Times Of Swaziland: MTN’S E200K BOOST FOR CYCLING

MTN’S E200K BOOST FOR CYCLING
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Chris Dlamini on 12/05/2022 08:46:00


EZULWINI – Developing some of the sports in Eswatini is part of MTN’s
interests.
While some of the entities that benefitted from the giant mobile phone company
no longer enjoy that privilege, cycling, football and golf remain beneficiaries.
During a breakfast meeting yesterday at the company’s headquarters in
Ezulwini, it came out that the company has a budget of E200 000 for the
development and promotion of cycling in the country through the MTN Khemani
Cycling Club. “We are lining up something exciting with PLE as we continue to
sponsor football, while we had at some point stopped supporting MTN Khemani
which is cycling; we are back because we saw that the sport still needs
development in the country.
Development
“We have set aside E200 000 for cycling development this year while we also
continue sponsoring golf and soccer under PLE. It’s unfortunate that we
can’t continue with basketball and SWAMA as we’re also under extreme
pressure in terms of finances,” Ngomane said as he addressed editors and
journalists during a breakfast meeting yesterday. With Nation Magazine Editor
Bheki Makhubu feeling the company need not dump basketball and the country’s
arts and culture especially after their announced mega profits recently, the MTN
CEO Wandile Mtshali said they would need to sit and review their sponsorship
strategies and see how they could work things out as they understood Makhubu’s
point. However, at the present moment, MTN Eswatini is not operating on their
own, but are also reporting to their superiors beyond the borders which is where
the sponsorship packages changed and now must be in the form of MTN benefitting
as well so there must be leveraging.