EZULWINI – Yesterday, Minister for Agriculture Mandla Tshawuka was the centre of attraction along with a number of industry captains.
This was during the opening games of the prestigious King’s Cup Golf Tournament. The games, staged at the well-maintained Ezulwini Golf Course greens, proved an overwhelming success as amateur and professional golfers battled it out for spot in the main event, scheduled for tomorrow (Friday).
The minister was not only a special guest, but got the opportunity to display his golf skills, which made a lot of people to sit up and take notice. His swings were impressive and he looked relatively at home with his well-calculated shots.
He competed against industry captains consisting mostly of chief executive officers (CEOs) from different local companies and outside.
These included the likes of Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) CEO Ernest Mkhonta, along with Board Chairman Patrick Myeni and Eswatini Railway’s Nixon Dlamini, among others. The country’s top golfer James Pennington was also in action, sharpening his skills ahead of the main event. Over 80 golfers, both amateurs and professionals were part of the fun yesterday.
Of note is that four previous winners of the King’s Golf Cup have confirmed their participation in this year’s event, making it one not to miss.
This was confirmed by the tournament’s Organising Committee Chairman Styles Richards, who noted that this was an indication that this year’s tournament will be fiercely-contested.
“This year, we have a number of international golfers from the SADC (Southern African Development Community) region, including countries like Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa and many more. It shows how much this tournament has grown over the years and this is very good for the country in terms of attracting investment opportunities and bringing tourists into the kingdom,” he said.
He predicted that this year’s main event will be competitive, observing that even though it has been dominated by international golfers, local golfers will have a lot to say this time around.
“We have a couple of good players who have shown good form this year. The likes of James Pennington, MJ Dlamini, Brandon Rennie, Mongi Masuku and Mongezi Ntombini carry out hopes in this tournament given the form they have been showing in local tournaments. We are praying and hoping that they will hoist the country’s flag by keeping the first prize here,” he said. The winner of this year’s tournament will take home E240 000.
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