MBOMBELA – Nkomazi Municipality was humiliated last weekend in the prestigious twinning games at Mbombela municipality’s home soil. This came after the 2009 inter-municipal games champions failed to defend their title in the 2010 inter-municipal games that were hosted by Mbombela municipality last weekend.

The event was attended by all the participating municipalities, which were Mbombela, Matola in Mozambique, Mbabane in Swaziland and Nkomazi. Nkomazi municipality participated, and was disappointed in, ladies soccer, male soccer, volleyball, netball, pool and basketball.

According to some of the players on the male soccer team, they felt they did not have enough time to practice together as a team. “We didn’t have time for practicing, we were just called to play from our teams,” said one player who wanted to remain unknown.

The 2009 squad was coached by Bafana star Lucas Thwala, which the players said boosted their morale. Most of Nkomazi’s different squads complained that they did not get much training.

The hosts Mbombela municipality scooped almost all of the t r ophi e s , including the male s o c c e r champion.

M b a - bane municipality humiliated all of the municipalities in pool and became the champions.

Nkomazi municipality’s spokesperson Cyril Ripinga said that this year the municipality had no luck, as some of their key role players of the previous games were not available.

“We just lost morale as most of the people like Lucas Thwala were not on the coach’s bench to bark orders to the boys and girls,” said Ripinga.

He also said that next year they will have time to prove themselves.

Mbombela local municipality executive mayor Lassy Chiwayo described these games as comradeship building and said winning is just a bonus. “What matters the most is the participation and understanding the reason to participate in these games,” said Chiwayo. He also said that some other countries are looking forward to bringing their municipalities to participate in such games.