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She was born in Soweto in Gauteng, spent a short part of her childhood in KuTsolo in the Eastern Cape, came back to Johannesburg, then moved to Durban and finally returned to her place of birth.
That’s Namhla Mphelo’s adventurous journey in a nutshell. She is the South African Football Association (Safa) media officer for junior teams. You could say she has come full circle.
Mphelo (28) cannot recall how she caught the bug that has affected millions, but says she’s been told by her elders that she started screaming “Aaaaaaaaace!” while running around the house at the tender age of two.
“I guess that was the first sign of my admiration for the late Kaizer Chiefs maestro, Patrick ‘Ace’ Ntsoelengoe, from TV visuals,” she says.
“That is how my love for Amakhosi started and, to date, I regard myself as their number one supporter.”
Mphelo attended Naturena Primary School in Johannesburg and then Mondeor High School.
Surprisingly, she did not play football at school, but participated in netball, volleyball and badminton.
“In a Model C school, girls were not allowed to play football,” she says.
“But, by the time I matriculated, I had convinced the authorities to change this and we had a women’s football team.”
By the time she left high school, she already knew several professional players, who she frequently bumped into at Southgate Shopping Centre.
A twist of fate, propelled by a daring move, saw her end up in Durban.
“After matric, I was idling at home. My mum, Zoleka Khumalo, gave me money to get my learner’s licence. I had applied to the University of Johannesburg to study geology when my cousin called me, saying the Durban University of Technology [DUT] was looking for sports management students.
“I used the money my mother had given me to board a bus to Durban to write the entrance exam. I got 98%.”
After enrolling at DUT, Mphelo went to the offices of AmaZulu to ask James Dlamini, who was the team manager at the time, for an internship.
“I took a taxi from school and gave the driver the address.”
Needless to say, she was hired. While there, she met Phumlani Mabaso, the club’s media officer – and ended up being her assistant media officer during the 2010 World Cup.
A chance meeting with Maritzburg City boss Bongi Hlophe led to Mphelo asking him about his tendency to sell good players to Premier Soccer League clubs. Hlophe was the venue manager for Durban.
After the World Cup, Mphelo returned to Johannesburg, where she studied French and worked on a temporary basis at the Safa office.
She was employed there full-time in 2014 as media officer for junior teams.
Her job has seen her travel to Mexico with the Under-17 national team, which qualified for their first World Cup; to last year’s Rio Olympics in Brazil with the Under-23 and Banyana Banyana teams; and to South Korea earlier this year for the Under-20 World Cup.
“My first major assignment was at the 2013 Cosafa Under-20 championship, which took place in Lesotho – and which we won. Working with uBaba Shakes Mashaba was a great honour.
“I am also proud that this is where Safa president Danny Jordaan’s ‘Maseru to Moscow’ dream was born. Some of the players who were in that team have graduated to the Bafana Bafana team that is campaigning to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Russia.”
She singled out Mapule Mogale, the personal assistant to Safa chief executive Dennis Mumble, as having played a pivotal role in getting her employed there.
“She took me under her wing and has become like a big sister to me.”
