring goals is a challenge she relishes. But she is doing more than that. She is a versatile, two-footed footballer who thinks on her feet. Often, it leads to her changing the outcome of a game. 

"Football is 'God's gift' to me. So, it is important to me to showcase my talent. But I also need to use it to inspire those who might have had severe setbacks in life and, therefore, can't play football. It is important to me to try and 'inspire' them through the way I play."

Tuks' Women's Varsity Football fixtures: Friday - TUT (19:30); Saturday - Wits (19:30); Sunday - NWU (13:00). The semi-finals will be played on Monday.